About the Site

What’s “the usual time”? Generally speaking, downloadable songs for Rock Band become available on Xbox 360 and Wii on Tuesdays, and on PlayStation 3 the Thursday immediately following. The Guitar Hero folks, on the other hand, usually hold all their releases until Thursday. Divergences from this custom will be noted as needed. Tuesday! For all systems! As of May 2010, Sony has begun updating the PlayStation Store on Tuesdays, which means tracks can now release simultaneously across all platforms. Well, mostly simultaneously; they hit the different systems at different times in the day.

What’s “the usual price”? The vast majority of downloadable tracks are priced as follows: $1.99 on PlayStation 3; 160 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360; and 200 Wii Points on, er, Wii. (So technically tracks are almost always $.01 cheaper on the PS3. Weird, right?) Furthermore, three-song track packs tend to be priced at $5.49 on PS3 and 440 MS on 360, and three-song packs go for 550 Wii Points.

Who do you think you are? I’m Joe Rybicki. I’ve spent about 14 years writing about videogames for a living. I’m also a musician: I sing and play guitar, bass, and drums. So you can see how I got here.

Music games are a pathetic replacement for playing real instruments. That’s not a question.

Fine. Aren’t music games a pathetic replacement for playing real instruments? Yes, and first-person shooters are a pathetic replacement for shooting a real gun. And sports games are a pathetic replacement for actually playing sports. Funny thing about music games, though: They actually get kids interested in playing real instruments, for real. And they even give them some real skills that can be carried over into playing real instruments. So, to answer your question, shut up.

How can I get in touch with you? Head on over to the Contact page. Alternately, you can address an e-mail to “joe” at the domain of this site.

I found a mistake in The Vault! You rock. Thanks for catching it — would you mind dropping me a line? Please choose “Correction” from the drop-down Topic menu.

I’ve got a hot tip you might be interested in! You rock even harder than the dude up there who found an error in the database. OK, maybe not harder. But at least as hard. Please send me an e-mail and choose “HOT TIP” in the drop-down menu. I will love you forever.

About the Vault

What is The Vault? The Vault is a ridiculously huge collection of songs from every guitar game released in the U.S. And when I say “ridiculously huge,” I mean somewhere upwards of 3000 songs. (And when I say “guitar game” I mean specifically a game in which you strum a fake guitar. Just so we’re clear.)

How come there are two Vaults? Well, see, the Rock Band Network is sort of a separate thing from the main Rock Band store. For one thing, the songs debut on 360 and only hit PS3 much later; for another, they’re priced much more variably than those in the main library. So I figured that warranted a separate page, for now at least. As the RBN library grows I may fold those back into the main Vault, but for the moment I’ll be keeping them separate.

Where are the PS3 tracks in the RBN Vault? Since the PS3 is getting just a fraction of the songs available on 360, I’ve noted which songs are available in the Notes filed. Just enter “PS3″ in the Search box and you’ll see ‘em all. (And of course you can enter any other search term along with “PS3″ and you should be good to go. Also, you can sort the search results as on the main page. I code simple!)

What games are covered? In alphabetical order: Band Hero, The Beatles: Rock Band, Green Day: Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III, Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, Guitar Hero: Metallica, Guitar Hero: On Tour, Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, Guitar Hero World Tour, Lego Rock Band, Power Gig: Rise of the SixString, Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Rock Band 3, Rock Revolution…plus every single damn song made available for download. So of course this list is always growing. In fact it may already be out of date.

Holy crap, that’s a big list. How can I find what I’m looking for? Enter a term in the search field and my army of chipmunks will race through the archives and pull out listings that match your term in any way. (E.g., “Free” returns a list of every free track, but also anything by Freezepop.) From there you can click column headers to sort. Let me know if you have any problems beyond that.

What possessed you to do this? See, I think music games are a legitimate and important new way of experiencing music. And I’ve found a lot of songs in my play time that made me want to hear more from the artist. So I figured others might feel the same way. The idea is to make it as easy as possible for you to find and purchase the music you’ve discovered in your virtual jam sessions, and learn more about the artists.

Where’s the Rock Band 2 downloadable content? Any song labeled “Rock Band DLC” is compatible with both Rock Band and Rock Band 2, except where specified otherwise. (Also, Rock Band 3, but not vice versa.)

Where’s the Band Hero downloadable content? Any song labeled “Guitar Hero 5 DLC” is compatible with both Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero, except where specified otherwise. Plus, most of the DLC for Guitar Hero World Tour is also playable in either GH5 or Band Hero. (Also, Warriors of Rock, but not vice versa.)

Lots of songs have multiple versions. Which one did you link to? Wherever possible, I’ve linked to the song in its original context. So most studio songs are linked to the version from the original album or single. Wherever possible, live songs are linked to the performance actually featured in the game. And I even have a couple links to 45s. Really!

But your link for [Song X] doesn’t go to the original version! In some cases that’s because the original version isn’t online. In some cases that’s simply due to my ignorance on the matter. (Hey, I know a lot of these tunes, but — 3000 songs!) In every case, I’d really appreciate a heads-up. So if you wouldn’t mind dropping me an e-mail, I’d be forever grateful. And if you choose “Correction” from the drop-down Topic menu, I might swoon with gratitude. Well, my OCD might, at least.