Correction:
This article was originally published with wording suggesting that all Rock Band DLC on seventh generation console marketplaces. It is instead the case that only songs uploaded via the Rock Band Network will be delisted. We apologized for this error and have corrected the article below.
All of the Rock Band DLC published through the Rock Band Network service will no longer be available for purchase sometime later this month according to a post on the game's official forums.
If you've missed the craze, Rock Band is a franchise of games where players can jam along to a variety of different musical tracks using plastic instrument controllers. A natural extension of the Guitar Hero series, the Rock Band games come loaded with a few dozen tracks on the game disc. Some of the more hardcore players and/or fans of rock music had the option of buying additional tracks as DLC through two distinct methods. Official DLC releases by Harmonix, and a whole host of user-generated tracks through the Rock Band Network tool. It is these tracks that will be going away.
According to a forum post from Harmonix, all Rock Band Network songs will be unavailable for purchase before February is up. As is usual with these things, anyone who has previously purchased and downloaded these bits of musical DLC will retain access to them even after they've been pulled from their respective digital game storefronts.
Rock Band 4 owners have nothing to worry about regarding this announcement, as this iteration of the franchise lacked support for that DLC in the first place. That said, digital goods will sometimes stop being sold after having been available for a few years so the time may come when you won't be able to buy songs for the latest title in the franchise. Even so, the third game (the newest one affected) released way back in 2010 so you can probably expect to get a few good years of jamming in if they ever do go away.
What do you think of Harmonix removing a whole catalog of songs for sale? Let us know in the comments below!