Harmonix’s Rock Band Network partners with Distribution, Promotion Sites (Gamasutra)  The article talks about cross-promotion between musician tools Tunecore, Nimbit, Reverb Nation, Indaba Music, and Topspin; while those sites are promoted to RBN users.  On a related note; Rock Band Aide noted  a RBN preview channel on Youtube.

A quite nice article about the difficulties of charting for Rock Band Network. (Music Think Tank)

A similar article decrying the arduousness of making the music ready for the game.

Another article, but hopeful, about a Vancouver band that is putting material on RBN. (Straight.com; Vancouver’s Music Source).

Regularly updated blog about RBN updates that has some impartial opinions. (Plastic Axe)

And last but not least; some very substantial information about Microsoft’s contribution to the RBN project that were given during the Game Developer’s Conference, but are now available for download.

Rock Band Network post-mortem (from Microsoft Website; contains a zip file of a Powerpoint and also audiocast)

Highly enjoyable critique of the above source material from professional gaming Website (Joystiq).  I especially enjoyed the fact that Microsoft’s programmers were much more consumed with the language and graphic images portion of the programming; but commented very little on the copyright-clearance filtering software… which I for one thought was masterfully done.

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Editorial comment:  I wondered how it was that RBN was able to filter out any copyright-infringing content?  The articles imply that it was because of direct input from developers/programmers at Microsoft; and that this might be an indirect or even direct reason the songs premiere first on Xbox live (or maybe just coding reasons).  But I’d be interested in reading any more indepth studies of how this was done. (Any of my readers feel free to enlighten me).

Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.

Here’s the background links:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5A400320091105
 
Stefani vs. Activision Reuters story.
 
http://reporter.blogs.com/files/gov.uscourts.cacd.460150.3.0.pdf
 
Activision’s response (December 2009)
 
http://www.gamerlaw.co.uk/2009/12/no-doubt-vs-activision-legal-analysis.html
 
Gamerlaw article (December 2009)

I absolutely wholeheartedly recommend the article.  It’s thought out and reminds one of the main problem of multinational corporations…. “jurisdiction, jurisdiction, jurisdiction”.  In a world with no “there”, when does state law trump federal law?  I’ll update the case notes on this as event warrant.

Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.

Here’s the continuation of my series on making REAL money with virtual games.  The second part on Rock Band Network. 1st caveat:  Right now it’s only for Xbox 360, though PS3 promised soon. More after the jump….

Story:  Rock Band Network, Live, and out of beta. (From RockBandAide)

A community download  leaderboard for DLC(not Rock Band Network): Now if only Harmonix/Activision would do an officially sanctioned list…

A “best guess” download list for Rock Band Network (from Joystiq) referencing RockBand Aide

 From Escapist Magazine  a list of the software you’ll need and approximate time to upload(Cheat sheet – 20-40 hours)

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Official Story:  Rock Band Network Open (From Rockband.com)

Interview with a developer for the process of getting content uploaded. (Gamespot)

My commentary: still early.  They (Activision/Harmonix) are not being overly greedy with the cut, but it’s still hefty.  It’s still not about the cut, it’s the start-up costs (see my previous post on third-party developers).  But if you get in early, as is mentioned, it is MUCH MORE LIKELY someone would randomly like your band than on myspace, itunes, or any of the monolithic sites out there.  It’s just the numbers.

PHOTO ATTRIBUTION:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/royblumenthal/2574363959/  (Displayed via http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons,  Attribution license)

Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.

Flickr photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marfis75/3867466806/sizes/o/ under Creative Commons copyright.

It’s been hundreds of years since any new type of music notation has been developed.   Is the submission system of Rock Band Network (uploaded and put into the game) a new type of multimedia music notation?  Well, even if it is, it must work within the framework of the copyright system as it exists.  Here’s the nutshell version of how it works, legally and technically.

