Tag: Riot Games
Posted inNews

Riot Games launches ‘streamer-friendly’ lo-fi beats album

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Gamers streaming footage on platforms like Twitch have been caught in the middle of copyright arguments, frequently seeing their archived videos muted or taken down if they included commercial music.

But there’s a long (and sometimes, if not always, controversial) history of labels, startups or the platforms offering game streamers catalogues of royalty-free music to use instead.

The latest example comes from an actual games company: League of Legends publisher Riot Games. Its new ‘Sessions: Vi’ compilation is described as a “creator-safe collection” of music that “anyone can use in their content without concern of copyright strikes”.

Posted inAnalysis

Why esports and music collaborations will drive growth across both industries (guest column)

Avatar photo by Music Ally

This guest column comes from Phil Hübner, Chief Business Development Officer of esports platform Challengermode

The intersection of esports and music isn’t a new phenomenon. Esports has often used live acts in the opening and half time of its major live events, musicians have joined the wave of star athletes investing directly in esports teams, and both streaming services and record labels have been keen to sign deals with first gaming and, more recently, key esports stakeholders.

What we are seeing now is an acceleration of this trend, spurred on by just how astronomical esports’ industry’s growth has been in the last decade. Global esports revenues will hit $1.084bn in 2021 (a year-on-year rise of 14.5% from 2020) with esports competitions drawing in an audience of almost 500million worldwide outperforming many mainstream sports. Esports organisations are blooming into highly successful media brands, and are coming to the music industry with significant financial and cultural clout.

Posted inNews

Riot Games wants to create a ‘thriving music universe’

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

We reported on the return of avatar-pop artist K/DA in August: the latest evolution of an act created by games publisher Riot Games.

Now Engadget has a good feature on the comeback, and how the games company – most famous for esports hit League of Legends – has even bigger ambitions around music.

“Our main target isn’t revenue right now. That’s not what we’re really focused on. It’s really about the impact we can create,” said Riot Music Group boss Toa Dunn.

He added that the ultimate plan is to create a “thriving music universe” that sits alongside (but also intersects with) League of Legends.