'Two Can Play That Game: The Intersection of Music & eSports'

The BPI is pleased to announce that its third and last Insight Session of year will explore the opportunities for music in the gaming/eSports space.

The event for BPI members and invited guests will take place on Thursday, 24^th October at a central London location – speakers and venue to be announced.

This session will be hosted in partnership with Chris Carey – Founder & CEO, Media Insight Consulting.

Just as with the music industry, the gaming sector has seen a dramatic shift in consumption in the past 20 years. Gaming as a sector has moved far beyond the days of cartridges and shiny disks towards downloads, streams, live events and merchandise.

eSports – where people pay to watch professionals play games – is billed as the next $billion industry, and is racing towards the milestone. The UK eSports audience is estimated to be 8 million people in 2019. That may not be as large a reach as the music industry, but those 8m are heavily engaged.

There has been an explosion of casual gaming, through app-based games like Candy Crush and Angry Birds (who now boast a merch line and movies, as well as many iterations of the game itself). But serious gaming, massively enabled by increased internet speeds, has stepped up incredibly over the past decade. Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) such as Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch and Rocket League generate millions of dollars a year in sales and in-game add purchases, but remain something of a mystery to the music industry.

eSports fans love their music, and are far more engaged with music than the average consumer. How do we reach them in order to sell more music and how do we work with the gaming industry to grow our combined fan bases?

Agenda

An Introduction to Esports
Gaming has been transformed since its inception, from arcades in bars to home consoles and now to esports, where fans pay gamers to watch them, and buy tickets to watch them live in arenas. How does it work? Who’s making money and what are the opportunities for music?
Speaker: Carl Hibbert - Associate Director, Media & Entertainment/ Head of Consumer Media & Technology, Futuresource Consulting

Managing Talent in Esports
While playing computer games looks like a lot of fun, eSports stars are on serious training programmes, honed diets and have dedicated medical support. The professional structure is more akin to a professional footballer than the traditional image of a gaming nerd.
Speakers:
Kieran Holmes-Darby - CEO, EXCEL
Grant Rousseau - Head of Operations, EXCEL

Cultivating Fans Through Gaming
Esports stars build loyal followings, who tip generously. How do they build a fanbase? How do they keep them engaged? And how do they evolve as games' popularities come and go? What can music learn from a successful gamer?
Speaker TBA

Partnerships in the Esports Space
Licensing music is one way to make money with esports, but are there more innovative partnerships that can drive fan base development as well as revenue. We will look at some of the best partnerships in esports right now, and highlight opportunities for music companies and artists.
Speaker: Darren Newnham - CEO & Founder, Nexus Ltd & Advisory Board Member, British Esports Association

Music and Gaming: Can We Work Better Together?
Traditional sports and music collaborate already. How can music and gaming join forces more effectively? Are there opportunities beyond licensing? Can we see more innovation with music stars engaging with gaming directly, like Marshmello playing inside Fortnite?
Speakers:
Tim Miles - VP Sync, Warner Music
Antonia Gilham - VP Music, Gismart
Kieran Holmes-Darby - CEO, EXCEL
Moderated by Chris Carey, Founder & CEO, Media Insight Consulting

This session will be hosted in partnership with Chris Carey - Founder & CEO, Media Insight Consulting.
Chris is an entrepreneur, strategist and data expert. He founded FastForward in 2015 and he is founder and CEO of boutique research company, Media Insight Consulting, specialising in Consumer Surveys, and Big Data Analytics, with a focus on the music industry. Clients include Spotify, Sony Music, The O2 and BMG Music.

He previously worked as Global Insight Director at Universal Music Group and at EMI, and Senior Economist at PRS for Music. He has been quoted in The Financial Times, The Economist, Forbes, The New York Times, The Independent as well as BBC Breakfast, Sky News, BBC 4’s Today Programme, BBC 5 Live, BBC World Service and music industry press.

BPI Members can sign up for free using the 'BPI Member Rate' ticket here.