Loudcrowd Turns Music Tracks Into Virtual Goods

By Alicia Ashby On March 17, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Today Conduit Labs announced the official launch of the Loudcrowd casual game and music-themed social network. The site automatically streams songs that play a major role in the portal's casual game offerings or simply run in the background while a user socializes with others. The primary virtual good the site offers are musical tracks that can be played in the Loudcrowd app.

"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," said Nabeel Hyatt, CEO of Conduit Labs.

CEO Nabeel Hyatt confirmed in an interview with Gamasutra
that Loudcrowd will rely on virtual goods sales to generate revenue.
The Loudcrowd app contains no ads, only very small links to online
vendors where fans can purchase songs they've heard in Loudcrowd.

Loudcrowd lauches with a catalogue of 250 songs from 50 artists, including a previously unreleased track by the The Twelves. Labels Loudcrowd has partnered with include the Beggars Group, Domino, DFA, Downtown Records, and Modular. Loudcrowd users who play the site's casual game offerings while listening to the service's streaming songs can earn avatar customization parts as well as a currency called dB that can be used to purchase "tracks." A purchased track can be listened to at any time as part of any game on the site if the user pays a fee in dB per play.

If a user really likes a song, then that user can spend real money to purchase Loudcrowd Points at a rate of 400 points for $5. 225 Loudcrowd Points buys a thirty-day pass that allows users to listen to and play games with the song an unlimited number of times during. In the future users will also be able to purchase avatar customization items with Loudcrowd Points.

Conduit Labs remained in stealth mode throughout most of 2008 after raising $5.5 million in capital from Charles River Ventures and Prism Ventureworks in 2007. The beta version went a bit more public in January of this year after confirmed alpha testing that took place in 2008. The project's designers contain many former team members from music game designer Harmonix and MMO publisher Turbine.

The game itself runs entirely in Flash and tries to recreate the feel of a concern or party, encouraging users to "dance" with each other and interact instead of playing through the casual games solo. Hyatt has stated to TechCrunch that it would be possible to integrate Loudcrowd within social networks but the company currently wants to emphasize the freestanding app while instead using social networks for promotional purposes.