Well, it’s going to cost any gamer who wants to transport their “RB” 1 songs to “RB2″ a little money and it will require two discs — just once. Harmonix PR man John Drake broke it down for me on Tuesday:

Drake said that on the day “Rock Band 2″ is released — September 14 for the Xbox 360 version — a patch will be issued for the original game. That title update will add an Export feature to the original “Rock Band” game’s menu. Gamers who select that feature will be prompted to input a password, which will be included with copies of “Rock Band 2.” Then you have to pay.

Harmonix/MTV can’t simply move the songs from one game to the next without having to pay the rightsholders of those songs something. So when the export begins, the player will have to pay a fee. Drake said the fee will not exceed $5. I asked if MTV Games is losing money to make this feature available, but Drake said he didn’t know. (I neglected to ask if all “RB” disc songs will be transferable, since previous comments from people at Harmonix have indicated that a small number may not. I’ll try to get that answered in a follow-up.)