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Why is it for celebrities
Once the stars tried to appear on the radio and television as often as possible, then official sites and online celebrity fan clubs appeared. But now this is not enough: to keep in touch with their fans and maintain a personal brand, musicians actively communicate with fans on social networks and even develop their own mobile applications. So the stars are able to establish closer contact with the audience and earn on in-app purchases.
Most applications offer both free and paid content, so they successfully attract a wide variety of user categories. For example, the game “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood” ( iOS and Android ), launched by Glu Mobile in June 2014, brought about $ 1.6 million in just a few days after the release. By the end of the first quarter, the number of installations was 22.8 million, and the application earned $ 43.4 million. Below we will talk about other projects that both musicians and development companies hoped for success.
Unsuccessful games and social. the network
Glu Mobile managed to collaborate not only with Kim Kardashian, but also with Katy Perry, Nikki Minaj, Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. However, not all Glu projects have become as popular. So, the Katy Perry Pop game released in 2015, where the user is invited to build a Katy Perry music career, the developers closed a year later. After the failure of the project, Glu Mobile shares fell, and the company 's financial director called this game "one of the biggest disappointments."
In the hope of rehabilitating the situation, since 2016, developers have released three “star” projects at once. So, the games "Britney Spears: Living The Dream" and "Nicki Minaj: The Empire" completely repeat the gameplay "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood" - they are still available for download.
The company also created The Swift Life in collaboration with Taylor Swift, but moved away from the old simulator concept. It was a kind of social network for fans, where they could communicate with each other and share content. But this project was closed . The application simply turned into a battlefield for people with different political views. In addition, users constantly complained about the unfair moderation of comments.
Boring streaming services
Tidal streaming service lives on thanks to Jay-Z, who came up with the idea in 2015 to restart an existing product and invite other famous musicians to help him develop Tidal. Among the co-owners are , for example, Beyonce, Rihanna, Kanye West and Madonna.
The key difference between Tidal and other streaming services is exclusive content from musicians. Unlike many streaming platforms, Tidal does not have free access, and subscribing to it will cost from $ 4.99 to $ 29.99 per month (not the lowest price for such a service).
Photo Atikh Bana / Unsplash
This year, Tidal turned out to be at the center of the scandal - the Norwegian anti-crime unit launched an investigation over cheating on Beyoncé's Lemonade and Kanye West albums The Life of Pablo. According to the rules of Tidal, the greater the number of plays, the higher the reward. The complaint was filed by Norwegian musicians and labels: in their opinion, the alleged fraud deprived other artists of a fair share of the proceeds.
Site Applications
As planned, they should fulfill the function of the site: to inform about upcoming concerts, releases and everything that fans would like to know. For example, Madonna has a similar application: however, in addition to news information, it has a small online store for the singer. In the official David Guetta app, you can not only find out the upcoming dates of tours, but also watch videos, tweets and photos from Instagram DJ. Also, fresh releases regularly appear in it.
Among Russian musicians, they were one of the first to launch their own Bi-2 application: so the group decided to support their album “Optimist” in 2012. In addition, the application became a promotional tool for the Planet social network created by the group, which continued to exist, but already as a platform for crowdfunding.
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In 2008, a year after the launch of the iPhone, music experts called celebrity mobile apps the “new era of MySpace.” They argued that creating an application from scratch can not only positively affect the development of the personal brand of musicians and labels, but also establish trusting relationships with fans. However, ten years later, much has changed: today it is not enough to be a super popular artist to make the application take the first lines of ratings.
Often they do not compete not only with streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, but also with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social networks where you can find information about your favorite artist. Users themselves say that they do not want to install many applications on a smartphone, and it is much more convenient to find everything in one place. Therefore, musicians have to look for truly exclusive projects in order to interest their audience and, most importantly, keep their attention.
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