In what may well stand as a defining moment in the maturation of Apple’s App Store, Tapulous has announced that it has partnered with the band Nine Inch Nails to release a premium version of its popular game Tap Tap Revenge some time in October. The application will include a NIN-centric theme, as well as over a dozen of the band’s songs from its last two albums. The partnership is among the first to bring licensed content to an iPhone application, and will likely prompt a wave of similar deals between other musicians and applications on the platform.
Tap Tap Revenge is the iPhone’s version of Guitar Hero – an intuitive, addictive game that has emerged as one of the platform’s most popular since its launch in July, with nearly 2 million total users. It’s also perfect for selling bite sized packages of premium content – users would gladly pay a few dollars to be able to play some of their favorite songs (the makers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band have made fortunes following a similar model). Tapulous says that it will be announcing more premium bundles of music for Tap Tap Revenge in the coming months.
Provided the app does well (and I think it will), expect to see more brands and artists step forward to release their own applications (or acquire the popular ones that are already out there). The most lucrative apps will be the ones that can fuse licensed media, as Tap Tap Revenge has. But we’ll also be seeing more branded apps – it won’t be long before we’ll see iBeer by Coors, or Fender’s PocketGuitar (there’s already a lighter app by Zippo). The App Store is still in its infancy, and we’re only beginning to see its potential for monetization.
As part of today’s announcement, Tapulous has also released a list of its new hires (earlier this summer most of the company’s original team left because of disputes over the direction of the company). Among the hires are designer Bryan Bell, Zach Allia (founder of Facebook’s Free Gifts), and engineers Jessica Kahn and Kyle Kinkade.
Could this be the reason a lot of the founding members left?
I get the feeling that it had more to do with the company’s future apps that are in development rather than this one.
Maybe they don’t like Nine Inch Nails…hahaha
Another cool app for iphone, cant wait to try it.
http://gatesand...s.blogspot.com/
can we please have the ability to down vote comments?
kthx
im a guitar hero addict, i must have this for my iphone. this is very cool.
Viva la Trent Reznor!!
He’s always been a step ahead, and released an Open Source album of all things!
Viva la Trent Reznor!!
Sorry to state the obvious, wouldn’t it make sense not to tie the game to a specific set of music, but rather create a community where users can define the taps and allow you to play them along with your own MP3 collection. This is similar to how communities have built up lyrics and midi databases for years now.
Looks like taptapwiki.com is available.
Even better if they can create tech to figure it out programagically.
If apple allowed you to access the music library, than it would make sense.
Ahh good point Zach, did not realize that was the case.
Apparent economically motivated limitation staggering innovation positioned as “protecting you against yourself and others”
Does this limitation also exist with Jail break method of applications?
No, that limitation is not there for jailbreak. But don’t worry things will change in the app store world.
(it doesn’t let me reply to your reply for some reason)
Awesome,
Hopefully they will let us use our own iTunes songs that are compatible with the game….that would be great.
It’s too bad that Tap Tap Revenge sucks. Unlike Guitar Hero, it’s not in sync with the songs.
Hopefully this new version will tighten up the responsiveness of the game. I noticed that I could intentionally try and get misses and it wouldn’t go against me…and sometimes it would.
something about who you are:
http://neoviky....ho-are-you.html
…….and the most disruptive idea in the world…
http://neoviky....08/09/inet.html
FAIL!
The previous comment is absolutely irrelevant to the news!
How good is your idea that you have to SPAM it around so people find it. I hope techcrunch deletes it.
So nice, i love it!
“it won’t be long before we’ll see iBeer by Coors.”
Nice to see that the UK is ahead of the game; it’s already happened- Carling released “iPint” in the UK; a really neat little app that was available on the day of the 3G phone’s release; free app, a little game that demonstrates the accelerometer (slide your beer down the bar to the waiting hands), then get a “virtual pint” as your prize- in a virtual branded Carling glass.