The day the music dies: "American Pie" is final DLC for ROCK BAND

Today is a bittersweet occasion in the annals of video game history: Harmonix is releasing the final downloadable content for its Rock Band series.

Since the first Rock Band came out in late 2007 the studio had promised new songs weekly for downloadable purchase and play.  It kept that promise for 281 consecutive weeks: far, far longer than most players probably expected.  Maybe even longer than it has been profitable.  Hard to find that kind of reliability in any modern industry, much less the video game one.

Fittingly, the last tune that players can get for Rock Band is Don McLean's 1971 classic "American Pie".  And were I the sort I'd be drinking whiskey and rye...

I only played Rock Band and Rock Band 2, and I have to agree with what Brett Makedonski has beautifully written on Destructoid: this series had an immense impact on my life.  Not just for the fun I had playing it but also because it exposed me to a spectrum of music that until then, I had not experienced and might never have.  Indeed, because of Rock Band my wallet dropped dollars not just for the DLC but for the songs themselves on iTunes.  I am a far more musically educated and enlightened individual today for Rock Band... and that's something that'll never be forgotten or unappreciated.

Seeing as how this will be the final post that this blog is likely to see about Rock Band, let's have it go out in true style.  Here once again is that amazing opening title cinematic from the first game: "Highway Star" by Deep Purple!

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ROCK BAND will allow indie artists to add own songs (and make $$$ from it!)

Are you an independent musician looking to promote your work? Might wanna check this out: you'll soon be able to add your own original music to the popular music game Rock Band! Indie artists and bands will use Microsoft's XNA Creator's Club to mesh the song's MIDI file to the format used by the game. The work will then be submitted to other Creator's Club programmers for critique and then must meet final approval by Harmonix and MTV Games. After they go live the songs will sell between 50 cents and 3 dollars, with the artists getting 30% of the cut! Not a bad business model at all, and there's the potential for some great publicity for indie musicians.

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