Rock Band Network Goes into Open Beta

Rock Band Network has just went into open beta, meaning that we now get to see all of the songs that are being released, and if we had the proper tools, we'd be able to upload our own. Anybody with an XNA account, an Xbox Live Gold account, and a free account on the Rock Band Network website can now do peer reviewing and auditioning on newly submitted Rock Band Network songs. And if you have all that, a license to use reaper, and a free copy of Magma, you'll be able to upload your own songs for peer review!

That's right, in order to audition any songs, you'll need an XNA membership. Kind of disappointing to me, since i'd love to preview and rate some songs before I decide to download them or not, but (provided you're logged in to the site with your free account) at least we can still see all of the songs on the website (complete with audio previews) at this link here.

Currently, my favorite song on the network has to be "White Heat" by Cetan Clawson and the Soul Side, just based on the previews I listened to.

At the time of this writing, there's 38 songs approved in total with more on the way in the coming months. Currently, the songs have not been published to any sort of store, all of that's being saved for the full-launch of the network. I wouldn't be surprised if by the time that happens, we'd have over 200 songs already on the service! I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.