Rock Band (original) players will have the opportunity to export most of their on-disc songs to Rock Band 2 via a new option that is now available.

A title update for the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band will add an ‘export disc’ tab under the extras option in the Rock Band menus, allowing players to export 55 tracks from their original Rock Band disc to become compatible with Rock Band 2, should you choose to buy it. The service will cost you 400 Microsoft Points (or $4.99). This is apparently necessary to compensate music licensors for future use of their songs.

It’s also been discovered that this patch is required for all future downloadable content releases for Rock Band, although previously bought downloadable content will not be affected. Additionally, certain songs will not be available to export from Rock Band to Rock Band 2, including ‘Paranoid’ (as made famous by Black Sabbath), ‘Run to the Hills’ (as made famous by Iron Maiden) and ‘Enter the Sandman’ (by Metallica). From the European setlist, ‘Through the Monsoon’ (by Tokio Hotel) will not be available for export.