DURHAM, N.C., Sept 15, 2009 — Two-time Webby award-winning online video gaming destination The Escapist announced today an engagement with All Games Radio, the 24/7 internet radio for gamers, to launch an exclusive radio block, “The Escapist Listening Lounge.” This partnership will link the two destinations through the broad appeal of the musical medium, and help to grow the engagement of audiences across both platforms.
The Escapist Listening Lounge will feature original music created by independent artists, including the popular theme to the no holds bar video review series Zero Punctuation and music from the breakout hit music video review series “Muses” by Rebecca Mayes, along with The Escapist Editor Picks of their favorite game music. The show is slated to air every Tuesday at 8:30 pm ET starting September 15, 2009. All Games Radio delivers over 20,000 live streams every week, and have served more than 1.5 million streams since the launch of the network in 2006.
“This is another great opportunity for brands to reach a highly engaged consumer audience,” said Tom Kurz, co-founder of The Escapist. “Readers of The Escapist spend an average of seven and a half minutes on the site and visit it frequently throughout the day. They are engaged with our site because of the creative and intelligent content we serve up. Extending our reach to the audience of All Games Radio via our amazing catalog of music increases our exposure to another set of consumers. The time they will spend engaging with our content across both platforms opens the door to significant opportunities for advertisers who want to reach this captive audience. Gamers have become the new trend setters and they are typically ahead of the curve in terms of the early adoption of new technologies, as well as lifestyle commodities such as energy drinks. They’re also very social people who spend much of their free time at entertainment destinations. The portrait of the gamer is changing, and we’re keenly aware of this shift. We understand this consumer group and believe we know above all others, how to capture their attention.”
“Celebrating the musical genius of artists like Ian Dorsch and Rebecca Mayes who create original music, soundtracks and themes to enrich our online video game library is central to what we do and fuels our passion for the gaming generation and lifestyle,” said Alexander Macris, co-founder of The Escapist. “Our community has told us how much they enjoy the music that they hear on our site so in turn, we have chosen to recognize these artists and we want to show the rest of the world how amazing their work is. This partnership will not only serve to elevate the work of independent artists in the video gaming industry but will also expose All Games Radio listeners to the personalities of The Escapist.”
The Escapist Listening Lounge live streaming music block will be a chance for listeners to hear original music, get sneak peaks of the upcoming Zero Punctuation video game review, and hear live commentary about the music as well as game news and what’s new on The Escapist from editors. Listeners will hear music of Ian Dorsch, creator of the music behind the award nominated Zero Punctuation, Unskippable, The Escapist Show and Doomsday Arcade, original music tracks from the Rebecca Mayes “Muses” video game music video series, and The Escapist’s editors’ favorite selections from game scores and soundtracks. Readers of The Escapist can also find previews of programming planned for the next Listening Lounge on All Games Radio.
“We started All Games Radio to entertain video gamers around the world with interactive shows about video games and the soundtracks , so we are devoted to elevating the musical talent from the video gaming industry,” said Scot Rubin, founder of All Games Radio and co-founder of the G4 TV network. “We are huge fans of The Escapist and feel that they truly understand the video gaming lifestyle and the diversity of the video game culture. By bringing original content from The Escapist to our site, we hope that their community will find another great place to hear the work of these talented independent artists.”
Visit The Escapist music library here: http://vip-preprod.escapistmagazine.com/content/music.php for a preview.
About The Escapist
Founded in 2005, The Escapist (escapistmagazine-com.go-vip.net) is a leading video gaming destination offering video game enthusiasts high-quality, innovative and exclusive content. The mouthpiece of the gaming generation, The Escapist aims to capture and celebrate the contemporary video gaming lifestyle and the diverse video game culture by way of in-depth features and thought provoking articles authored by leading video game authorities, as well as cutting-edge video shorts, engaging forums and robust and innovative social media elements tailored to its audience. Honored with both a Webby Award two years in a row in 2008 and 2009, and Webby People’s Voice Award in 2008, The Escapist is responsible for the web’s most viewed video game review series, Zero Punctuation, in addition to introducing the first-of-its-kind Internet Film Festival for Gamers and the March Mayhem game developer competition. The Escapist is part of Themis Group, Inc.’s online media arm Themis Media, and currently generates over 34 million page views each month.
About All Games Network
Launched in 2006, All Games Radio (www.allgames.com) is a 24-7 video game talk and music station streamed through the Web and the free All Games iTunes app. Founded by G4TV co-founder Scot Rubin as a distribution outlet for independent podcasters and musicians, the station has grown to include over 25 hours of live interactive programming each week from Dead Pixel Live, The Bobby Blackwolf Show, Orange Lounge Radio, The Video Game Outsiders and more. The station also features music from video game soundtracks and independent musicians like 8-Bit Weapon and The Megas.
