Harmonix and MTV Games today announced that Toby Keith will make his Rock Band debut through six tracks on the online music store this week. Keith is one of the major players in the music industry and has sold more than 25 million albums this century.

The six-pack features a compilation of his most popular songs spanning his entire career including his first number-one hit “Should’ve Been a Cowboy”. The other songs are “How Do You Like Me Now”, “Beer For My Horses”, “Who’s Your Daddy”, “I Love This Bar” and “She’s a Hottie”.

Each track will cost $1.99 (160 points), with the six pack going for $9.99 (800 points).

MTV Games and EA today announced that the Rock Band franchise has officially surpassed $1 billion in North American retail sales in 15 months, citing figures by the NPD Group. In addition, over 40 million paid individual songs have been sold via download through the online platform; there are a total of 600 songs available in the catalog.

Rock Band was launched back in November 20, 2007 and has sold millions of units. Its sequel was released earlier last year and built upon the original. The franchise is the first to start full album downloads on PS3 and Xbox 360, which quite a few bands have taken advantage of, including Judas Priest, Foo Fighters, Megadeth and Rush.

Harmonix seems to be a big fan of classics, as they have announced that Journey’s jukebox classic “Don’t Stop Believin’” is coming to Rock Band.

The song is coming most probably in next week’s batch of DLC, which hits March 31. It is expected to carry the traditional pricing of 160 Microsoft points ($2).

To honor the re-release of Pearl Jam’s debut album “Ten”, Rock Band, MTV, MTV2, VH1 and VH1 Classic are teaming up to roll out a two-week long lineup of content that celebrates the band, its success and its debut in Rock Band as downloadable content.

Putting aside MTV and VH1’s tributes, gamers will get the “Ten” album – which has sold 12 million copies – as downloadable content in Rock Band and Rock Band 2 on March 24. In addition, Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron will sit down for a Game With Fame session on Friday, March 27 at 7pm ET. Those with a Xbox Live Gold account can go up against him by sending a friend request to “Pearl Jam GWF” and be online half an hour before at 6.30pm ET.

The “Ten” album was released back on August 27, 1991. It reached #2 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold over 12 million copies.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Ray Parker Jr. revealed that he is currently working on getting the original Ghostbusters theme into Rock Band’s library of playable music.

“We were just talking about that, we’re working on it now,” he said. “I think they should have Ghostbusters in Rock Band.”

It would be awesome to play the Ghostbusters tune with a bunch of friends over.

Seeing as how it’s the end of the week, Harmonix, staying true to their tradition, has revealed the next batch of downloadable content for its multi-instrument music games Rock Band and Rock Band 2.

Due out on March 17 and 19 on Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively, is the “Get the Funk Out” track pack that offers three pieces of funk music: Average White Band – "Pick Up the Pieces", Earth Wind & Fire – "Shining Star" and James Brown – "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine – Pt 1".

They will also release the following songs individually: Against Me! – "Thrash Unreal", The New Pornographers – "All the Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth" and “Use It”, Papa Roach – "Last Resort" and “Lifeline”.

The track pack will cost 440 Microsoft points ($5.50) and individual tracks 160 points ($2).

Marking the addition of awesome metal to Rock Band’s setlist, Harmonix and MTV Games today announced that three new tracks from White Zombie and Turbonegro are headed our way next week.

“More Human than Human” and “Black Sunshine” from White Zombie will be released. This is Rob Zombie’s band before he went solo. In addition, “Wasted Again” from Norwegian punk band Turbonegro will be available too.

To be available starting Tuesday on Xbox Live and Thursday on PlayStation Store, the songs will cost $1.99 (160 Microsoft points) per track.

Harmonix’s Rock Band franchise saw big sales since its release, and Rock Band 2 sales were solid with 2 million units sold since the game’s September 2008 launch, but that wasn’t enough for Viacom, as the company admitted that the sales were weaker than expected.

