The Deals: Primary Wave Albums to Become ‘Artist-Personalized’ Games; Merlin Signs Karaoke Licensing Pact

Another day, another flood of music industry deals. How does one keep track? In an effort to provide an overview of the latest acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures, licensing agreements and more, Billboard publishes a list of all of the latest pacts that have hit our radar every other week.

Primary Wave Music is first up this week for making a deal with Game My Fan, described as “a direct to fan music distribution platform,” through which Game My Fan will turn both classic albums and new music in Primary Wave’s catalog into “artist-personalized games, creating an entirely new product category, revenue stream, and fan engagement channel,” according to a post on Primary Wave’s website.

“Game My Fan creates super-casual mobile games that sync perfectly with music in realtime. As each album plays, the game changes dynamically, with everything matching tune, time, and tempo,” the post adds, noting that music purchased through the games “is 100% locked to the platform and cannot be played outside the game, protecting artist rights while delivering unique value.” (Game My Fan is powered by Reactional Music’s music personalization technology.) While playing the resulting games, fans can unlock songs, join “artist Hall of Fame communities” and access exclusive merch, tickets and content to deepen their connection to the artists and their music.

The post states that customizing a game can be “completed with weeks of agreement, with revenue shared equally with artists,” adding that artists and other rights holders will keep “full control of release dates, timing, marketing and price points.”

The first game to be released under the deal is one created from Can’t Get Enough: A Tribute to Bad Company, a tribute album commemorating the band’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction featuring covers of Bad Company classics including “Run With the Pack” (Blackberry Smoke featuring Paul Rodgers and Brann Dailor), “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy” (The Struts), “Rock Steady” (Dirty Honey), “Burnin’ Sky” (Black Stone Cherry) and “Seagull” (Joe Elliott and Phil Collen of Def Leppard featuring Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke).

“Our partnership with Game My Fan allows artists to work their catalogues in new ways, using new technology and existing distribution infrastructure to create a new music category direct to fans’ devices,” said Natalia Nastaskin, chief content officer at Primary Wave, in a statement, adding that the deal “means a new revenue stream, higher margins, more control, and a unique direct-to-fan sales channel for all artists.”

See below for more recent music industry deals.