The $180 billion gaming sector is forecast to be worth over $200 billion by 2023, and its rise has presented a number of revenue generating opportunities for the music business.
Over the past few years, gaming platforms like Roblox and Epic Games-owned Fortnite have partnered with artists and labels to host various high-profile, in-game virtual performances.
Meanwhile, music licensed for game soundtracks continues to be a major draw for emerging and superstar artists alike, as seen with games like Electronic Arts’Madden NFL series, andFifa.
Amidst the ongoing convergence of the music and games businesses, last year, a company called Reactional Music unveiled patented technology that allows real-time personalization of soundtracks and music during gameplay, and claimed to want to completely “re-write [the] rules for music and video games”.
Today (May 18), we learn that B2B music streaming technology specialist Tuned Global has struck a deal with Reactional Music to act as the music backend provider for the Reactional Music Box – the company’s global music delivery platform for games development and consumer markets.
What this means in practice, is that Tuned Global will now power the delivery of a rights-cleared music catalog from rightsholders, record labels and artists to Reactional Music’s platform.
Additionally, through its recentintegration with AI music firm Musiio(which was recentlyacquired by SoundCloud), Tuned Global will also provide AI technology to Reactional Music to deliver, what it says, is the “supercharged tagging of all music” to Reactional Music.
“The team at Tuned Global realised early on that Reactional Music is doing something very new for gaming and were prepared to work with us on delivering a completely new type of music delivery platform for game developers,” said Reactional Music President, David Knox.
“The Tuned Global tech stack meets our needs well and is also already integrated with some of the content, publishing and music partners we will be working with.”
Added Knox: “Tuned Global’s integration with Musiio’s AI was also important to us as Musiio can enable a sophisticated near real-time curation service that supports the level of sophistication that is demanded from games developers and the world’s gamers.”
“The team at Tuned Global realised early on that Reactional Music is doing something very new for gaming and were prepared to work with us on delivering a completely new type of music delivery platform for game developers.”
David Knox, Reactional Music
Tuned Global, a prominent player in the B2B music space, has powered streaming platforms in various markets around the world, including Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Pacific, the Caribbean, North America, the UK and Europe.
The company is already active at the intersection of the music and fitness businesses, as well as the music creation sector, working with the likes of fitness firmPsycle London and with Swedish DJ mobile app,Pacemaker, respectively. Tuned Global has also partnered with varioustelco firms.
Tuned Global’s deal with Reactional Music comes at a transformative time for the company.
Just last month, Tuned Global Managing Director Con Rasotold MBW about how his company is setting its sights on expansion in the Web3 sector, including gaming, and detailed how the firm can assist rightsholders looking to make their own moves in this space.
Tuned Global’s deal with Reactional Music could be an early sign of big things to come. In a media statement announcing the deal, the company makes the bold claim that Reactional Music’s patented Engine, coupled withTuned Global’s Music APIs and Musiio’s music AI, “will power a new era in music personalisation for gamers and a new era for music search, curation and acquisition for games developers”.
Speaking to MBW last month, Con Raso provided a deeper insight into the notion of music personalisation within the metaverse: “We all expect the Metaverse to be both immersive, but also tailored to our personal tastes,” he explained. “Just as our Avatar and its outfit is unique, so should be its music.”
He added: “This is where we believe Tuned Global’s technology and AI focus can really differentiate the various Metaverse experiences.
“Think for example, how an Avatar may develop its own music tastes through AI that’s different to its owner which may create inherent value for the composable NFT that represents it. You now have an Avatar with its own personalised take on music.”
“Music in game is a hot topic and we are glad to be able to assist the music and gaming industries in working together.”
Con Raso, Tuned Global
Tuned Global tells MBW that it can work with games developers to provide music content delivery services as well as create and manage playlists. It can also provide what it calls a ‘User Context Suggestion Engine’, as well as AI-powered music suggestions, live events support, plus explicit content filtering.
Tuned Global says that it can even deliver a full on-demand, and in-game, streaming service, which it says would be comparable with other premium music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.
Users can search artists, songs, playlists and curate their own playlists using that service, either within the game, or via a stand-alone app that can sync up with the gaming platform.
The company says that it can also deliver pre-curated thematic and genre-based in-game radio stations, as well as themed playlists that can be listened to within gameplay.
One of Tuned Global’s clients in the gaming world is fantasy record label gameFanLabel.
Reactional Music, whose President David Knox spent 26 years in senior global management positions at EA, says that it enables any commercial or production music to become interactive around the gamer within a game.
The company adds that this changes the way gamers experience and interact with music in games and virtual worlds, including the metaverse.
Reactional Music claims further to be opening up a “new commercial era” for music rightsholders and games businesses to work together, by offering music as an in-game purchase option for gamers.
Reactional Music was formerly a subsidiary of Sweden-based music-tech firm Gestrument, but the two firms recently merged into a single company under the name Reactional Music Group AB.
The firm’s technology is already in use at the Avicii Experience museum in Stockholm, powering a new generative music version of the track, Hey Brother.
Reactional Music’s platform, equipped with Tuned Global’s music technology, will be live in Q1 2023, and will initially deliver music and sound for games developers.
Reactional Music says that a B2C roll out for all gamers will follow shortly thereafter.
Con Raso, Tuned Global Managing Director, added: “Music in game is a hot topic and we are glad to be able to assist the music and gaming industries in working together.
“Reactional Music’s mission and technology are so unique, they are really solving a market pain point by bringing a level of personalisation and engagement to games via music.
“Tuned Global is really excited to add its layer of music streaming technology to Reactional Music’s patented Engine to rewrite the rules for music and video games together.”
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