Rock Band Store launches, is awesome

by Kyle Orland { Mar 21st 2008 at 10:10AM }

The much-improved Rock Band store announced to the world yesterday is now available on Xbox Live and PSN. A 30-second download and installation gives players access to the streamlined song-buying interface, which features audio previews and individual instrument difficulties for each song, as well as a much simpler way to sort and browse through the growing selection of music.

Besides the cool new store, we're also extremely gratified by the much-needed faster loading of DLC provided by the patch. After a one-time file creation upon the first post-patch load, the annoying little "loading additional content" animation was reduced from roughly ten seconds to about one second in our tests on Xbox Live. The physical "download data file" that actually speeds up the process takes up a paltry 112KB on our system, meaning there's no reason not to rock out faster!

Gallery: Rock Band Music Store

Tags: DLC, harmonix, patch, PSN, rock-band, rockband, store, xbox live, XboxLive

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Eric @ Mar 21st 2008 10:13AM

Any one know what the fan limits are set to now? for each difficulty?

343 Guilty Fart @ Mar 21st 2008 12:49PM

I see what you did there Jeffrey.

Farseer (GDI) @ Mar 21st 2008 12:53PM

How do we request the allmighty ban-hammer to fall on this spamming douchebag?

Farseer (GDI) @ Mar 21st 2008 2:13PM

Thank you!

(BTW, because I don't want to seem like a DB myself - my comment was intended for a post that has since been deleted. It was not directed at Eric)

elpmis @ Mar 21st 2008 10:13AM

This is awesome. I think there's a little rock band going on in my pants right now...

FrankTheCrank @ Mar 21st 2008 10:27AM

And Just For All...

One of my favorite albums of all time. All that crunchy goodness...mmmmm...has to be enjoyed at very high decibels.

FrankTheCrank @ Mar 21st 2008 10:27AM

Justice...doh!

Travis @ Mar 21st 2008 10:30AM

broke my drum pedal last night...

sigh

jsn @ Mar 21st 2008 10:55AM

old license plate (or something similar) and some duct tape will have you fixed up and better than ever. Cust to fit, wrap in tap, bam, good to go.

Dr. @ Mar 21st 2008 11:16AM

Are you still within the 60 day warranty? I snapped mine about 50 days in, and EA replaced it free of charge. Worth a try.

baby sea tuna @ Mar 21st 2008 11:22AM

You rock too hard!

Efren @ Mar 21st 2008 11:33AM

Don't worry, even if it's not within the 60 days, you can still get it replaced free. I got mine replaced two weeks ago and I bought the game at launch.

http://support.ea.com/cgi-bin/ea.cfg/php/enduser/rockband.php

Go there and fill it out. 100% free, and I even chose the option where i'd have to send the pedal in first and THEN get the replacement. Much to my surprise, instead of just an empty box, EA just went ahead and sent me a new pedal anyways, i didn't even have to wait.

jsn @ Mar 21st 2008 11:41AM

as others said, you can get a replacement, but you should still reinforce it with something, as it will break again eventually. any type of thin metal plate duct taped across the top to spread the force will do the trick. It might not look pretty, but it works and the duct tape makes for a better grip surface. Plus you can always undo it, vs. some of the screw in methods.

THen again you could always make a new pedal using a real bass pedal... total cost would be about $40 and it's vastly superior to the included plastic pedal.. only for the hardcore though.

Tiptup300 @ Mar 21st 2008 1:37PM

:(, worse for me. I tripped and broke my drum set. And while on bass I knocked my 360 over while playing. The disc had a GIANT ring around it. :( *sighs* *crys*

Lewis @ Mar 21st 2008 10:38AM

>.> *Downloads*

Jomolungma @ Mar 21st 2008 10:41AM

I think it's a very elegant solution. Was just messing around with it and I like it... a lot. I wonder how they will do new track announcements now - will they continue to post on their forums or will you get some sort of message in the new store?

Dr. @ Mar 21st 2008 11:08AM

Awesome is right. Microsoft, you may want to take some notes on how an online store should work. Sorting options, quick-jump indexes, previews and quick load times.

And now we can have see the quality (or lack thereof) of the cover songs before buying them.

Well done Harmonix. *applause*

Neon Jebus @ Mar 21st 2008 11:27AM

That was just what I was thinking. They manage to do something I've wanted from Microsoft. Somehow I can preview a song yet MS still can't find a way for me to preview themes and gamerpic packs?

