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Amanotes, a Southeast Asian mobile game publisher with over 100 million monthly active users, has partnered with Reactional Music to add personalized music to its games.
Reactional has created a music engine and delivery platform that brings a variety of in-game music choices to players and virtual worlds. The partnership will bring real-time music personalization and in-game music purchases for gamers, making Amanotes and its partner studios the first companies to introduce music as an in-game purchase.
Reactional Music’s technology allows any music to be brought into a game and the game’s visuals, music, and sound to react live to that music. This is something that has not been possible before at scale, the companies said.
David Knox, President of Reactional Music, said in a statement, “There is no gamer who does not have a relationship with music, so bringing Reactional to Amanotes’ 100 million plus gamers across the world is a fantastic moment. Reactional’s platform enables games developers to do more for their gamers, to work with music efficiently and in new ways and to create new forms of personalization.”
He added, “It enables music artists to become part of games in more deeply related and meaningful ways. Most importantly, the really exciting opportunity is putting personalization into the hands of the world’s three billion gamers.”
The partnership will enable gamers to personalize a persona and gameplay with their favorite music, paying for it in the same way they do with skins and other in-game purchases. Reactional’s platform also opens up a faster and more efficient method for games developers to create and prototype music.
Knox said that Amanotes will ope the doors for other games companies, other genres, developers, creators, artists and rights holders to work together on new ideas.
Global gaming revenue passed $187.7 billion in 2023, according to Newzoo. Nearly eight out of 10 people from the total online population engage with video games in one form or another. And 87% of gamers have spent money on in-game items (including 29% of this group spending to personalize characters or things built in-game). According to studies in the U.S., 49% of gamers say they discovered new music through gaming, Deloitte reported.
Reactional’s engine does not alter, mix, or edit the music master, and it tracks all music use across its platform. It will also enable new detailed data analytics and insight of music use by gamers. The platform will be live for commercial use in 2023.
Reactional has also completed multiple music rights agreements with commercial and production music rights holders including Hipgnosis Song Management.
Asked what was the inspiration for Reactional, Knox said in an email to GamesBeat, “So much in gaming has changed. The technologies that underpin gaming now enable incredibly realistic interactive experiences that are delivered around the gamer.”
He added, “However, music and sound have remained largely unchanged in how they are created and delivered in games. We know that many gamers turn the sound off and stream their own music while playing. This music is passive and has little or no place or relevance within the game.”
And he said, “With Reactional, we wanted to enable developers to change the way gamers can experience, interact with and enjoy music. We do this by allowing any music to be brought into a game and to come together with the visuals and sound effects to react to gameplay in real-time, something that has not been possible before. This enables so much to be created and explored in music and sound for developers, creators and music artists.”
Reactional is based in Stockholm and London and it has 21 employees and six contractors. Reactional has raised $3.7 million in equity financing, including a $2.05 million pre-series A round in April.
Amanotes, the top game publisher in Southeast Asia, has amassed more than three billion app downloads worldwide, and it has over 100 million monthly active users and over 15 million daily active users. Amanotes’ Magic Tiles 3 has more than 40 million monthly active users. Amanotes has 200 people, with its headquarters in Singapore and operations in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
“This is a big moment for all gamers, technically, creatively and commercially,” said Bill Vo, CEO and founder of Amanotes, in a statement. “At Amanotes our history and our values have been driven by music. Our mission of ‘everyone can music,’ deeply resonates with the passionate team at Reactional, as we are both fueled by a strong love for music.”
He added, “There has been so much discussion about music and games. In-game concerts and ‘activations’ have been wonderful but not truly interactive. The Reactional engine and platform actually deliver the ability for games and music to now work together commercially and creatively. For everyone. For Amanotes and our partner studios, music personalization is the new frontier in game personalization.”
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