Rocking the riddle that will make your iBody rock.
I-play is planning to release a digital EP of music from its Hip Hop All Star iPhone game. The six-track EP will be sold on Apple's iTunes music store.
"I-play is now an independent music label!" VP of marketing Mike Breslin tells ME. "We're going to come out with a full EP with six tracks on it from the game, including one track from Kool G Rap, who's one of the forefathers of hip-hop and MCing."
The EP will build on the success of Hip Hop All Star, which Breslin said required some smarts to put together. Most notably, I-play secured a track from hotly-tipped rapper Kid Cudi just weeks before he signed a big deal with Universal Music Group.
Breslin says that although negotiating the licences required for the game's tracks took time, I-play has been pleased with the reaction from the music industry.
"Labels need to embrace these other avenues for their music," says Breslin. "This game has the ability to drive a lot of sales of songs."
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Meanwhile, I-play is continuing to closely watch the App Store to judge how much to invest in bringing games to iPhone and iPod touch.
"It's a challenging space, because the sales cycle is much shorter than on mobile, there are no preloads, and no Holy Grail to guarantee success," he says.
"You get a 70% share of the revenues, but games are a quarter of the price they're sold for on the carrier decks. We're watching it like a hawk."
