NextBeat CEO Simon Hade on spinning out from Space Ape Games and a “music-first” future

Earlier this month, NextBeat, a new studio spun out of Space Ape Games, was launched by Simon Hade, co-founder of Space Ape Games and now CEO of NextBeat.

Bringing together a team of seasoned industry professionals, including talent who have previously worked on music titles Beatstar and Country Star, NextBeat aims to build upon its expertise in the genre. The launch follows Supercell’s acquisition of 100% stake in Space Ape Games last year. 

We spoke with NextBeat CEO Simon Hade to explore the studio’s origins, the team behind it, and its vision for shaping the future of music-driven games and beyond.

PocketGamer.biz: What did the Supercell acquisition of 100% of Space Ape entail that has led to the decision to spin-off a new studio NextBeat?

Simon Hade: Spinning out the games has been something the team and I have been thinking about for some time.  

It’s become obvious that the formula for really chasing this opportunity is different from the recipe for making hit mobile games.  Sure, they are both freemium mobile app businesses, so you need to think about the players, distribution, and design in the same way.  

For example, a successful mobile game will typically be a single global product – or two or three versions – where the game is to build an experience that will delight and engage players for as long as possible within that product.  In music this is simply not possible since you have wildly different tastes even within the US, let alone around the world.

Also, you need to factor in the needs and opportunities of 90+ music partners and artists, which means you have another constituent when thinking about live ops and marketing.  All of these factors add complexity to running music games, but we have gotten very good at navigating them and seeing them as opportunities. 

So when you think about this problem from a “music first” lens rather than a “mobile games” lens then it makes more sense to work towards a slate of games that appeal to different people.  You also need to think beyond games to other types of experiences, like interactive music apps and artist specific projects start to make more.  

All of that has been leading us towards this strategy of treating the music business very differently than the rest of the portfolio anyway, so when the plans for Supercell London materialised, that was a natural point where it made sense to spin out.

We proposed this plan to Supercell to chase this big ambition and really aggressively go after interactive music experiences more broadly, building on the foundation of Beatstar and Country Star, and they were extremely supportive.  

How much of the Space Ape team is joining NextBeat, and how many are remaining at Space Ape?

Around 20 people in NextBeat come directly from Space Ape, and we have hired another 10, all but one of whom have some history working with us on the music games in the past, but had left the company.   It’s been humbling to have all these people who had moved on for one reason or another see the bat signal and want to get involved.

It’s also amazing to be kicking off a new company with a fully stacked team that has worked together for years.  It bypasses all the hairiest parts of a startup, and we’re able to hit the ground really sprinting.

What makes you bullish on this music game genre?

We’re bullish on music apps as well.

But within games, we have been observing how people interact with Beatstar and seeing some very clear signals.

Last year, we started our slate strategy with Country Star – a country music-specific version focussed on the US.  What we saw there was with essentially exactly the same game all KPIs were up 20-50%.  Retention, monetisation, everything.  Just by creating a more focused genre-specific experience.

That really validated our approach to growing through more targeted audiences and genres, so the next game we’ll make is a rock and metal-specific version.  We’re excited about anime music, EDM, and Latin and are in discussions with some mega artists for artist-specific versions.

Beyond that, we have deep insights into what kinds of features players expect from these games and have tested hundreds of different mechanics, so we have high confidence in our slate.  I don’t think anyone has made a killer music quiz game for example.

The category has evergreen demand.  Despite a pretty slim offering compared to other genres, people still keep downloading music games in the order of millions of installs every week.  

The press release mentioned engaging in areas outside of games, such as ed tech and mental health. What are the opportunities in non-gaming for NextBeat?

We’re proud of our ability to make games, but the unique value of NextBeat is our ability to work effectively with the music industry.  

Very few teams can work effectively with all these external dependencies and IPs, but we now have seven years of experience and a serious track record, so we’re uniquely positioned to do things no one else in the world can.

Gaming will be our foundation and immediate focus, but we’re already thinking about the different experiences that would benefit from access to a deep catalogue of licensed music.  Music ed – learning guitar, piano, etc. is a really obvious one. 

There are a handful of great apps in this space, but I think we can bring a lot to the category both in terms of designing compelling game-like features but also dramatically expanding the depth of licensed content.  Kids want to learn how to play All Too Well, not Hot Cross Buns.  

The more interesting part of EdTech, though, is what are the things that people have just not attempted because it’s impossible to do without fully licensed recordings.

So we’re very excited about beat-making, creativity, and experiences that require access to stems and deeper artist engagement.  We’ve been thinking about these opportunities for a while, but it was hard to pursue them through the lens of a mobile gaming company. 

Now, as a music-first company, we’re unleashed to chase these opportunities, which could be 5x bigger than the opportunity in music games, which is also under-served.

Ultimately our mission from a business perspective is to massively increase opportunities for non-streaming monetisation.  This is a bit of a music business term, but it speaks to the ambition.

Currently, there are few opportunities for artists and catalogue owners outside of streaming.  Now streaming is growing, so the industry is in boom times, but catalogue owners and artists are eager for new forms of monetisation, which means someone needs to create new experiences specifically with the exploitation of this kind of content in mind.

We see NextBeat playing an important role in that – fully aligning with the interests of artists and human creativity, and finding new interesting revenue streams for that.  Of course, that will need to entail making experiences that delight and engage music fans, but it highlights the need to think beyond the specific mobile music gaming context.

What can we expect from NextBeat over the next 12 months? Are you still hiring?

First off, we will focus on improvements to Beatstar, continue our slate strategy that we started with Country Star, and launch a rock and metal focussed rhythm game before focusing our attention on new types of music games, wellness and education.

We’ve already got a fully stacked team, particularly on product, design, art, data, and licensing, but we are looking for maybe three to five more client developers.  We’re also open to hearing from potential co-dev partners especially for the non-gaming slate.