Last week I posted Part One of my interview with Harmonix Audio Director Eric Brosius.

In the exchange, he talked about the painstaking process of deciding which songs go into “Rock Band” and breaking the bad news to Harmonix staffers who didn’t make the cut (awkward).

In Part Two, we talk more about Brosius’ “Rock Band” experience, including:

• How the songs Brosius acquires become playable in the game
• Crossing paths with the “Guitar Hero III” folks on song selection
• Steve Van Zandt’s involvement (or lack thereof so far)
• The future of downloadable content for “Rock Band”

Brosius also mentioned that Harmonix would like to have songs from unsigned bands as downloadable content:

“I don’t know if we’re going to be acting like record labels or try to get them signed or anything like that, but we think that this is really a great way to put the spotlight on bands no one’s ever heard of. As you know, a lot of people here play in bands, and they know what it’s like to try to get your band seen and heard, so [featuring unsigned bands] is a big part of what we want to do.”

In the first part of my interview with Brosius, he mentioned the criteria for songs to make it into the game; songs are selected not only based on popularity and suitability, but also playability. Unlike “Guitar Hero,” parts for four different instruments must be considered.

Once the songs were nailed down and licensed, there was another issue: acquiring the digital versions of the master recordings. The developers can’t just rip the stereo track from the CD. They need the original recordings, because they have to have each instrument’s isolated track to create the gameplay for “Rock Band.” Brosius would never want to handle the actual master tapes (”They’re too precious!”), but he talked to the studios and the record labels to digitally transfer the master tapes to ProTools, which typically came to him on DVDs. Those DVDs were stored in a safe next to his desk, and the copies on the server were only accessible to a few people. “A lot of labels are nervous about their master tapes because there are parts that are exposed,” he explained. “They don’t want to have you just listen to the vocal part or just the bass part, so we try to be as careful with them as possible.”

But in some cases, master tracks don’t even exist or can’t be found. That’s why you might see some cover songs in the game. “There were stories where the master tapes were destroyed in a train crash or in a fire or ‘My old manager who we hate stole them and we don’t know where they are.’ For some, there was a lot of detective work trying to track down the tapes. Many of the labels have them in their vaults, but every once in a while you run into a case where they just can’t find them.”

Being that this was his third go-round as the Audio Lead, Brosius is pretty much an old hat at dealing with the licensing of songs. However, with the release of “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock” only a month before “Rock Band,” both games were essentially being developed simultaneously (when Harmonix was purchased by MTV Networks last year, RedOctane retained the rights to the” Guitar Hero” franchise). Did he cross paths with the makers of “Guitar Hero III”? “There will be a few songs that ended up on ‘Guitar Hero III’ that are in ‘Rock Band,’ but that’s just all coincidence,” he said. “We went after some of the same songs because they didn’t reveal their setlist until we had already had things licensed in the same way. There was not any of ‘Oh, they’re doing this song, so maybe we should do that song.’ It really didn’t cause too much of a problem.”

In fact, it was barely an issue at all. According to Brosius, there were only one or two instances where “Rock Band” couldn’t get a song due to “Guitar Hero III.” “There were cases where if one company did a special deal where an artist was a spokesperson for their game, it would be inappropriate for them to be in the other game,” he said, without naming specifics. “There was a case early on [involving] a deal with a record label where a song was exclusive to one game or the other. But of all the songs, there were only like two cases, and it’s a resolved thing. It doesn’t really happen any more, and that’s how we want it. We don’t want to close things off and try to take control of something. As long as the bands are cool with having their song on both games, we’re cool with it too.”

So fans of both “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” should be pleased at the non-exclusivity of songs, especially with all the downloadable content on the way, where it’s certain that they’ll be even more overlap. Mainstream tracks aside, there will be plenty of downloadable songs that might not be seen anywhere else. At E3 in July, it was announced that rock legend Steve Van Zandt will chair “Rock Band”’s music advisory board. While Van Zandt hasn’t been too involved in “Rock Band” yet (he came aboard a little too late), Brosius expects he’ll be helpful in bringing more underground and diverse music by helping choose unique downloadable tunes. “We haven’t really had that much direct contact with him yet, but he brings a lot of knowledge about older songs and everything about the ’50s and ’60s. There’s only been initial talks with him, but we’re looking forward to having him contribute a lot more in the future.”

With Van Zandt in tow, Harmonix also figures that the downloadable content for “Rock Band” is a good way to expose people to unsigned bands. “I don’t know if we’re going to be acting like record labels or try to get them signed or anything like that, but we think that this is really a great way to put the spotlight on bands no one’s ever heard of,” he explained. “As you know, a lot of people here play in bands, and they know what it’s like to try to get your band seen and heard, so [featuring unsigned bands] is a big part of what we want to do.”

And does Brosius think that “Rock Band” might become the iTunes of video games? Will it boost the constantly struggling music industry? “I think that we would love ‘Rock Band’ and music games like this to rejuvenate the music industry, and to a small part I think they will,” he responded. “How far that goes? I don’t know. The music industry is pretty large and the music games part of it is relatively small. We’re really looking at ‘Rock Band’ as kind of a platform, just this thing that will just open up this library of all this music, and people can just choose what they want. I think it’s just a great new venue for labels to get their music out there.”