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OverActive Media (OAM) and Universal Music Canada (UMC) announced a multi-year collaboration that will see the two companies create content together. The deal will see OAM and UMC promote and create content for esports and more.
According to a release, the partnership will see select music from Universal Music Canada become part of the official playlists of the Overwatch League’s Toronto Defiant and Call of Duty League’s Toronto Ultra, as well as the walkout music played when the players and team are announced during events.
UMC artist performances will also take place at event weekends in Toronto, with both brands coming together to launch official Defiant and Ultra DJ searches.
To celebrate the beginning of the inaugural Call of Duty League season and the third Overwatch League season, a few of the Ultra and Defiant players reached out to their fans on social media asking for music suggestions to create the first official Toronto Defiant and Toronto Ultra team playlists.
Universal Music Group has been involved in several deals related to esports over the years; in July of 2018 UMG Canada signed a deal with esports organization Luminosity Gaming to cooperate on producing cross-promotional content, while in August of that same year UMG Europe and event organizer ESL signed a multi-year partnership to promote new musical acts to esports audiences through a joint record label called Enter Records. In November 2018 Enter Records signed a deal with German electronic music producer Christian ”TheFatRat” Buttner to release his hit song, “The Chosen One.”
Earlier this month it was announced that a Tencent-led investment group had agreed to purchase 10% of Universal Music Group. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the transaction is expected to be complete in the first half of this year.
