CAMBRIDGE, MA – JUNE 1, 2010 – Harmonix Music Systems and MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), today announced the launch of the Rock Band Network Affiliates Program. The Affiliates Program brings together bands and music distribution, promotion and tools sites under the Rock Band Network umbrella.
“The Affiliates Program is the next step in our goal of bridging the music and game spaces,” said Paul DeGooyer, SVP, Electronic Games and Music, MTV. “This initiative will promote the Rock Band Network to bands that frequent our affiliates’ sites and give the creators inside the Rock Band Network the opportunity to work with an amazing group of well-respected music distribution, promotion and technology sites, including Tunecore, Nimbit, Reverb Nation, Indaba Music and Topspin.”
The RBN Affiliates Program connects Rock Band Network bands with all the do-it-yourself tools they need to be successful – music distribution, email marketing, social networking promotion, inventory fulfillment and more. It provides musicians, bands, labels or publishers, currently working with our affiliate partners, exposure to the Rock Band Network platform. Inside of the RBN Creators Club, they will find the tools to produce, promote and sell tracks in Rock Band for millions of fans to discover through experiential and interactive gameplay.
Through this program, bands can receive special opportunities from affiliates, like waived and discounted account fees, complimentary distribution and promotion of RBN songs, banner ads, widgets, cross-promotional linking and more. The program gives bands the opportunity to sign up for available services and increase their exposure to fans in both the music and game spaces.
As a one-stop-shop for the Affiliates Program, musicians can find more information about the program, as well as individual affiliates and what they can offer athttp://creators.rockband.com/affiliates.
About the Rock Band Network
The Rock Band Network, launched March 4, 2010, gives Rock Band fans and music lovers a new avenue to discover music and provides musicians and labels the opportunity to produce and promote tracks for the Rock Band platform. This ground-breaking initiative gives musicians, publishers and record labels the ability to author their original recordings into gameplay files to promote and sell their music as playable Rock Band tracks through the RBN Store.
Artists who submit songs for the Rock Band Network Music Store are able to choose from multiple pricing tiers for individual tracks and receive a royalty of 30 percent of the retail selling price (excluding tax) for every track purchased through the RBN Store. There are currently more than 300 songs available for purchase in the RBNStore from artists including The Shins, The Hold Steady, The Main Drag, Bang Camaro, of Montreal, Jonathan Coulton, Skeleton Witch, 3 Inches of Blood, Lacuna Coil, Stroke 9, and Steve Vai. There are more than 300 artists in the RBN pipeline, with additional tracks already on the way from Flight of the Conchords, The Smashing Pumpkins, Twin Atlantic, All That Remains, Clutch, Prong and many more coming soon.
With more than 1,500 tracks available to date on the Rock Band platform, the Rock Band Network Music Store has immediately boosted the number of available songs, further securing MTV Games and Harmonix’s position as the leading provider of downloadable content for music-based video games.
Artists interested in submitting their songs to the Rock Band Network, please go towww.creators.rockband.com for more instructions on how to get involved.