The media company attributed the game’s underperformance to a sudden drop in retail spending in the last months of 2008, due to the deepening recession. Despite weak sales, Viacom notes that the series helped increase revenues for its Media Networks segment, which was one of very few positive highlights in Viacom’s earnings call.

The conglomerate said that it plans to focus more on the franchise this year. While there won’t be a numbered sequel, they will release a game featuring music from legendary band The Beatles.

Aspiring Wii musicians take note: seven new tracks from progressive rock band Rush is now available on the Rock Band Music Store for the console.

The songs are already available to PS3 and Xbox 360 owners, but come late for Wii owners since the music store is a rather recent addition. The tracks are: “Tom Sawyer”, “Red Barchetta”, “YYZ”, “Limelight”, “The Camera Eye”, “Witch Hunt” and “Vital Signs”.

All tracks are master recordings and cost 200 Wii points per track.

Hoping to make all their downloadable content available to everyone, Harmonix and MTV Games announced that they have released Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2, the second installment in its track pack series. It is now available for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 for $29.99.

The pack features 20 tracks ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Motley Crue to Red Hot Chili Peppers and Duran Duran. It can be played as a standalone game for all consoles. However, you will also be able to export the songs for play with Rock Band and Rock Band 2 using a free offer on Xbox Live or PlayStation Network.

Can’t get enough of Rock Band? Or Energizer batteries, for that matter? The dudes at Energizer have decided to give away one piece of downloadable content with their new Advanced Lithium Batteries.

This site has more details. It is applicable to both PlayStation Store and Xbox Live.

And yet another week is coming up, prompting Harmonix to announce the coming week’s downloadable content for Rock Band. This week they are offering us three different packs and one single.

The first pack is from Dead Kennedy, which includes “Califonia Uber Alles”, “Holiday in Cambodia” and “Police Truck”. The second pack is also three songs from Mission of Burma: “Mica”, “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate” and “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver”. Finally, the third pack is a trio of songs from metal bands fronted by women: “Forever” by In This Moment, “Closer” and “Swamped” by Lacuna Coil. Oh, and the single is “Gone” by Crooked X.

Each pack is available for 160 points ($1.99), with the packs going for 440 points ($5.49).

MTV today announced that they will air Rock Band Battle this Saturday at 1pm ET/PT. Hosted by comedian Dan Levy with actress Carrie Keagan, the one hour special will feature five groups going head-to-head as they attempt to live out their dreams of rock n’ roll and compete for a pimped out electronics package.

The four member groups will take on their favorite song from Rock Band 2’s catalog of over 100 tracks. They will be judged on how well they play the game as well as how well they manage to impress the audience with their stage presence and rock and roll acumen.

The winning band will walk away with a big-screen LG television, Cambridge SoundWorks New theater system, Xbox 360 and a special edition bundle of Rock Band 2.

Hoping to cash in on the holiday season, Harmonix and EA have jointly announced a new Special Edition bundle for Rock Band that will be available for the PS2 and Wii starting at $99.99. It will also be available for PS3 and Xbox 360 at a starting price of $139.99.

The Special Edition bundle will feature the microphone, the guitar controller and drum controller. Gamers will be able to rock out to the game’s hundred-plus songs, most of which are available through Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. You will also be able to export 55 of Rock Band’s 58 songs in the game’s sequel for yet more action.

The bundle is now available.

Rock Band is surely big business, especially for Harmonix, the developers themselves, and Viacom. However, it is even bigger business for the founders of the studio – Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy – who have gotten a bonus of $150 million this year, based on the stellar sales performance of the franchise.

Even better yet (for them, anyway) is word that Viacom will be paying them even more this year as bonus. It is “expected to exceed this year’s payment,” noted Viacom, implying that it will be more than $300 million in bonuses, though how much more is yet not known.

"We may not have anticipated the payment would be that high, but it’s based on what they have achieved,” said Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew. "If they are making more money for us and we have to give a little back, that’s OK."