With every music game there are bands everyone wants in. Over the years the knowledge has spread about which bands are possible and which aren’t, but with Rocksmith it’s a whole new spectrum of players that are unfamiliar with the reasons why we can’t have a certain band or artist. This article will help to explain speculative reasons why these highly requested bands won’t be on your Rocksmith disc anytime soon.
Also please remember that we still don’t understand how Music Licensing works and if you think you do, you probably don’t.
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin is a band everyone wants in their favourite music game. Jimmy Page has been vehemently opposed to the idea for a few reasons: He doesn’t want to hand the master tapes over. and he generally doesn’t like music games. Of course both those things are slightly “non issues” with Rocksmith, but nonetheless despite him slightly changing his mind in 2010, there has been no evidence that Jimmy will be handing over Led Zeppelin tracks anytime soon.
Pink Floyd
While there has never been much open discussion on why exactly Pink Floyd hasn’t appeared in any video game yet, Nick Mason (drummer) wasn’t thrilled about the idea of their music being experienced through plastic guitars. Since 2009 there has been no sign of any progress being made on this. Also you’d have to imagine a pretty hefty price tag to lock in a song like Time or Comfortably Numb.
Metallica
Guitar Hero: Metallica was released in 2009, since then there has been no other Metallica songs released for any other music game. Relicensed, yes, but no new content. As some people may remember in 2010 with the release of Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock all the Metallica songs were relicensed for export into GH5, Band Hero, and Warriors of Rock. This suggests that the exclusivity contract was extended and in my mind, has been confirmed by the appearance of Metallica at various Activision events and recently them being characters in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD.
The Beatles
Harmonix released The Beatles: Rock Band in 2009. No tracks from the game export, there has been no DLC released for the platform since December of 2009 (or if you are on PS3 April 2010). There will never be another music game that has their music. Fight me.
Streaming doesn’t buy you DLC
Guns N’ Roses
Axl Rose and Slash do not get along. Now that we understand that, you should know nothing angers Axl Rose more than Slash’s old band Velvet Revolver. Slither is a track on disc for Rocksmith. There will never be Guns N’ Roses on Rocksmith.
Update: Yeah, whatever you say…
I am without words, this could happen…
Only 2 more days n nites until these new Jam Tracks arrive 😏 pic.twitter.com/BdD8JV6f5e
— Fortnite Festival (@FNFestival) August 6, 2024
Jimi Hendrix
Exclusive to Harmonix and now BandFuse. This could change in the future and knowing Janie, it’s pretty likely that we could see Hendrix come to Rocksmith in the future.
AC/DC
While things have changed this year, AC/DC’s only Music DLC release was through a separate disc that was exportable. These songs to this day have not appeared via the music store nor did “Let There Be Rock” export from Rock Band 2. Out of all the bands so far, AC/DC is definitely one of the more likely ones to show up in the future.
UPDATE: on November 23rd, 2020 @RockBand announced that AC/DC’s new song “Shot In The Dark” off their new album would appear as DLC for Rock Band 4
Green Day
Harmonix released Green Day: Rock Band, in 2010. The game exported completely on launch and recently one of their newest singles “Oh Love” was released for download. Following that, the entire on disc setlist was relicensed for digital download via the music store. It seems unlikely that Green Day’s music will ever appear outside of that platform.
Journey
Despite a wonderful story about meeting members of the band on a flight, Journey’s inclusion in Rocksmith seems very unlikely. Harmonix was unable to export Anyway You Want It, and since then have only had one other appearance of Journey through their music store. Don’t Stop Believing (Which is now no longer available). Problems seem to stem from their original vocalist, Steve Perry being unwilling to co-operate with the other members of the band. If Journey ever does appear in Rocksmith, chances are it will be one of those two songs.
The Who
Another supposed Harmonix Exclusive band, but you never know.
Eagles
Other than their inclusion in Guitar Hero World Tour and the three DLC songs that followed we haven’t seen anything from the Eagles since.
Aerosmith
As far as we know are still under contract with Activision. Last appearance of their music being Cryin in Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock.
