Harmonix has announced that they would be bringing back parts of the Rock Band Network to Rock Band 4 on modern consoles.
The Rock Band Network was conceived as a way to increase the number of songs available to download for Rock Band without massively scaling up development resources. It allowed content creators to author, peer review, and upload their own tracks to the network and get things up faster than if Harmonix were doing it themselves. Creators split the revenue between themselves, Harmonix, and either XBL or PSN.
Rock Band Network is returning to the series with Rock Band 4, but unlike with Rock Band DLC, players are not able to carry over previous purchases to the newer game. Harmonix says that it came down to either having not being able to bring back any songs or starting fresh on purchases.
The service will prioritize Rock Band Network’s most notable and best-selling songs first and work backwards from there and is coming in addition to Harmonix’s own weekly DLC. Players who are hoping for specific RBN songs to come back can request them through the Rock Band Request page here.