1) The legality for the user, here’s their agreement for RBN – incorporated from the main Web Site http://www.rockband.com:   

“The contents of these Sites, including all Site software, design, text, images, photographs, illustrations, audio and video material, artwork, graphic material, databases, proprietary information and all copyrightable or otherwise legally protectable elements of the Sites, including, without limitation, the selection, sequence and ‘look and feel’ and arrangement of items, and all trademarks, service marks and trade names (individually and/or collectively, “Material“), are the property of the Parent Companies, and their Affiliates, and any of their successors and assigns, and any of their respective licensors, Advertisers (as defined below), suppliers, and operational service providers and are legally protected, without limitation, under U.S. Federal and State, as well as applicable foreign laws, regulations and treaties. Unless the context clearly requires otherwise or we explicitly say so in writing, the term “Site” includes “Material” as well. The Sites are to be used solely for your noncommercial, non-exclusive, non-assignable, non-transferable and limited personal use and for no other purposes.”

Of course I go crazy if an analysis to an Agreement doesn’t reference the jurisdiction:  “This Agreement and your use of the Sites are governed by, construed and enforced in accordance with the internal substantive laws of the State of New York (notwithstanding the State’s conflict of laws provisions) applicable to contracts made, executed and wholly performed in New York, and, for the purposes of any and all legal or equitable actions, you specifically agree and submit to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the State and Federal Courts situated in the State and County of New York and agree you will not object to such jurisdiction or venue on the grounds of lack of personal jurisdiction, forum non conveniens or otherwise.”

And a little kicker at the end: . “IN ANY ACTION OR PROCEEDING COMMENCED TO ENFORCE ANY RIGHT OR OBLIGATION OF THE PARTIES UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, YOUR USE OF THE SITES OR WITH RESPECT TO THE SUBJECT MATTER HEREOF, YOU HEREBY WAIVE ANY RIGHT YOU MAY NOW HAVE OR HEREAFTER POSSESS TO A TRIAL BY JURY.”

2) A shorthand version of the payment system; from third-party vendor Authority Music: 

“This is a synch download, so if a record label owns the masters (if they paid for the recordings), you would need their permission to use the songs in Rock Band. The Download Royalty income would be split between the label and the copyright owner/publisher. Usually the label splits their cut with the artist. The specifics however depend on your deal with the record label, so you would need to check your recording contract. If you (the Artist) own your own masters – you will make more money”

The official version, from http://creators.rockband.com/royalty_schedule  “Each quarter, Microsoft (or its provider) will pay the person or entity who submits the track and consents to the Program Terms (the “Submitter”) a royalty in an amount equal to 30% of the MS Points Remittance Rate”.  So that’s a 30% royalty rate for the owner; if you split that with your record company then obviously that will be reduced (50/50 for instance would be 15% for you).

3)The technical version of how it works, from http://www.midi.org,  - and you’re not alone if it is a little intense:

“Prepare .WAV stems (submixes) of your song, isolating parts such as kick drum, snare, guitar, bass, and vocals. In addition, you’ll need to make some support files, such as a dry (unprocessed) version of the vocal to generate lip sync. Harmonix provides detailed directions on its Mix and MIDI Setup page. Using Cockos Reaper (a multitrack recording and editing program) and some free authoring plug-ins, create MIDI cue events for the notes in your stem tracks. You can get all necessary software on Harmonix’s download page. Load your audio and MIDI files into Magma (another free program from Harmonix), add background information such as song name, artist name, and price, and export a Rock Band .RBA file. Load the .RBA file into an Xbox 360 and test your song for playability. (This requires Xbox Gold and XNA Creators Club Premium memberships.) When you’re satisfied, upload the file for the Rock Band Network community to evaluate. Tweak as necessary until it’s approved for sale.

Rock Band Network has a detailed FAQ at http://creators.rockband.com/docs/FAQ#Authoring. For a shorthand version; here are the required tracks to author, from http://www.tunecore.com (Tunecore a third-party vendor, so it is not an official version but it is a condensed version of what a vendor may require to assist you) 

A total of nine Audio Stems are required for the Authoring process. Specifically, you will need an individual Audio Stem for each of these:

Good luck with all this information.  I hope this helps someone out.  Of course, with any endeavor involving money and one or more third parties, you may need to involve an attorney if enough money is involved.  That’s your personal call.

