Birmingham Science Park-based Soshi Games has completed a deal with Raw Power Management to feature two of its Kerrang! Award-winning bands in Music Festivals Game on Facebook.
Welsh heavy metal group ‘Bullet For My Valentine’, winner of ‘best live band’ in the Kerrang! Music Awards 2010, and Sheffield’s ‘Bring Me The Horizon’, ‘best British band’ winner at the same Kerrang! Awards in 2011, now have their own stages within Music Festivals Game. Soshi has also struck a deal with Clash Music, publisher of Clash Magazine, as Music Festivals Game is able to provide valuable data into which bands are most popular with the players.
Since the start of 2012, over 45,000 Facebook users have installed and regularly play Music Festivals Game, which enables players to build and manage their own music festival. The game creates revenue opportunities for rights holders; providing artist management, labels, merchandisers and media partners with a vehicle to monetise their social media fan bases. It also creates engaging ways to discover new bands, offering breakthrough artists a route to market.
As the first two band sign-ups, Bullet For My Valentine and Bring Me The Horizon have both got a stage within Music Festivals Game. The game is being promoted to the fan bases of both bands, which currently have six million and three million Facebook fans respectively. The game is free to play, with in-game competitions providing opportunities for the bands’ fan bases to win memorabilia. Players can choose to pay to unlock items faster and install music-themed virtual goods, such as special stages and decorations.
Cliff Dennett, CEO of Soshi Games said: “Music Festivals Game enables popular acts to engage with their Facebook fan bases and earn money at the same time. The first two acts to have their own stages within the game are heavy metal bands, but it is designed to appeal to all music genres and Facebook users of all ages. We’ve built a very ‘sticky’ game, with players typically engaging with music through the game for 30 minutes per day. Also, emerging acts have already been played over 60,000 times through dedicated discovery stages so it’s a great, fun way for bands to get discovered. Other featured bands include Public Image Limited and Roger Sanchez.”
Cliff Dennett continued: “We’re currently in the process of securing £400,000 funding from a number of investors, which will enable us to further develop the game and attract many more Facebook sign-ups, as well as music artists, record labels, merchandisers and media partners. The money will also fund the development of a mobile and tablet version of Music Festivals Game, due out next year. We are eager to talk to more private investors from across the UK and beyond about our business plan and the anticipated returns.”
Soshi Games comprises a team of nine, all dedicated to the development and promotion of Music Festivals Game and off-shoot products. The start-up company successfully graduated from Birmingham Science Park’s Entrepreneurs for the Future (e4f) business incubation centre in 2011. The centre provides access to expert advice, mentoring and business planning to achieve investor readiness, as well as free telephone usage, 200 Meg symmetrical broadband and office space for six months; a package which has a monetary value of £10,000. Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, e4f is unique to Birmingham and is specifically designed to harness and support the city’s burgeoning tech community.
Dr David Hardman MBE, CEO of Birmingham Science Park said: “Soshi Games has developed a Facebook game that incentivises popular music acts to promote it, not just for financial gain, but also as a way to actively engage with their fan bases. From a standing start it’s capturing the attention and imagination of the music industry and is already making money and delivering returns to partners.
“For the game to have had 45,000 sign-ups with minimal promotion is impressive. Hopefully potential investors will get behind this talented team and enable the game to be further developed and promoted, so that Soshi’s business plan can continue to be executed to schedule.”
To be enrolled into the Science Park’s e4f centre, entrepreneurs must pitch their idea to a panel, with a view to becoming a registered Ltd company. For more information on how to apply, please visit www.e4f.co.uk
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