Possible date of debut?

[cherokeesam]

The RBN is not intended to appease song owners by limiting supply. If anyone is upset about going up against 100+ songs, I wonder how they'll feel about eventually going up against 1,000+ songs in the RBN Store.

Sure, but it's a question of little bites vs. horse-choking chunks. If RBN starts off with a smaller selection, and *gradually* increases in size, artists will stand a better chance of getting their music noticed. But if you throw the whole library out there on Opening Day, the "no-name" bands aren't going to stand a chance against the "OMG!! They got THAT band in RBN, too?!? " numbers.

[SpiderSambo]

I bet everyone who used that $1000 service will be pissed.

Before they stood a tiny chance, but now they'll be lucky to recoup their losses at all.

[Ultrace]

I think that looking at 100+ songs as detrimental is a little misguided. There are two good reasons that having a large number of songs at release isn't a bad idea.

First, a huge amount of songs at release will generate a lot more buzz and excitement (thus likely drawing in more people to potentially see your song) than launching with a small number of songs. Sure, if RBN launches with 40 songs, you have less competition to share your shelf with (for a while), but RBN itself may not be as popular, which can limit your buyers.

Second, don't underestimate how many people are going to be browsing specific genres and difficulties. There may be 100+ songs out there at launch, but how many punk soul tracks will there be? How many slow, melodic metal songs with easier charting for the masses? If your song is different, it will get noticed. If your song is just like every other, then maybe it deserves to blend in and be lost in the shuffle. Virtually every venue of art demonstrates that being good is not enough, you must stand out.

With the ability to sample songs (with gameplay) before buying and the prevalence of YouTube videos, there's little reason for good songs not to be picked up. Anyone interested can try it out with no obligation, then grab it once they discover you're that new sound they've been looking for. 100+ songs at launch may be a bit overwhelming to browse through, but it's a good overwhelming. The massive variety of choice can only bode well for RB as a whole. Now if only these songs could show up in random setlists, I'd be perfectly happy...

[ZhaneBX]

The only thing that kinda disturbs me with all this "50" vs "100" songs (i just call it like that for now ), if they release RBN now, we would have 50 awesome songs and the other 50 songs would come in the time it would take them to get to the "100 songs start" anyway.

But I'm patient, like people are saying: It's done when it's done.

[nascarfan19]

i've got my money ready to buy all the free songs

[solidsnakejt]

i've got my money ready to buy all the free songs

say what now?
how can you buy something free?
and there wont be any free songs btw

[weirdphil]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.... SXSW? Austin? I live near there..... I, think I may need to schedule some vacation in March....

MMMmmm... Go to SXSW, or stay at home to download song from RBN.... choices...

[ethicalpaul]

I didn't glean from the story that the store would debut at that event. It was a little "squishy" exactly what they were saying.

[voodoo618]

I didn't glean from the story that the store would debut at that event. It was a little "squishy" exactly what they were saying.

I can clearly see the words "will debut" in there.

[ethicalpaul]

Yes, but did you see the word "store"?

How do you debut a store at sxsw? Do they click on the store icon, browse some songs and say "look you can buy these!" ?