Making Music

Once Blockstars are formed into bands, the bands are able to start getting into the important business of writing, recording and selling music. There are several factors & considerations driving the music-making process:

1. Songs need to be Written. This can either be done at the individual Blockstar level, or at the entire band level.

2. Songs need to be Recorded in a Recording Studio. This is done at the entire band level.

3. Songs need to be released. The timing of the release is a decision for the player.

4. Songs can to be Promoted. This can be either done at the individual Blockstar level, or at the entire band level.

The quality of the Songwriting & Recording, and the quality & duration of the Promotion of the song, will determine how well it sells, how well it sustains in the charts and, of course, how much income it generates.

Just like with the Current Ability and Potential Ability of Blockstars, the quality of a song is represented at each stage of the song-making process on a scale of 0.5 to 5.0 stars, in 0.5 star increments. The earlier in the song-making process a particular song is the more uncertainty there will be surrounding its potential and thus the range of possible outcomes will be greater. The closer a song is to being released the tighter the range of outcomes will be. And only once a song has been released, promoted and has finished charting will the final quality score of that song be fully known, thereby locking in the star rating for that song forever.

It is this final star rating for each Single that then serves as the input into putting together an Album - the better the individual songs on an album, the better the quality of that album will be.