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Loudcrowd Launches to Bring Social Music Gaming Online

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 07:00 CDT

Music label partnerships allow fans to discover fresh music and old favorites in a new and engaging way

AUSTIN, Texas, March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Conduit Labs, a social entertainment company, today at the South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) announced the launch of Loudcrowd (http://www.loudcrowd.com), a community for music fans. Designed for consumers that want to do more than just listen, the Loudcrowd experience provides a constant stream of new music while offering an evolving and connected series of music-themed games with friends. Through synchronous game play and interaction with others, users can earn a variety of virtual goods for use within the site, including music tracks that can be collected and customized for group play lists. The site debuts with more than 50 artists and over 250 songs, more than any other music game has achieved at launch. The initial lineup includes Justice, Phoenix, Santigold, Friendly Fires, and dozens of other artists, including unreleased tracks from The Twelves.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090317/NE84681LOGO)

"There are many places to listen to music online, but most offer passive activities or lack actual social interaction," said Nabeel Hyatt, CEO Conduit Labs. "Like the collective experience of attending a concert with friends, Loudcrowd will recapture the active social experience of music. We are striving to create a new platform that allows people to connect with music and friends in ways they never have before."

Upon entering the site, visitors will experience a music play list in real time with friends around the world, capturing the social music experience of a party, club or concert. From there, users can engage with the music and with other players in a variety of ways:

• Play social music games to a series of indie rock and dance tracks from artists such as Kid Sister, Ladytron, Cut Copy and more
• Return for new play lists updated daily, with guest DJs that have included the A/V Club, URB, IHEARTCOMIX, Eli Escobar, Brooklyn Vegan and others
• Earn music tracks and other virtual goods for use in the site, including the ability to soon become their own DJ and create play lists for other users
• Play rich, social icebreaker games like Dance, or compete using the tracks in their collection for the highest score in the DJ game, with new games regularly released

Launching with a broad range of record label partners allows Loudcrowd to program the latest new and exclusive music for its visitors. Partners include the Beggars Group (representing 4AD Records, Matador, Rough Trade and XL Recordings), Domino, DFA, Downtown Records, and Modular. Loudcrowd offers a unique social gaming environment through which labels and artists have the opportunity to engage with their audience in a new way. The site also generates value for music by allowing labels to monetize their recordings and artist brands supplemental to existing sales channels through the sale of music-related virtual goods on Loudcrowd.

"We understand that the way people consume music is evolving, and we are committed to building more interactive, creative channels for our artists," said Simon Wheeler, Director of Digital, Beggars Group. "Loudcrowd is the first web community I've seen that is built around discovering and interacting with music through games, and represents the type of new revenue stream and business model our industry needs to embrace."

Loudcrowd features an innovative virtual goods model that allows users to enjoy and play for free, but to also purchase additional features, such as music tracks for use in the site, or other enhancements for their game experience. Hyatt added, "We believe there is a common element between things that music fans will pay for. From over 30m songs sold in music games in the past year to the $4B in concert revenue in 2008, each of these offer a unique experience that you can't get anywhere else. This aligns us with our users, as we strive to create fun and unique music experiences that people will value and want to pay for."

Since its private beta launch in late 2008, Loudcrowd has quickly established itself as a top destination for music games and social entertainment. More than 1 million dances have been created for others in the Loudcrowd community since inception. User engagement on the site has also been over twice the average session length of leading online music sites such as Last.fm, Project Playlist, and Pandora. Loudcrowd's current success demonstrates the ever-increasing demand for online music and social interaction.

Check out Loudcrowd at www.loudcrowd.com.

About Loudcrowd:

Loudcrowd (http://loudcrowd.com) is a music community that allows users to actively engage with and discover new music while playing games and interacting live with friends and the community. Loudcrowd is developed by Conduit Labs, a social entertainment company, founded by industry veterans in web startups and social gaming. Located in Cambridge, MA, Conduit is backed by leading venture capital firms Charles River Ventures and Prism VentureWorks.

SOURCE Conduit Labs

Source: PR Newswire

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