Those with large Rock Band song collections, rejoice - sequel Rock Band 4 will allow you to import your entire library of songs to PS4 and Xbox One.

Every track that players own and currently download in previous games in the series - including exported songs - will be available in the new game without any additional fees, meaning the franchise's library of over 2,000 tracks will be playable.

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When it comes to exporting tracks from disc-based games - such as the first two Rock Band games, as well as spin-offs Green Day Rock Band and LEGO Rock Band - product manager Daniel Sussman advised to do it sooner rather than later since the licences to do so are beginning to expire.

For example, the ability to export tracks from Green Day Rock Band expired back in April.

"For a lot of licences that we hold, there's a length associated with the agreement, and when that expires, it's over," Sussman told Digital Spy.

"The thing that I would say is, if you have not exported them yet, you should export them as soon as you can. It's the export piece that has a licence term attached to it that we can't hold over forever."

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If you've exported already, though, don't worry. "The message is, if you've exported it, it'll come with you," Sussman said.

The other caveat for importing your track libraries to Rock Band 4 is that songs can only be carried over between the same hardware family, from Xbox 360 to Xbox One and PS3 to PS4.

"[Sony and Microsoft have] been very supportive, for sure," Sussman said. "It's been a lot of work for them as well. There's some intricate technology that we're working through, and policy as well.

"At no point did anyone say no. It's been a, 'Well, how do we do this?' And we've been solving one problem after the next."

When the idea of supporting song imports between hardware families "came up", a number of difficulties halted the process early on.

"We have our hands full working on the scheme here," he said. "The differences in file format, not to mention the policy issues, basically made it a non-starter."

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While Sussman didn't discuss the specifics of how players will manually bring over their song libraries - the team is currently working through the details, and Sussman said it would be "a little different" on each platform - the goal ultimately is to make it "as frictionless as possible".

"The resonant point is that you won't have to rebuy anything. It all should just come over," he said.

"The big win is that we can do it in the first place, and that's been actually the most amount of work, both on the first party side, and also on the development side, just making sure that we have a plan to rebuild and test all the content and get it where it needs to go and get it through all the format QA processes and all that kind of stuff."

Rock Band 4 will come with new music, as well as new features - such as freestyle vocals and a campaign with a role-playing-style dynamic story - and new instruments developed by the game's co-publisher Mad Catz.

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It will also be compatible with all previously released instruments, even if originally bought for Guitar Hero. Like the game's downloadable content, they'll only work within the same platform family, so an Xbox 360 guitar will work on Xbox One, for example.

Activision will also be reviving Guitar Hero later this year, except with all-new instruments and no song importing, but it will boast a new first-person presentation and an online streaming service.

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