The new Black Eyed Peas, Shakira and David Guetta single Don’t You Worry has made its debut in Beatstar today in what Space Ape is calling a first for the games and music industries.
The track will be released on streaming services worldwide this Friday, giving Beatstar a two-day exclusivity window. Space Ape is increasingly positioning its hit beatmatching game as a music discovery platform, with artists like Camila Cabello, Ed Sheeran and the Chainsmokers dropping songs in Beatstar day and date with streaming services.
“Beatstar continues to grow with over 100k users discovering the game every day,” Space Ape CEO Simon Hade tells us. “These exclusive partnerships are great moments for players to rediscover the game.”
Hade and his team are currently on a tour of the US to strike more deals like this, stopping at major labels from Los Angeles to Nashville to New York. The goal is to “build out a more comprehensive catalog to ensure the game connects with the diverse audience of people discovering the game,” says Hade.
“It’s too early to call since we’ve only been live half a year but it seems that Beatstar will be one of those evergreen games that people will keep coming back to for years, and this manifests in great month 12 retention,” Hade continues.
“We have a big focus in our product roadmap in providing more of these moments for re-engagement through events and new content releases to make that vision a reality.”
With 30m downloads to date, that diverse audience of music lovers is a big opportunity for the game, says Hade, and has influenced how the game is structured.
“When you choose your tutorial song, the fact you might choose Nelly’s Dilemma vs Blanco Brown’s The Git Up or Justin Bieber vs Soulja Boy, then that tells us a lot about what types of songs you’d like to see as the game unfolds,” he continues.
“People tend to play on their own schedules. This is quite different from the mid-core play pattern we are used to, which is more goal-oriented and where players feel a certain sense of obligation to come back to participate in their clan events or finish their buildings and so on. As a result of this, some people might play less regularly day to day but re-engagement around new content is really high.”
“People are eager to see what new songs have dropped, and are eager to re-establish their bragging rights when they see one of their friends beat their score in a song.”
