World’s largest classical music record label, Naxos, partners with Reactional Music on music personalisation for gaming

• Game developers will be able to access Naxos’ classical, cultural, world, folk and regional music catalogues in a significant expansion of Reactional’s music delivery platform 

• Naxos to explore creating interactive soundtracks for all interactive platforms

Reactional Music, the interactive music personalisation engine and delivery platform that connects the worlds of music and games, has agreed a global licensing partnership with the world’s largest classical and regional music rights holder, Naxos. 

The partnership brings the world's biggest classical music catalogue to game developers and gamers. Founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, Naxos comprises numerous companies, divisions, imprints, and labels covering classical, world, folk, jazz and cultural music from across the world. 

The Reactional Platform allows game developers to create interactive music soundtracks in games. It also enables music to be personalised within a game in real time by the gamer, becoming the soundtrack to the game, in key and in time with gameplay. It does not affect the master recording. 

Naxos and Reactional have also confirmed that they are exploring a collaboration on the composition of interactive soundtracks, allowing composed music to be generated in real time around the gamer and gameplay. 

The partnership significantly expands and diversifies Reactional’s music delivery portfolio for game developers around the world, while Naxos becomes the latest in a growing network of rights holder partners who will gain deeper access to games developers and the global games market.

“With 14,000 games released on PC, 8,000 on console and thousands more on mobile each year, the diversity of games development across five continents is huge. The partnership with Naxos is important as it brings music scores from every region of the world together along with an incredible catalogue of classical music. Naxos has a vision and understanding of the transformations that are taking place and the new opportunities that now exist for creative and commercial use and consumption of music,” said Reactional Music President David Knox. 

Håkan Lagerqvist, CEO of Naxos Digital Services, added, “Our partnership with Reactional Music is incredibly exciting. Reach and access into interactive and game developers and their customers and gamers is an important step for Naxos.

“Game developers are everywhere. They should be able to more easily access music scores and tracks that are creatively and culturally diverse so they can create and explore without limitation. For gamers, Naxos brings a pallet of ideas and choice that can work in so many different worlds and interactive experiences.

“Naxos will also explore how our composers’ work and our music catalogues can be enabled as full interactive game soundtracks. These are generated in real time note by note around the gameplay. This is potentially incredibly exciting. It is also a step towards enabling music to be used under license by creators, developers and enablers in all areas of interactive.” 

Reactional is driving next-generation musical experiences in games and interactive worlds. Reactional’s interactive music and personalisation engine allows music, artists, games developers and gamers to be connected in new ways. 

Reactional is pioneering commercial music to be enabled as an in-game purchase at scale for the first time. In a global games market worth $223.1 billion* in 2023, in-game purchases totalled $125.7 billion, of which $72.5 billion was spent on cosmetic content and in-game personalisation. However, music has so far accounted for less than 0.01 percent of this spend. Changing consumer consumption habits and an increase in personalisation in all digital worlds means that spending on in-game personalisation is predicted to grow to $100 billion by 2029.

Reactional Music has partnered with over 50 music rights holders worldwide over the past three years as it grows its music delivery platform catalogue, including Beggars Group, Defected Records, Cherry Red Records, Hopeless Records, Hipgnosis Song Management and leading production music groups including APM Music, Soundstripe and Alibi. 

*MIDiA Research Global Games Forecast 10/23

About Naxos

Established in 1987 as a record label, Naxos was the brainchild of Klaus Heymann, a German-born entrepreneur and music lover based in Hong Kong. Initially he capitalized on the opportunity to provide repertoire driven classical CDs at more affordable prices, which soon led to Naxos becoming a preferred label for many consumers. Since that time, the company has undergone a truly remarkable development. It has transformed into a global enterprise that owns, administers and/or distributes a large number of independent record labels. The Naxos name is synonymous not only with classical music recordings, but also with a host of other products and services, from DVDs to books, ebooks, audiobooks, apps, and musical scores, as well as a wide range of online resources and services, for general and professional consumption.

Under Klaus Heymann’s leadership, Naxos has redefined how classical music is presented and marketed. Innovative strategies of recording exciting new repertoire with exceptional talent have enabled our house label to develop one of the largest and fastest-growing catalogues of unduplicated repertoire. Over 17,000 titles are currently available at affordable prices, recorded in state-of-the-art sound, both in hard format and on digital platforms. Naxos works with artists of the highest caliber and its recordings have been recognised with numerous GRAMMY® awards, Penguin Guide 3-star recommendations, Gramophone Editor’s Choice Awards and many other international honors. Its audiobooks, apps and subscription services have also garnered countless awards.

Naxos has extended the reach of classical music by building a global network of companies which provide distribution and licensing services to several hundred independent and major CD and DVD labels. With fifteen subsidiaries and 40 distributors, we have the world covered when it comes to getting music into the hands of people who want to own a classical recording.

Naxos continues as a leader and innovator, with particular emphasis on education. NaxosMusicLibrary.com is used by thousands of educational institutions around the world. With over 140,000 albums from hundreds of labels, it has become a source of choice for a whole generation of students and music professionals. Together with the Naxos video and spoken word libraries, these online resources have had a great impact in developing future audiences for the classical arts.

Naxos remains committed to making full use of the new possibilities afforded by technology and media in its mission to broaden the accessibility of classical music. Our growing programme of ebooks, i-books and integrated media products are constantly building on our past efforts to introduce new listeners to the world of classical music. All our digital services are accessible via smartphone applications, making them readily available from mobile phones, iPods, iPads and other music players and tablet devices.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Naxos was founded and developed by people who love classical music and are passionate believers in its future. The Naxos Group will continue to be a leader and innovator, especially where opportunities arise to make classical music more accessible through content, price and delivery. The three principles of repertoire, value and innovation remain firmly at the heart of all its undertakings.

About Reactional Music 

Reactional Music is the easiest, most advanced music system in the world. Reactional’s composable generative music technology enables interactive music in a game in just moments, music personalisation and music as an in-game purchase.

Reactional Music was founded by a team of developers, creators and leaders from games, music, composition and technology. The Reactional Music technology was invented by internationally acclaimed modern classical composer Jesper Nordin. His music is regularly performed by major conductors like Esa-Pekka Salonen and Kent Nagano, with world leading orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Reactional Music is changing the way we can all experience, interact with and enjoy music and audio on digital platforms and places. Reactional enables interactive music based on composition and music personalisation in any game in moments. Reactional’s patented generative music engine and music delivery platform open up a new era of music personalisation, interactive music, a faster and more efficient method to create and prototype music for developers, and for the first time, music as an in-game purchase. The Reactional Platform is live now on Unity and Unreal Engine and is used by developers and creators in Europe, the US, China and SE Asia.