Ninja Tune announces new partnership with Reactional Music

18 March 2025 - Press release

Will bring Ninja Tune closer to the world’s 3.5 billion gamers and $125.7 billion global in-game economies.

New technology enables music rightsholders to reach audiences through personalised gaming experiences.

**Reactional and Ninja Tune preview partnership with a unique in-game demo featuring Coldcut, The Death Set and The Qemists.

 

Ninja Tune, a global leader in independent music known for championing boundary-pushing artists, has announced a strategic partnership with Reactional Music, the pioneering music personalization platform that enables real-time interactive music integration in gaming, automotive and digital environments.

The partnership will see Ninja Tune’s labels — alongside its publishing division, Just Isn’t Music — license the rights to tracks from its catalogue for use via Reactional’s music personalisation engine and music delivery platform. This will allow Ninja Tune and its artists deeper and enhanced access to the 3.5 billion gamers and millions of games developers across the world, bridging the gap between the music and games industries, and unlocking new creative and commercial opportunities for music artists, game developers and gamers.

Reactional’s interactive music engine allows developers to integrate highly personalised music experiences inside their games, syncing user soundtracks seamlessly with gameplay. The music can be personalised in real-time by the gamer, with their favourite tracks, playlists and other sounds becoming part of the game, staying in key and in time with gameplay, and creating new types of immersive gaming experiences.

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 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.

Marie Clausen, Managing Director, North America, Ninja Tune, said: “Ninja Tune has always been at the forefront of exploring new ways to connect artists with audiences, and the gaming space presents an incredible opportunity to do just that. Reactional Music’s approach aligns with our commitment to innovation, extending the reach of our catalog to game developers and billions of gamers worldwide. With gaming playing a major role in music discovery, we’re excited to see how this partnership unlocks new creative and commercial possibilities."

David Knox, President, Reactional Music, said: “In partnering with Ninja Tune we are bringing together some of the world’s leading innovators and creators in music with leading games developers, creators and technologists. The music fan wants new ways to experience their favourite music and to enjoy discovering new music. Bringing artists, creators and developers closer together is at the centre of our strategy to enable a new generation of music delivery and music consumption and a new way of bringing entertainment together with consumers on any device, anywhere.”

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Ninja Tune, its artists and catalogue.”

Formed in London in 1990 by Coldcut’s Matt Black and Jonathan More, Ninja Tune has established itself as one of the world’s leading independent music companies, with a roster of labels that includes Brainfeeder — with whom Ninja Tune have a longstanding partnership to release, promote and distribute its incredible and ever-expanding catalogue worldwide — Counter Records, Technicolour; Big Dada and Foreign Family Collective. Having released music from the likes of Thundercat (Brainfeeder), BICEP, Bonobo, Nilüfer Yanya, Little Dragon, Hiatus Kaiyote (Brainfeeder), Run The Jewels, ODESZA, Peggy Gou and more, Ninja Tune is a bonafide global music institution, synonymous with diverse, uncompromising releases and equally visionary artists — from breaking to GRAMMY-winning acts — committed to pushing the boundaries of music and enabling new creative and commercial opportunities for its music artists.

Ninja Tune joins Reactional’s network of 50+ rightsholder partners, including Beggars Group, Defected Records, Cherry Red Records, Hopeless Records, Hipgnosis Song Management, APM and Naxos. Its platform is now live on Unity and Unreal Engine and is used by developers and creators in Europe, the US, China and SE Asia.

 

Reactional Music and Ninja Tune - Personalised Music In-Game Demo.

Interactive game demo showcasing the Reactional Music Engine and the delivery of commercial music from Ninja Tune into a live game setting.

In this Demo Game scene Reactional Music has been set up so that any track that is brought in will affect the scene in real time. Visuals and sound effects are all synchronized to the chosen track.

Any Game developer that uses Reactional Music can curate which type of music that is available in the game, and then the gamer can personalise their game with commercial music within the aesthetic confines of the game designer.

The Spaceship Demo from Unity Technologies is a AAA Playable First-person interactive demo reskinned to showcase the Reactional Music Engine and the delivery of commercial music into a live game setting.

 

Ninja Tune - Featured Tracks:
Boogie Man - Coldcut feat. Amiri Baraka: Sound Mirrors
It’s Another Day (instr) - The Death Set: Michel Poiccard
Be Electric - The Qemists: Soundsystem (Mix CD)

 

1 *MIDiA Research Global Games Forecast 10/23