When you found out that the songs from Rock Band would be compatible with the sequel, you may have wondered how exactly that would work. After all, the games are on two different discs. As it turns out, this problem is solved by a relatively simple procedure known as "give us some money."

Harmonix gave a run-down on the song conversion process at MTV Multiplayer and it goes something like this: on the day Rock Band 2 is released, you'll be able to download an update for the original Rock Band that adds an "export" option on the main menu. When you select "export," you'll be prompted to provide the password that came with your copy of Rock Band 2. Then you'll be asked to pay a fee, though the exact amount isn't known yet - supposedly it'll be no more than five bucks. The Rock Band songs will then be transferred to your console's hard drive.

Why the fee? Well, it hadn't occurred to me when I first heard about the reverse compatibility, but the artists whose songs appeared in the original Rock Band probably wouldn't take too kindly to Harmonix re-using their songs in additional games without paying them. Thus, your fee will probably be used to wet their beaks. It's worth noting some of the songs might not be transferrable because, again, the artists need to sign off on it.

So yeah, if you thought there was a catch to the whole "you'll be able to play all your Rock Band songs on Rock Band 2" thing, there's the catch for you: you'll need to kick out a few bucks and you need a console model with a hard drive. Note that the procedure outlined was for the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band 2, which will be released on September 14th. The Wii and PS3 iterations are due out later in the year and while the procedure for the PS3 could be the same, the Wii doesn't have a hard drive. Maybe Wii owners will be able to store their songs on an SD memory card?