Rock Band 2's RB1 Song Import Costs $5, Excluded Songs Revealed

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Rock Band developer has Harmonix has followed up on its previous announcement regarding the ability to import songs from the first Rock Band disc and play them in the sequel, due September 14 on Xbox 360 and later this season for PlayStation 3.

Only three of the tracks from the first Rock Band will not be playable in the sequel, the studio revealed on its official forum. As was previously estimated, the ability to export songs from the RB1 disc onto the hard drive and play them in RB2 will cost 400 Microsoft Points ($5) due to licensing fees.

That fee only applies to songs from the original Rock Band, with all previously released Rock Band downloadable content already compatible at no extra charge.

The ability to purchase the license and export songs from Rock Band is now available within the Xbox 360 version of the original, following an automatic that was released today. The following Rock Band disc tracks are not available for export:

  • "Paranoid" as made famous by Black Sabbath (Cover)
  • "Run to the Hills" as made famous by Iron Maiden (Cover)
  • "Enter Sandman" by Metallica
As a result, the following 55 are all exportable under that $5 transaction:

Main Set List (covers denoted by asterisk)

  • Rolling Stones, "Gimme Shelter"
  • Mountain, "Mississippi Queen" *
  • Deep Purple, "Highway Star"
  • The Who, "Won't Get Fooled Again"
  • David Bowie, "Suffragette City"
  • Sweet, "Ballroom Blitz" *
  • Aerosmith, "Train Kept A-Rollin'" *
  • The Outlaws, "Green Grass and High Tides" *
  • The Ramones, "Blitzkrieg Bop"
  • Boston, "Foreplay/Long Time"
  • Blue Oyster Cult, "Don't Fear the Reaper"
  • Kiss, "Detroit Rock City"
  • The Police, "Next To You"
  • Molly Hatchet, "Flirtin' With Disaster"
  • Rush, "Tom Sawyer" *
  • The Clash, "Should I Stay or Should I Go"
  • Bon Jovi, "Wanted Dead or Alive"
  • Faith No More, "Epic"
  • R. E. M., "Orange Crush"
  • Pixies, "Wave of Mutilation"
  • Nirvana, "In Bloom"
  • Radiohead, "Creep"
  • The Smashing Pumpkins, "Cherub Rock"
  • Weezer, "Say It Ain't So"
  • Beastie Boys, "Sabotage"
  • Soundgarden, "Black Hole Sun"
  • Stone Temple Pilots, "Vasoline"
  • Hole, "Celebrity Skin"
  • Garbage, "I Think I'm Paranoid"
  • Foo Fighters, "Learn to Fly"
  • The Hives, "Main Offender"
  • Queens of the Stone Age, "Go with the Flow"
  • Fall Out Boy, "Dead on Arrival"
  • Jet, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl"
  • The New Pornographers, "Electric Version"
  • Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Maps"
  • The Strokes, "Reptilia"
  • Coheed and Cambria, "Welcome Home"
  • Nine Inch Nails, "The Hand That Feeds"
  • Ok Go, "Here It Goes Again"
  • The Killers, "When You Were Young"
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Dani California"
  • Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld, "Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld"
  • The Konks, "29 Fingers"
  • Flyleaf, "I'm So Sick"
  • The Acrobats, "Day Late, Dollar Short"
  • Anarchy Club, "Blood Doll"
  • Bang Camaro, "Pleasure (Pleasure)"
  • Crooked X, "Nightmare"
  • Death of the Cool, "Can't Let Go"
  • Freezepop, "Brainpower"
  • The Mother Hips, "Time We Had"
  • Vagiant, "Seven"
  • Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives, "I Get By"
  • Tribe, "Outside"
The full on-disc playlist for Rock Band 2 can be found here.
From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 4, 2008 10:43 AM

    Is there a legal reason those three songs are excluded? I mean, if I have to change discs for those three songs, I just won't play those three songs anymore.

    Sadly though, I am lazy enough to justify this $5 charge to have all my songs available with one disc.

    • reply
      September 4, 2008 10:52 AM

      I'd *hope* it's because they're planning master-track versions of the ones that were covers as DLC.

      Metallica...meh. They've been dicks about everything digital since the Napster days. I've just stopped caring.

      • reply
        September 4, 2008 11:02 AM

        They're releasing their new album digitally and putting up previews every Monday before it comes out?

        They're not dicks about it, they just want to control it, which in the age of torrent sites and FTP servers, is seen as being anachronistic.

        • reply
          September 4, 2008 1:19 PM

          Plus they are streaming their whole new album for free tonight. metallica.com for info

          • reply
            September 5, 2008 3:43 AM

            And they give you digital recordings of the gigs you go to afterwards (seems to be free now, too).

    • reply
      September 4, 2008 10:57 AM

      The Metallica one is probably exclusively licensed by Activision now. The other two bands have DLC in RB, so they're probably going to get mastered/re-released.

      • reply
        September 4, 2008 11:11 AM

        Good stuff. Shame about Enter Sandman but with all the other awesome, I'll deal.

      • reply
        September 5, 2008 5:56 AM

        Yet Battery is included in RB2 track list? That would seem to go counter to 'exclusive' agreements.

        I suspect the re licensing costs were too high.

    • reply
      September 4, 2008 11:06 AM

      I am surprised that the "Train Keeps A Rollin'" by Aerosmith is allowed, given that its in GH:A as well.

      To me, there's only one 'big' loss, that being Metallica. Fuck the fast strumming on "Run to the Hills"

      • reply
        September 4, 2008 12:27 PM

        Strumming, more like drumming... jesus that song is brutal. I did manage to beat it once on drums expert though.

      • reply
        September 4, 2008 1:35 PM

        I'm sure that's because Aerosmith's version is a remake, and therefore they (HMX) probably only had to clear it with the original rights holder.

    • reply
      September 4, 2008 11:28 AM

      "Licensing" issues, according to the Harmonix post.

    • reply
      September 4, 2008 2:07 PM

      The Metallica issue is simpler than most people are making out, but is *not* a matter of exclusivity.

      Metallica _only_ licenses with a royalty percentage, _never_ a flat rate. This is the reason that Metallica never appeared in a rhythm game previous to this generation of games--the game companies were unwilling or unable to give a percentage cut to any of the artists, only flat rate licensing compensation.

      As a result, the $5 transfer fee is incompatible with Metallica licensing. Perhaps Enter Sandman will come out again as DLC?

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