Well-done piece on the technical and financial aspects of uploading your own band’s tracks to be sold on the Rock Band Network. 30 cents is not as good a deal per dollar as Itunes, (50 cents?), but then again the competition is less.

Here is the official site from Rock Band Network. Obviously a lot of effort is required to make the leap from sheet music to a fully rendered song (video/art/lip-sync/different-difficulties) but the explanations are fairly detailed. Quite naturally a cottage industry has sprung up to “assist” (for a fee) the indie artist to alert the masses of their stardom.

This company will assist your band; listed here strictly because of a really great synopsis of the steps to get a sheet music set-up fully ready to be played fully in Rock Band.

Here are the Terms of Service if you wish to upload a song from your band.

A full listing of companies that did the certified training by Harmonix can be found here.

Now if you don’t think this is huge; think of this….. can you think of a greater change in musical notation in the last 300 years??????????????????????????????????????????????? I’m serious; if you know of an intervening notation/upload system in the last couple of centuries, comment below! Here are three excellent articles about this subject, from Wired; and Kotaku, and from Edge-online.

Here is an older article from Gigaom which gets to the nuts-and-bolts of how Rock Band Network works, and it’s potential.

Just on a related note, here is the link to the PSN blog, which explains the latest update and how that helps Rock Band players. A procedural note about the uploads, they will not be allowed to be downloaded until there is “sufficient content”. Just like with regular DLC, the PS3 content would be available a couple of days after Xbox, and Wii (through Wiiware) sometime later.

Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.

Viacom announced that MTV Games plans later this year to launch a service that will let any musical artist upload and submit their songs for possible inclusion in its “Rock Band” music video game, Billboard reported. Developers with MTV’s Harmonix studio will review submissions for playability, lyrics and copyright issues before adding tracks to a new, separate Rock Band store.

So now, you or your band’s compositions could hit a new, worldwide market that wasn’t available to you before. Does it interest you? Is this a facet that should be a part of a 360-degree deal that you and your management team work out(refer to earlier post on 360-degree deals)?

So how do the video game makers plan to get your music onto a game platform?(Fuller explanation at Joystiq.com)

“We’ve figured out how to make it so anybody who owns and controls masters and publishing can put music into ["Rock Band"] at their own pace,” Paul DeGooyer, senior vice president of electronic games and music at MTV Games, told Billboard. “We’re talking about a set of serious professional tools to allow people on the front line of writing and recording songs to completely control their destiny with respect to interactive products and then giving them direct access to the download store.”

But I’ve just got a master recording, and the sheet music written out. What else is necessary?

The technical details are “when someone submits music, there’s two different options. They can submit their music to “a community of Harmonix-trained freelance game developers” who will check the song for any inappropriateness or copyright infringement and then implement the music into the game, or “hire trained developers or school their existing employees to do the work in-house.” Which means that the acts can control the note charts on their song.” (From news.vgchartz.com article)

So what’s in it for me, and the band?

Game Informer writes that musicians whose songs are approved will be able to set their own prices. The tracks will probably cost between 50 cents and three dollars, and the creators will receive a 30 percent cut.

Is anyone really buying these songs?

Rock Band currently has a catalog of roughly 600 songs between the first and second games, DLC and AC/DC track pack. But MTV wants more. A lot more. A Billboard report (via GameDaily) discussing the impact of music games on the video game industry has MTV suggesting that they would like to make 5000 songs available for the Rock Band series. By the end of year. (Via 1up.com)
Update: Now at a 1000 songs.

Does it compare with digital downloads in mainstream formats?
In North America, more than 21 million copies of the various instalments of Guitar Hero have been sold, according to NPD Group, while consumers have snatched up 4.5 million copies of the first Rock Band. Together, the two franchises have generated more than $2-billion (U.S.) in sales, said Michael Pachter, a financial analyst who tracks the video game industry for Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. (Source: Globe and Mail, March 2009)

So how do I get my content to the developers? (For technical details consult 1UP article here. )

When Activision… first started approaching labels, he typically dealt with a company’s film and TV licensing division. These days, most labels have a dedicated staff working on video game licensing.