That wouldn't be so bad if they actually updated the xbox.com site with new samples but they don't.

muddyhelmit @ Mar 21st 2008 11:12AM

Now if they can just make it to where my created character can play all of the instruments I can die happy.

McWeen @ Mar 21st 2008 11:13AM

I agree that would be nice, or the ability to change stuff after making them.

jayeffaar @ Mar 22nd 2008 11:20AM

I know that's a common complaint, but I've never understood why that's such a problem for so many people. What would it really change in the way you play the game?

McWeen @ Mar 21st 2008 11:14AM

Since they were touting download content so much straight from the beginning I am surprised this wasn't included from launch.

jsn @ Mar 21st 2008 11:43AM

6 mil d/l's so far, doesn't seem to have hurt them much. I'd rather them release an otherwise perfectly working game rather than delay it for something extraneous like this.

Anthony @ Mar 21st 2008 11:16AM

The Rock Band Store breaks background downloading. When you download a song through the store, you have to stay on the download screen until it completes. At least most songs don't take long.

Jomolungma @ Mar 21st 2008 11:24AM

I noticed this. Kind of a drag. The problem is, once you hit B to back out of the download screen it cancels the download and sends you back to the store. The only way I found to maintain the download was, like Anthony said, to stay on the download screen. Not a drag for one song, but if you want to download a few songs in a queue it could pose some problems. Not sure how they'd work around this though.

Bearxor @ Mar 21st 2008 11:26AM

Damn, I was hoping this wouldn't be the case. Just about every game has this problem when you download from within the game interface though.

baby sea tuna @ Mar 21st 2008 11:17AM

Rad! I know what I'm doing when I get home today...

Neon Jebus @ Mar 21st 2008 11:35AM

Running around the living room in your tighty whities and dusting the coffee table with your backside?

That's how I kick off the weekend!

Anthony @ Mar 21st 2008 11:35AM

Another side effect of this store is it's breaking ME. I've already downloaded three songs I skipped on release even though I knew them and watched the YouTube previews here. What a product.

Julio @ Mar 21st 2008 11:35AM

First song I tried to buy through the ingame store and I have a glitch... lost 2 bucks and can't redownload the song

Ramifications @ Mar 22nd 2008 3:02AM

Just call up Microsoft. They can see if funds were deducted and give you a download code for the song if you really were charged.

Back to the matter at hand:

THE STORE IS AWESOME!!!!

I didn't download any songs till tonight when I saw the store. I already downloaded three and more will be coming I'm sure.

Microsoft seriously underestimated the power of a preview option and fast loading! They could be making so much more money if the marketplace wasn't so damn slow to load everything and if you could preview stuff!

jynxycat @ Mar 21st 2008 12:05PM

I was sitting down the other day trying to look at the song DLC list, and it was a pain. You have to scroll to a song, and either wait for the delay on the info window so it scrolls up, or click on the song and wait for it to load then look at it.

Either way, it's a real pain to see which song is by which band, when they have so many available.

Kudos Harmonix, still one of the better developers out there.

jinn35 @ Mar 21st 2008 12:15PM

how do you download this from xbox live? I've looked all over and can't find it. Please help me.

Miles @ Mar 21st 2008 12:53PM

put the game in your 360 and it update automatically.

jinn35 @ Mar 21st 2008 12:37PM

sorry guys, i'm an idiot. I don't need xbox live.

Travis @ Mar 21st 2008 12:37PM

yeah, i sent an email to EA for a replacement after reading that people who broke theirs got it replaced no questions asked...hopefully will get it soon...

Im thinking of modding the second one with that metal plate....

Zeke @ Mar 21st 2008 1:37PM

I've been buying Rock Band tracks like they're going out of style but I just thought of something, will we be able to use these tracks on Rock Band 2? If not this may be the first AND last Rock Band game I ever buy.

Eric @ Mar 21st 2008 3:39PM

I don't think we will see a rock band 2 this gen. what would be the point. all we really care about is new songs to play.

The real question should be on the next xbox or PS3 can we transfer all of our content.

David @ Mar 21st 2008 2:02PM

Ways to make me lose money faster?

SIGN ME UP.

Tranando @ Mar 21st 2008 3:42PM

The PSN based version works VERY well.

Nice job..

Quihubo @ Mar 22nd 2008 5:30PM

Do I need Xbox Live Gold Membership? or Can I dowload the content with Xbox Silver Membership?
When I'm trying to get into the rockband store and I received a message about the family settings are avoiding to download the premium content, but I do not have family settings applied.