ROCKSMITH+ is Now Available on PC But the Track List Has Me Hesitant

Ubisoft has officially launched Rocksmith+! This is the next iteration of software/game that aims to help teach people how to play guitar using their favorite songs. The team did switch things up with this one and turned it into a subscription service instead of a one-time purchase, but you do get access to all of the content which includes over 5,000 songs at launch. You can even check out the full song list online and I want to talk about this in a minute. The songs cover a wide range of genres and artists that hit just about everything. You also no longer need the Real Tone Cable as the Rocksmith+ Connect mobile app lets you use your phone as a microphone for free. In the past, Rocksmith has been a great tool for practicing and supposedly, they’ve really made things better with Rocksmith+, we’ll have to check it out to know for sure though. You can subscribe to Rocksmith+ now (affiliate link) for $14.99 for 1 month, $39.99 for 3 months, or $99.99 for 12 months.

Now let’s circle back to the song list as I think it warrants discussion. I understand that the team at Ubisoft had to manage a ton of deals to get the licenses to use the over 5,000 tracks included in Rocksmith+. That is no small feat and I want to acknowledge that I understand that there was probably a lot of work behind the scenes getting this massive list. However, the library feels lacking to me based on what I’ve seen of the track list. After launch, I quickly looked to see if any of my favorite artists like Foo Fighters, Alter Bridge, Rise Against, blink-182, Green Day, Avril Lavigne, etc. were included and the answer was a resounding “no!” This was frustrating as these are not small acts or unknown acts. In fact, every single one of these bands has had songs in previous iterations of Rocksmith. This had me bummed. I did eventually find an artist that I liked, Bowling For Soup, and a fair number of their songs were included. Sadly, only one of them was one that I recognized, “Emily.” It feels like they couldn’t get a lot of the big rock bands to sign on for this one, leaning more on the other genres to fill the library and when they did get a more rock artist, they couldn’t get the songs that people typically know or want to learn. Do not get me wrong, I love having some bands and songs I don’t recognize on Rocksmith. I was introduced to some bands like Minus the Bear through Rocksmith. But when it feels like none of the songs I want are in there, it really begs the question of whether it’s worth it. I will be trying out Rocksmith+ regardless to at least see how the new interface is and the lessons and maybe even get turned on to some music I normally wouldn’t try. I just hope that more recognizable rock bands and rock songs are on their way to the game.