Rock Band isn’t as popular as it once was. Heck, the entire rhythm/plastic peripheral genre is a mere shadow of its old self. That being said, Harmonix deserves a lot of respect for keeping weekly DLC updates for the titles alive all this time even after the genre all but died out. Everything must end, however, and Rock Band is finally climbing the stairway to heaven in April.

Harmonix announced today that Rock Band will stop receiving weekly DLC updates on April 2 after five years of non-stop updates. The existing 4,000+ songs will remain active for those who want to keep buying songs for their existing copies of Rock Band 1 through 3 and Rock Band Blitz. Just don’t expect anything new in the future.

Here’s the word straight from Harmonix:

As you may have seen in our recent announcement regarding the release of Rock Band Blitz tracks as singles, Rock Band DLC production has gradually slowed over the past 5 years. We’ve managed to maintain a consistent release schedule for a staggering 275 consecutive weeks, releasing over 4,000 songs for the Rock Band Platform, but in recent months we’ve scaled production down as we’ve transitioned resources onto other projects. With several new titles in development and developers needed to usher these new games along, April 2nd will be the last weekly DLC release for Rock Band.

While there is no content currently scheduled beyond April 2nd, we still have DLC releases lined up for the next few weeks, including the remaining tracks from RB Blitz, several Pro guitar upgrades, and a handful of artists who have not yet appeared in Rock Band. We’re incredibly proud of the DLC milestones we’ve set, especially producing the largest music library of any game available, and we wouldn’t have been able to release as much outstanding content without the support of our amazing community. As thanks to the community, we’re going to continue the ongoing DLC sale of 50% off over 1,100 songs so fans can continue to build their personal libraries from our back catalog.

We hope that you’ll all agree that this has been a tremendous run, and you should know it’s a ride that we at Harmonix have been thrilled to be a part of. We’re going to continue to support the forums and RockBand.com and hope to still see you rocking out online, in photos of Rock Band parties shared on Twitter and Facebook, or here on the forums. Whether you waited in line for a midnight release of Rock Band over 5 years ago, or you just joined the party with Rock Band Blitz… whether you’ve downloaded every single song we’ve ever released, or you’ve just played on disc songs until your neighbors moved away… whether you’re a metal shredder, or a bubblegum pop singer… thank you for being a part of our band.

It’s not too surprising to see Harmonix end DLC support for Rock Band. Many, including myself, thought they would give up on the title years ago after Dance Central proved to be a huge hit. Still, it’s gratifying to see a developer stick with its dwindling number of fans this long after a game ceased being relevant.

We’re sure going to miss you, weekly Rock Band update. You made the boring PSN updates of 2011 slightly less boring.