Most downloadable songs are playable within every game mode, including the Band World Tour career mode. For example, the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik is available for download it contains the song 'Give it Away' on Rock Band 2 and Blitz, so the downloadable album does not include 'Give it Away'. Since on-disc songs are not available for download, some albums are incomplete. Tracks released for Rock Band 2 on the Wii platform are only available as singles while Rock Band 3 offers multi-song packs as well as singles. Players can download songs on a track-by-track basis, with many of the tracks also offered as part of a 'song pack' or complete album, usually at a discounted rate. From March 2010 until September 2014, authoring groups could submit their own tracks for peer review through the Rock Band Network.

Harmonix typically provides three to six new tracks per week available to all consoles as listed below. The Rock Band series of music video games supports downloadable songs for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Wii versions through the consoles' respective online services.

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