MXP4, the leading social music gaming company, today announced that hits from EMI’s vast catalogue will be integrated into MXP4’s Bopler Games social music gaming app for Facebook, as a result of a global agreement with EMI Music and EMI Music Publishing. The deal marks the first time any major music company has licensed its catalogue for sale within social games on Facebook on this scale , and demonstrates how the music industry can benefit from the growth of social gaming revenues which are projected to hit $5 billion by 2015 (Source: Parks Associates, “Social Games: Market Updates,” April 2011).

The agreement with EMI follows the launch of MXP4’s Bopler Games social music gaming app for Facebook, the first application that enables users to combine the casual music game of their choice with their selection of song from a large catalogue of licensed music. EMI will work with MXP4 to deploy music and games to fans through artist fan pages, consistently some of the most popular pages on Facebook, which can then be shared virally across the site. The content clearing and ingestion process has already started and new tracks are expected to be made available on a regular basis.

Within Bopler Games, fans can play with 60 second clips for free or they can purchase a “music pass” with “music cash” to play with full length tracks for the full game experience. Each time users purchase music, the artists, writers and labels receive royalties.

“We’re incredibly proud to work with EMI to bring their artists’ music to fans through Bopler Games,” commented Albin Serviant, CEO of MXP4. “We are working hard to make sure that artists and songwriters can participate in the explosive growth of revenue in the social gaming space.”

“MXP4 is a strong partner for EMI, as we look to expand opportunities for our artists and increase fan engagement,” said Cosmo Lush, EMI VP Digital Business Development. “Facebook has already proven to be an effective touch point for the artist-fan relationship, and Bopler Games is a creative, entertaining way to help translate that to broader distribution and increased sales.”

“Great songs are increasingly at the heart of the best gaming experiences,” said Rod Kotler, EMI Music Publishing’s Vice President of Music Resources. “Social gaming is growing rapidly, and we’re pleased to be able to partner with MXP4 to create another valuable revenue stream for the songwriters we represent.”

Bopler Games is built on MXP4’s patent-pending Automated Level Design (ALD) technology that automatically analyzes a song and extracts data based on its rhythm, melody and song structure. ALD enables any song licensed by MXP4 to be played in any game within Bopler and makes it easy for MXP4 and third-party game developers to quickly develop new casual music games. MXP4 anticipates regularly releasing new games. In addition to Pump It!, Space It!, Match It! and Snake It!, six music games are currently in production.

About MXP4

MXP4’s mission is to enable music fans not only to play the music but to play with it. The company’s proprietary technology analyses music files and extracts data that enables casual games to deeply integrate music and game-play. MXP4’s games leverage the power of social networking to create a new way for people to interact around music online. The company is backed by Orkos Capital, Sofinnova Partners and Ventech.

You can find a selection of the most recent articles on Social Music Gaming @ socialmusicgaming.com.

About EMI

EMI Group is one of the world’s leading music companies. Its EMI Music and EMI Music Publishing divisions operate around the world to deliver successful outcomes for artists and songwriters through EMI’s global rights management strategy.

EMI Music represents artists spanning all musical tastes and genres through record labels including Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol, Capitol Latin, Capitol Records Nashville, EMI Classics, EMI CMG, EMI Records, EMI Records Nashville, Manhattan, Parlophone, Virgin Classics and Virgin Records.

EMI Music Publishing is the leading publisher of popular music, representing more than one million copyrights including some of the best known songs ever written. Iconic songs in the EMI Music Publishing catalogue include “New York New York”, “The James Bond Theme”, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, “Always On My Mind”, “Over The Rainbow” and “Singin’ In the Rain”.