NewReleaseTuesday.com (NRT), a Christian music, social and entertainment mega-site and part of the FrontGate Media group, continues to innovate and lead the market with the announcement of the first Christian music game designed for Apple’s popular new mobile device, iPad. The game, which will feature EMI CMG Music artists in its initial launch, is also available on Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch devices, a category that has exploded to over 100 million devices sold, powered by the recent launches of the iPad and iPhone 4.
Named “NRT Match,” the multi-device game is available now for the introductory price of just $0.99 through Apple’s iTunes Store. A HD version of the game built for the iPad is available for $1.99. The game builds on a popular memory tile platform and challenges Christian music fans to race against the clock to complete a board made up of random album covers, creating a new match game every time. A music discovery mode is also included which allows players to learn more about the artists and releases as they complete the game.
“We’ve had a tremendous response to NRT Mobile,” says NRT founder Kevin McNeese, referring to the March 2009 launch of the first Christian music iPhone app that has now been downloaded over 65,000 times. “NRT Mobile is an incredible resource that we will continue to develop, but I’m excited about NRT Match because it will provide some much needed entertainment for Christian music fans. There isn’t much available in this category and we will address that, starting with NRT Match.”
A partnership with EMI CMG for the initial launch gives NRT Match a vast catalog to work with, allowing some of the biggest artists and albums in Christian music to be a part of the game including TobyMac, Chris Tomlin, Jeremy Camp, David Crowder*Band, Hillsong Live, Underoath and Smokie Norful. Forty-five tiles will come with the game and three additional packs, containing thirty tiles each, will be available as in-game downloads. They will include covers from Rock, Worship and Gospel genres.
“We quickly caught NRT’s vision to launch Christian music entertainment games on the Apple platforms,” says Kelly Weaver, Director of Commercial Development at EMI CMG Distribution. “EMI CMG is always looking for new & innovative ways to merchandise our music and expand opportunities to serve our core fans and find new ones. NRT has designed a high-quality entertaining game that can be played in any setting while making it easy to discover new Christian music in the process.”
Future development of the game will include additional tile packs in multiple genres and categories as well as global leader boards and competitive play. Combined with NRT Match’s in-game customization, the additional tile packs will allow users endless combinations while they expand their experience with NRT Match over time.
“Our focus with NRT Match,” says McNeese, “is to deliver top-notch graphics, an entertaining, challenging and expandable game that encourages repeat play and introduces Christian music fans to more Christian music. At the end of the day, we know Christian music saves lives and encourages believers and the more choices we give to Christian mobile users, the stronger our entire industry becomes. It’s certainly exciting to be involved in this project and we’re just getting started!”
More information can be found at http://www.newreleasetuesday.com/nrtmatch.
ABOUT NEWRELEASETUESDAY.COM:
http://www.NewReleaseTuesday.com was launched in August of 2002 and offers the most complete and up-to-date listing of upcoming releases online, exclusive artist interviews, commentary from a variety of columnists, New Christian Music PodCasts and the latest in Christian music news. It is also the home to the NRTeam, an online music community that maintains one of the largest online databases of Christian artist profiles, album reviews, videos and song lyrics.
ABOUT EMI CMG DISTRIBUTION (www.emicmg.com):
EMI CMG Distribution was founded in 1994 to serve as the main distribution outlet for EMI CMG’s owned and distributed labels to the US Christian and general retail marketplace, and the international Christian marketplace. Since this distribution division was launched, EMI CMG has had more charting titles annually on Billboard’s Top Christian Charts than any other Christian distributor and has been named Billboard Magazine’s Top Christian Music Distributor 10 times since 1995. In addition to distributing EMI Christian Music Group’s fully-owned labels, which include Sparrow, ForeFront, and Credential imprints, as well as EMI Gospel and Worship Together, EMI CMG Distribution has exclusive distribution agreements with Tooth & Nail/BEC, EE-Taow Records, Gaither Music Group, Green Hill Productions, Hal Leonard, Inpop, Just Me Music, Kingsway Music, Madacy Entertainment, North Point Music, Spring Hill Music Group, Troubadour for the Lord, Universal Music Group, VSR Music Group, Anchor Bay Entertainment/Starz, Cloud 9 Games, Creative Trust Media, First Look Studios, GT Media, Guardian Studios/Bananas, First Look Studios, Kelly’s Filmworks, Pure Flix Entertainment, Rainbow Valley Heroes, Third Day Games and Vivendi Visual Entertainment. EMI CMG Distribution is a division of EMI Christian Music Group, a unit of EMI Music (www.emimusic.com), one of the world’s leading music companies.
EMI CMG Distribution was founded in 1994 to serve as the main distribution outlet for EMI CMG’s owned and distributed labels to the US Christian and general retail marketplace, and the international Christian marketplace. Since this distribution division was launched, EMI CMG has had more charting titles annually on Billboard’s Top Christian Charts than any other Christian distributor and has been named Billboard Magazine’s Top Christian Music Distributor 10 times since 1995. In addition to distributing EMI Christian Music Group’s fully-owned labels, which include Sparrow, ForeFront, and Credential imprints, as well as EMI Gospel and Worship Together, EMI CMG Distribution has exclusive distribution agreements with Tooth & Nail/BEC, EE-Taow Records, Gaither Music Group, Green Hill Productions, Hal Leonard, Inpop, Just Me Music, Kingsway Music, Madacy Entertainment, North Point Music, Spring Hill Music Group, Troubadour for the Lord, Universal Music Group, VSR Music Group, Anchor Bay Entertainment/Starz, Cloud 9 Games, Creative Trust Media, First Look Studios, GT Media, Guardian Studios/Bananas, First Look Studios, Kelly’s Filmworks, Pure Flix Entertainment, Rainbow Valley Heroes, Third Day Games and Vivendi Visual Entertainment. EMI CMG Distribution is a division of EMI Christian Music Group, a unit of EMI Music (www.emimusic.com), one of the world’s leading music companies.
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