EA to promote unsigned Norwegian act
Computer and video game giant Electronic Arts (EA) teams up with the national Norwegian radio station NRK P3 and its 'Urørt' (Untouched) talent programme to promote an up-and-coming unsigned act through one of EA’s upcoming games.
The new sponsorship deal involving the interactive entertainment software giant EA and national Norwegian radio station NRK P3 represents a new initiative in which computer and console games are to be used as a platform for a new and unsigned act discovered and promoted through P3’s successful talent-finding programme ‘Urørt’ (Untouched). The ‘Urørt’-project utilises NRK’s web-site, enabling unsigned acts to upload songs, publish info and promote themselves. Audience voting selects winners that are subsequently promoted by the radio station at the annual by:Larm music industry convention. Last year’s winner was Norwegian-language hip-hop act Side Brok who garnered substantial media attraction and subsequent healthy sales in the wake of their ‘Urørt’ victory.
The 2005 ‘Urørt’ winner will be presented with an unique opportunity to reach out to a wider audience through EA’s upcoming ‘Burnout’ car-game. EA’s most recent game in this category, ‘The Need For Speed Underground 2” has reached international sales in excess of 8,5 million.
Says EA Norway’s Aimar Niedzwiedzki: “When you realise the full potential of the agreement we have come to, it’s a clearly defined hope that EA can contribute to global exposure of a new Norwegian act to players world-wide. Music in games has become a vital promotional channel for today’s artists. The winner will be selected based on audience votes in the main ‘Urørt’ competition, but there will also be a jury in place to ensure that we choose music that will fit in well in a car-game.”
Says NRK P3’s Head of Music Håkon Moslet: “This represents a unique opportunity for the most promising of the ‘Urørt’ acts”.
Electronic Arts (EA) is the world's leading independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software for personal computers and advanced entertainment systems such as the PlayStation®2 Computer Entertainment System, the PlayStation®, Xbox™ video game console from Microsoft, the Nintendo GameCube™ and the Game Boy® Advance. Since its inception, EA has garnered more than 700 awards for outstanding software in the U.S. and Europe.
EA markets its products worldwide under four brand logos and has over 33 product franchises that have reached more than a million unit sales worldwide.
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