The first game in the series, Rock Band, was released in 2007 and its sequel Rock Band 2 was released in 2008. As the rhythm game market began to flounder in 2009, Viacom put Harmonix up for sale, but investors were able to buy the company, making it an independent studio. Each Rock Band game comes with approximately 20 to 40 licensed songs from across all ranges of rock music and spanning from the 1960s to present day.