In other words, get your entertainment attorney or your personal manager to ask the right questions. There might be another alternative route to get your music heard.

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Related links and music video-games news “below the fold”

Beatles Rock Band to get “huge” for the holiday: an interview on Industry Gamers Website.

Rock Band Bar Night: Signup and rules.

Rock Band Network to see FULL LAUNCH in 2010

Here’s a great article on the developers of Rock Band.

And of course; some dissent that says Music Video games destroy the Musicians in us:

Do guitar games discredit real guitarists?

Jimmy Page and Jack White criticize Guitar Hero.

Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.

Courtney Love signed contract for GH5 use of Kurt Cobain character

The article states “Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5,” Activision told Kotaku today. This is in conflict with her Twitter statements, stating she and Cobain’s Estate were going to sue “the sh*t out of Activision”. Also, a joint statement from Nirvana former bandmates Krist Novisilec and Dave Grohl(Foo Fighters lead-man) said, “While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in “re-locking” Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future”

This is quite a different story from the Rolling Stone article about securing the rights to Cobain’s likeness. Activision’s Vice President of Music Affairs Tim Riley says, “Indeed, securing the proper approvals was no small feat. Not only did Cobain’s widow Courtney Love have to sign off on behalf of the estate, so did former drummer Dave Grohl and Primary Wave Publishing, which administers the Nirvana catalog.”

Game Informer lists her numerous twitters surrounding this issues, most notably “Love seems to suggest that some of the lawyers and other people involved in Cobain’s estate have misused it, forged signatures, and breached contract repeatedly, and that these abuses against Courtney are what led to Cobain appearing in Guitar Hero 5.”

This is just a developing story, and may merit followup thoughts later. But at the inception of this, there are a couple of interesting legal issues that may arise.

1. When a videogame acquires rights in a “character” for in-game use, the preferable language for them involves gaining the largest possible rights. That would involve language such as “any and all uses”, etc. Does that idea hold the same perception for the rockers’ widow as it would for a multi-national corporation licensing the rights of hundreds of artists, and dozens of celebrities on a yearly basis?

2. If California law is used, their state law regarding the use of dead celebrity’s likenesses could apply. But if it is proved a legally binding transfer of the rights occurred, would there still be access to common-law remedies such as “right of publicity” or “bad-light”(putting a celebrity in a poor “light” based on the setting, commentary, or use of their likeness)?

And finally…. my 3 for the B (3 for the business side of video-game law)
1. ALWAYS, always, hold a press conference. If a celebrity is big enough to license for a videogame, schedule a 15-minute press conference in the home-town, corporate offices, somewhere that will PROVE TO THE PUBLIC that the two parties have reached an agreement. If you can’t afford that, you know you couldn’t afford the possible lawsuits later on misunderstanding.

2. No, it’s NOT just a contract. Make certain the parties understand that it is a game, and that many uses may occur of that character. If you’ve played a GH game before, you know how silly it may look for an “unlockable” Kurt Cobain to be singing Flava Flav, or Johnny Cash, or anything across the genre. If you don’t wish that, have a lawyer change the language to suit your wish.

3. Don’t disrespect. There aren’t any shouting matches thus far, though some verbal flares are out there, but the public, rightly or wrongly, feels little pity for “biting the hand that feeds you.” Some of the public will take that out in disrespect towards Activision towards the use of the avatar, and some will take it out on the Cobain estate (and Love) for protesting after they have “been paid.” But mainly, it does no one any favors. Rock and roll is about “putting it to the man”, but when this much money is involved how much “rightful indignation” is left out there? Those taking sides probably won’t be convinced to change theirs, but unfortunately those on the fence may just be put off and just go away (which doesn’t sell records, Tshirts, OR videogames).

Jay Moffitt is a TN attorney. The posting does not constitute legal advice, and in no way creates an attorney/client relationship.

Final note: if you enjoyed the posting (or hated the posting) please leave a comment. It will in no way inhibit your day, but it might just make mine.