This morning, there is a great feature over at Create Digital Music on the new software for creating user-generated tracks for Rock Band. It looks surprisingly simple to get it all set up. A highlight:

Anyone can get their music in the game. You don’t even need a label. You need a few (cheap) software tools, a computer, and some basic MIDI chops, and for a fraction of the cost of pressing a couple hundred CDs, any artist can get their work into Rock Band 2.

While Peter over at CDM wonders about the indie musicians who will now be able to release their songs in a new channel (side thought: is “playability in Rock Band” going to become a new influence in the studio?), I’m curious about possible artistic and legal ramifications.

I’m sure there is a system to make sure you don’t upload music that you don’t own the rights to (and you would need the master tracks or stems to make any song a proper rock band release), but what are the ramifications of keeping this interpretive practice limited to the labels or rights owners?

The more exciting possibility is for sound art/experimental music, I think. While I doubt a really experimental track could make it through the community vetting process and into general release, the possibilities for a collaborative, button-pressing, sound generating activity are pretty wild. It seems like Rock Band has parameters that are just restrictive enough to encourage some really out-there creativity.