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Harmonix amps up the Rock Band franchise with the Rock Band Network, what may one day be remembered as a novel and revolutionary medium for “undiscovered” acts to reach a much larger audience.  Currently in open beta, the Network requires each user to link his or her rockband.com account to creators.rockband.com before the fun begins.  After that you should be free to upload music or review others’ contributions.

The Rock Band Network will also feature tunes you might have heard before, from Billy Idol to Creed and Evanescence.  If that’s a bit too mainstream, more obscure labels the likes of Sub Pop intend to bring contributions from The Shins, Flight of the Conchords, and more.  Add established names like these to untapped homegrown talent and you’ve got quite a playlist for Rock Band and Rock Band 2.

But the road to stardom isn’t easy.

Harmonix reports that you’ll be spending about 40 hours just to shove one of your own tracks into the limelight.  That’s right, fine-tuning your song for the Rock Band Network should cost a whole week’s worth of 9-5 shifts.  Hard work indeed.  This number is an estimate, naturally, as it might take even longer running the gauntlet of PC programs that create, encode, and chart your imminent hit single.

This might scare off a few of the daydreamers out there, but there will be a lot of customization out there for the truly dedicated.  Avatar animations, pyrotechnics, and even the crowd’s cheers can all be tweaked according to the user’s whim.  You control the song as well as the venue.

If you’ve got the next chart topper just waiting to be discovered, this is your lucky break.  Warm up your rah-rah-ah-ah-ahs and your roma-roma-mas, clear your work week, and jump on the Rock Bandwagon.  What’s forty hours of sweat when you can win your fifteen minutes of fame?