Van Halen
I just assume that the general reviews, response, and way Guitar Hero: Van Halen was handled soured the band on music games for the foreseeable future. Also could be still under contact with Activision.
Looks like Eddie and the boys have finally came around… To Rock Band 4!
Prince
For awhile we thought it might never happen, but now things seem to be looking a lot more hopeful.
Scorpions
Have never had a master track in any guitar game, only covers in Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80’s. Extremely hard to license.
Update: Rock Band 4 has licensed a 2011 re-record of “No One Like You” there’s hope for Rocksmith yet!
Bands with Weird Tunings
At this time Rocksmith only supports the following tunings: Standard, Drop D, Eb, and Open G. While this could change in the future the developers have stated that tunings like “Drop C,” for instance, don’t register too well with their software. So sorry Sunn O))) fans, we won’t see them on here anytime soon.
Rocksmith UK
The band that filed an injunction against Ubisoft for stealing their name will never end up on Rocksmith, but it seems as though they will be appearing in a different game.
While all these bands unwillingness to participate may discourage and anger you, take solace in the fact that there are many, many other bands that would love to appear on Rocksmith and will be just as enjoyable to play and learn from.
If you’d like a band to appear in Rocksmith be sure to register and fill out the form.
Metallica is now endorsing yousician so why not Rocksmith?
Good question, my guess is it’s going to be time limited content.
Thanks for reposting. Looks like some got scratched off, but some look very unlikely after reading them.
First off all Rocksmith is a learning tool and not a game, we actually play the real notes on a real guitar and learn how to play also, i am proof of that, we don’t play on a silly plastic guitar, those groups that thinks that we are a game, so try Rocksmith, they would see that it’s so much more than a game, they should instead be proud that we are playing their songs on Rocksmith.
After seeing G N’ R during their reunion tour (minus Izzy), and watching Axl and Slash on stage together again, I searched to see if maybe there was a possibility of some of their tracks being added to Rocksmith and came across this page. Elliot– insert foot into mouth? Looks like you need to update your markdown for more strikethroughs 😛
I’m sure they’ll hate each other again after the tour, don’t worry
Call me crazy, but I’d love a pack of TV show themes like The Munsters, Batman, Barney Miller (that great bass line), Hawaii Five-O, etc. There were so many iconic songs back then. Maybe it could be a less expensive pack like the classical song pack.
Funny you should mention that. I was just going through my old Guitar One magazines. In the December 2006 issue they had a segment called,
TOP 10 FOR OUTSTANDING GUITAR WORK IN A TV THEME…
10. Simon & Simon
9. The A-Team
8. The Ren & Stimpy Show
7. Three’s Company
6 South Park
5. Chico and the Man
4. Batman
3. Beverly Hills 90210
2. Law & Order
1. Barney Miller
I wish they had a collection of honorable mentions. I’d place the following on that list primarily for the baselines.
Spiderman (1960s cartoon)
Fat Albert (1970s cartoon)
Night Court (1980s tv show)
…i have to hear it again, but possibly Seinfeld as well.
Hey Elliott, I was curious about your thoughts on four other acts not previously included on your list above.
What’s the deal with Chuck Berry? With Johnny B Goode, No Particular Place to Go, Guitar Boogie and some others of his remaining popular for so long, why hasn’t he been on any of these games?
I know the Red Hot Chili Peppers had 1 song on the first Rocksmith. What’s their deal on not releasing more? (All Around the World, Hard to Concentrate, Breaking the Girl, and about 30 others)
Also curious about Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Lastly, and I’m sure you saw this coming—- Bob Marley and the Wailers.
Stevie Ray Vaughan already has a wide presence on Rock Band and Guitar Hero and the license has never appeared to be very hard for Music Games to obtain, so we honestly don’t know why SRV has only appeared as a featured artist thus far.
Wow, I guess it’s good and bad. Good that SRV’s music is at least accessable, bad in that we’ve only see him once on RS. Hope we may get some more Holiday gifts later this year (as with last year’s great Oct-Dec run) and see SRV. (I’m still wondering if a Def Leppard pack will be on the horizon. I commented on it earlier. Last week’s pack seemed like a set up to me.)
