Music battle begins as Rock Band debuts on the iPhone

So much for Tapulous‘ monopoly on the “rhythm music” game genre on the iPhone. Now the competition is heating up as Rock Band — the hugely popular music game on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 — is now available on Apple’s AppStore.

Electronic Arts, MTV Games and Harmonix said the launch of Rock Band for the iPhone was on its way on Oct. 8. The aim is to take back some ground that an unknown startup, Tapulous, took when it debuted its Tap Tap Revenge series of games on the iPhone. Tapulous’ games are installed on more than a third of all iPhones. And Tapulous has distributed more than 10 million copies of the game.

The competition is likely to get hotter. Activision Blizzard still hasn’t launched its genre-dominating hit, Guitar Hero, on the iPhone. But Tapulous released its own Tap Tap Revenge 3 game a couple of weeks ago and it has been topping the charts. Both Tap Tap Revenge 3 and Rock Band for the iPhone are likely to target similar audiences.

The $9.99 Rock Band game will have multiplayer — for up to four players — via Bluetooth connections between gadgets. It will also have vocals and 20 songs. You’ll be able to buy more songs through in-app purchases. Here’s the list of available songs:

Attack-30 Seconds To Mars
Girls Not Grey – AFI
Move Along – All American Rejects
Sabotage – Beastie Boys
All The Small Things – Blink-182
Hanging on the Telephone – Blondie
Learn To Fly – Foo Fighters
Everlong – Foo Fighters
Bad to The Bone – George Thorogood & the Destroyers
Hymn 43 – Jethro Tull
Bad Reputation – Joan Jett
Simple Man – Lynard Skynard
Ace of Spades ‘08 – Motorhead
Debaser – Pixies
Ladybug – Presidents of The United States of America
Give It All – Rise Against
Lazy Eye – Silversun Pick Ups
Cherub Rock – Smashing Pumpkins
Take The Money and Run – Steve Miller Band
We Got The Beat – The Go Go’s

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