Rock Band 4‘s Delisting Underscores the Impermanence of Licensed Soundtracks

By Diego Nicolás Argüello | October 24, 2025 | 3:00pm

Video Games Features game soundtracks

Rock Band 4‘s Delisting Underscores the Impermanence of Licensed Soundtracks

Bon Jovi, Linkin Park, New Order, Dead Kennedys, Nine Inch Nails. These are only a handful of the artists that will gradually disappear from the Rock Band 4 store in November. Every week, a new batch of songs will be delisted forever. To make matters worse, this will continue in the following months until the entire library is unavailable to purchase.

Rock Band 4 turned 10 on October 5. On paper, the milestone was a cause for celebration, especially with companies like CRKD leading the resurgence of guitar controllers. Sure, Harmonix stopped releasing new DLC for the game back on January 25, 2024, but the legacy library, composed of thousands of tracks, still had plenty to offer.

Sadly, the anniversary also started a countdown. As explained by Harmonix community manager Kyle Wynn on the game’s Discord server, when the game turned 10, the original licenses for the core soundtrack expired, which resulted in Rock Band 4 being delisted. This, too, applies to the DLC songs—now, whenever a track hits the 10-year mark, it’ll be delisted.

Licensed soundtracks in video games are going through an uneven renaissance. Most studios spent years betting on original scores, and aside from the usual suspects—sports games, the radios in Grand Theft Auto, some racing titles—there were only a few exceptions here and there. Now, for the past few years, the exceptions have started to become the norm again with the likes of Hi-Fi Rush, Mixtape, and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, to name a few.

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In a similar vein to how the music of Life is Strange has created a decade-long legacy, I can’t imagine myself replaying Hi-Fi Rush and not getting to listen to the absurd needle drop of “Invaders Must Die” by The Prodigy, the unforgettable crescendo of “Whirring” by The Joy Formidable suffusing an entire level, or the aggressiveness of “The Perfect Drug” by Nine Inch Nails in the final boss fight.

Sure, developer Tango Gameworks also worked with artists to create copyright-free covers, intended for streamers, and that could be a way in which they avoid being delisted when licenses expire. But no moment in the game will ever be the same without the intended songs, with a carefully planned curation by director John Johanas, who drew from his love for music and years playing Guitar Hero Live—a game that was shut down three years after launch.

Games with licensed soundtracks are vulnerable to being delisted on a whim. We’ve seen it with Spec Ops: The Line last year, which promptly became unavailable to purchase after losing its licenses. Similar examples include Alpha Protocol and Alan Wake, but unlike Spec Ops: The Line, they were both re-released after its music licenses were renegotiated.

Rock Band 4 delisting licensed soundtracks

This also begs the question: What happens when a game is re-released but the developers don’t or can’t preserve the original licensed soundtrack? Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 is, sadly, a perfect example of this. Its predecessor, 1+2, was only missing a handful of songs, and made up for the fact by adding almost 40 new tracks. 3+4, however, only retains 10 out of the 55 original picks from the joint soundtracks. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great picks in the added songs. But when the nostalgia factor is that fleeting and sparse, you begin to start a different experience altogether, rather than remember past moments of your life playing these games.

There are studios that go above and beyond to try and find a middle ground. Metal: Hellsinger, for example, has an original soundtrack that involved collaborations with artists like System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, Trivium’s Matt Heafy, and Arch Enemy’s Alissa White-Gluz, to name a few. Yet, these collaborations are rare, and don’t carry the charm of a licensed soundtrack including songs that you’re already familiar with. (Sadly, Funcom shut down the team that made the game, called The Outsiders, earlier this month.)

Looking ahead, it seems the trend will continue. Lost Records: Bloom and Rage has one of the most heart-wrenching needle drops I’ve experienced in years, and that’s thanks to an excellent choice of a licensed track. But this trend is also carrying its own unaddressed issues. Grand Theft Auto VI, whenever it comes out, is bound to have a myriad of licensed tracks. But even Rockstar, with its seemingly endless pool of money to pay for re-licencing fees, has been required to remove certain songs from previous GTA titles. Re-experiencing these games will never be the same.

What about bigger risks, like the one attached to Fortnite Festival? Years after Epic Games acquired Harmonix in 2021, the companies responded to the demand of rhythm games with a new iteration on the classic Rock Band foundation. Yet, the basis of it is completely different—Festival is attached to an online platform. Unlike Rock Band 4, which you can still purchase and play if you manage to find a physical disk even after being delisted, there’s no guarantee for what will happen once Fortnite is inevitably shut down. All the money spent on DLC songs and battle passes would have been for naught. As of now, it doesn’t seem like Epic has an answer for this.

Licensed soundtracks have an inherent nostalgia factor attached to them. To me, however, they’ve also been a tool for music discovery. Guitar Hero and Rock Band were instrumental experiences in shaping who I’ve become, but the same applies to the likes of Need For Speed Most Wanted or WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007. Despite the numerous differences, this is still somewhat present nowadays—there is a bizarre element in listening to Chappell Roan or Weezer when turning on the radio inside a car in Fortnite, yet, it takes on a more poignant meaning when one of my younger siblings is sitting next to me. He might not care much about music now, but he’s likely to remember these songs and the moments we spent together for years to come.

Over at the Rock Band subreddit, the community has been steadily tracking all the DLC that is being delisted in the upcoming month. To an outsider, this herculean effort might seem exaggerated. But these aren’t just songs that are being lost. It’s the memories attached to them—both from the people who’ve experienced them already, and those who are yet to. The right licensed song in a game can remind you of a birthday celebration with a friend group that only gets together once a year. It can bring back memories of a quiet night with someone you’re falling for, or a bonding moment with your siblings, offering a respite from everything waiting outside the door. These moments will only last in our minds, and in our stories shared with others. Aside from some miraculous exceptions, very few companies are making the effort to preserve them.

Now, if you excuse me, I have a few songs to purchase.

Diego Nicolás Argüello is a freelance journalist from Argentina who has learned English thanks to videogames. You can read his work in places like Polygon, the New York Times, The Verge, and more. You can also find him on Bluesky.