Digital

OpenEMI announces five grand contest

By | Published on Thursday 1 December 2011

EMI

To further celebrate the launch of the previously reported OpenEMI initiative, the music major is offering a prize for $5000 to the best app proposal submitted by 13 Jan.

As previously reported, the OpenEMI initiative sees the music firm collaborating with digital company Echo Nest to make large chunks of its catalogue available to app developers, so they can test music-based apps using music owned by the record company without the usual licensing hassles. The venture also provides a route for app developers to share their ideas with the music company who, if interested, will sort out licensing deals for public release and help market the product. And, with the new competition, put five grand into the kitty too.

Although popular with the tech community, many do fear what will happen to the OpenEMI project once EMI is split up, and Universal takes over the recordings side and Sony/ATV the publishing. With those takeovers still to go through the regulatory process, EMI is likely to operate as normal until next spring, and well past the 13 Jan deadline of this competition, though some developers may nevertheless worry about investing too much time now when the promise of licensing and marketing assistance down the line may come to nothing if OpenEMI is lost during the pending acquisitions.

Still, a five grand prize might motivate some to invest a little time on developing a cool little app idea they may already be sitting on. There’s more information on the contest here.

Elsewhere in EMI app news, the major’s Head Of Technical & Creative Joshua Saunders was talking about such things at the Apps World conference earlier this week. Among the topics discussed, according to The Guardian, was the pricing of apps, with Saunders reckoning the top price point for most music-based app products was five pounds, despite the recent success of Gorillaz and Björk app releases both initially priced over £10.

They were the exception though, Saunders reckoned, saying: “We’re still in an experimental period with pricing for music apps. Maybe somebody will crack the ‘iAlbum’ concept, but at the moment the consumer appetite doesn’t seem to be there for a musical app over five quid”.

Read The Guardian’s write up of the Saunders sesh at Apps World here.



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