Anybody else requesting Blind Guardian, Rhapsody, Dark Moor, and the like?
I’ve requested Blind Guardian.
whats up with Ozzy…. Crazy Train or any othe Randy Rhoads
I don’t know, why don’t you request it.
Maybe he can’t request it. I’ve never been able to on either my ps3 browser or my tablet. I buy like 90% of dlc yet have no voice as far as song requests go because for some reason the only thing I can’t seem to do online is request a song. (It redirects to blank page). Granted i’m probably just not smart enough to figure it out but its still frustrating all the same. Lol.
Set the browser on your tablet to “Desktop Mode”
That where the part about me not being smart enough comes into play, lol. I can’t figure out how to do that. I’m wishing I hadn’t tossed the desktop out the window 5 years ago. Thanks though.
There may be hope for Guns N’ Roses!?!
https://www.guitarplayer.com/players
Well it is getting colder in the middle east. Maybe ice is on the way. And in other parts of the world, monkeys are preparing to take flight.
Do we know if Van Halen made an exclusivity deal with Harmonix, or did they just license some songs?
A better write up for Van Halen would be as follows:
Considering the obvious lack of concern for their fans, (Guitar Hero:Van Halen, Live from the Tokyo Dome (minus DVD) and the repeated and highly unnecessary dissing of former band members, it is clear the VH is a seriously broken and divided house. For each record/CD writing credits were given to all members of the band. With that in mind and the fact the current and former band members don’t get along, Van Halen will most likely never see the light of day until (God forbid) key members of the collective start dying off and the decisions on how to handle the band are in more intelligent hands.
The Fix: Send Suge Knight to EVH’s house. Have him pull a Robert Van Winkle move on him and then we’ll get the Van Halen music and merchandise that the fans deserve.
Or…
https://ew.com/article/2015/08/17/rock-band-4-van-halen-panama/
Wow, what the hell? That’s how misguided these buffoons are. They failed with Guitar Here before, now they’re going back in the same direction with Rock Band. And instead of helping fans really learn the music (Rocksmith) they want you to just push some buttons and fake it? I see the motto here.
from Ken Ober (Mtv’s Remote Control) “If at first you fail, fail again.”
Sorry about the typo. Guitar Hero
Do you play CoD, GTA or a racing game.
Do you watch TV shows about not real stuff.
Who cares if it is fake, it is all about fun.
I found guitar hero and rock band more fun then rocksmith.
Yep, I’ve played and enjoyed those games. I even played Rock Band–got the kit. Here’s the difference. I’ve been somewhat close to situations similar to CoD. In that sense, yeah I’d rather fake it. GTA, TV shows, I’m sure most folks would chose to fake it and watch as well. When it comes to music, if given the opportunity to learn to play the song for real or push some buttons that don’t really mean anything, I’d chose learning it for real. (okay matter of preference) To me, it is more enjoyable to sit down with someone and do a little call and response or jam on a song together then to say, “Hey I can push these buttons really fast.” If you go to a music shop, the city has a power outtage, your out on the back porch watching the sunset, or your at a party or barbecue, it would be nice to know how to play something for real.
Now before those who misread the above paragraph begin the dog-pile, I want to restate, “I enjoyed those games.” Unless there is a sales thing that I’m not seeing (admittedly, I didn’t research the numbers), it would seem like the failure of Guitar Hero Van Halen would guide the band in a new direction as far as games go—Rocksmith.
I’m guessing Guitar Hero and Rock Band are out selling Rocksmith. (which is unfortunate). It would be nice if VH didn’t retrace old steps. Why not go in a new direction and help people learn the music for real as opposed once again just pushing buttons?
Scorpion:(….almost any song would make me jizz all around
Some randy rhoads tracks??
Most of the bands listed above have another reason why they won’t be on rocksmith,, they are giant assholes and will remain that way till the end of time!!
Why? Because they didn’t want their music to be on a game?
Looks like it’s time to cross another artist off the list!
Hendrix is in Fantasia: Music Evolved. There’s still hope!
Fantasia’s a Harmonix title, though. I’m pretty sure they still have the deal with his estate. Remember, they helped in an unknown way with BandFuse.