The “Break it Down” Blog

Harmonix has been selling a lot of music tracks for Rock Band and Rock Band 2 for a couple years now.  This week they mentioned they would also be interested in selling the corresponding music tracks with the Downloadable Content Songs. Ars technica got the scoop at CES this week. If you had the option to buy a combo that includes both the actual songs as well as the Rock Band playable versions?  Personally I don’t buy a lot of music because we have great local radio stations so, but I know a lot of people spend a nice chunk of change on both iTunes and Rock Band so maybe it would save them some money.

Harmonix seems to be doing a brisk business in selling songs to Rock Band customers, but with younger gamers being introduced to new music, why can’t there be a way to buy the song for the game, along with the actual track to listen to outside of the game. At CES 2009, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos had mixed thoughts on this idea.

Rigopulos claimed that selling the songs directly would drastically “change the tenor” of the relationship they have with record labels, but he isn’t ruling out a partnership with another entity to create a package of the game track along with the song itself.

“People want to buy recorded music,” he told the crowd. “I think it does make a lot of sense to find ways to offer up the game level along with a recorded version of the song as a single offering.” He stressed that this idea is something in which they’re “very much” interested and are actively considering selling the game levels and the song for a single price. Without giving many details about who they would like to partner with, it’s clear that this idea has gone beyond idle conjecture.

It’s an interesting idea, to be able to buy a song to play with the game and then have a copy to listen to on your computer or mp3 player for a single price. Rock Band is already in the business of selling music, although it’s music locked into the game. With music fans plugged into the Rock Band’s music store, it seems like a natural progression to simply sell them the music itself as well. This would be a good opportunity to draw in new music fans, and for an existing music store to leverage the power of the Rock Band experience.