Marley family and EscapeX partner to create mobile music app

(download the app today at smarturl.it/bobmarleyapp)

Hope Road Merchandising, LLC, the worldwide property rights owner for cultural icon Bob Marley, has joined forces with tech start-up EscapeX to bring music from the singer/songwriter to fans around the world via a groundbreaking mobile app. The free app, which includes Marley’s music, photographs, lyrics and other unique Marley content, deploys a revolutionary mobile platform developed by EscapeX to allow 21st-century fans to easily connect with the timeless artist and his music.

Speaking on behalf of the Marley family, the singer’s daughter Cedella Marley says, “The EscapeX platform offers people a way to experience Bob Marley’s music and other content from Bob Marley in a way it has never been offered before. Bob Marley reaches people across the globe and in a lot of international territories where most of these people can’t afford to pay for the content. We love the fact that this app gives those people access for free.”

The app contains the Marley album Exodus, one of the most legendary albums in Marley’s catalogue, under license from Universal Music Group. Exodus was named Time magazine’s most important album of the 20th century and features the famous anthem “One Love.”

EscapeX and the Marley family were brought together by EscapeX Chief Creative Officer Duwayne “DaDa” Mills, a former Vice President of A & R for Epic Records and a partner at D.A.S. Communications. “Bob Marley spoke of ‘One Love’ and one heart and EscapeX gives people hearts as a reward for the time they spend on the app,” Mills says. “Bob Marley also spoke of freedom and liberty for all, and EscapeX offers the people content for free. This platform is in a lot of ways aligned with some of the messages that Bob Marley preached to the world.”

As part of a global year-long celebration marking the 70th anniversary of Marley’s birth, many of his most popular hits will be rolled out on the app, along with photos, interviews, and video footage. Once fans install the mobile app they’ll enjoy a direct channel of communication and distribution with the Marley family and easily access the future stages of a planned multi-tier rollout.

Marley’s app offers the first stage of the release already unlocked. As Mills noted, users earn reward points called “hearts” for spending time listening to music and enjoying content on the app, which can then be redeemed to unlock additional music and more, including Bob Marley emojis, Articons, wallpaper, and other merchandise. In the near future, users will be able to use hearts to make charitable donations to a number of organizations directly through the album app including the family’s own Jamaica-based charity, the Bob Marley Foundation.

About EscapeX

Headed by mobile technology experts and entertainment industry leaders, EscapeX develops advanced mobile solutions to provide celebrities and social influencers like athletes, actors, models, comedians, and other creators with a direct connection to their audiences, greater control over their content, and monetization of social engagement through e-commerce and in-app advertising. For fans, the apps deliver streamlined access to content, including key social media feeds from Facebook, Instagram, and more. The platform also features a proprietary loyalty program that rewards users for spending time on the apps and interacting more closely with influencers.

Bob Marley:

Bob Marley, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, is notable not only as the man who put reggae on the global map, but, as a statesman in his native Jamaica, he famously brought together the country’s warring factions — symbolized by rival politicians Michael Manley and Edward Siega joining hands on-stage — during his legendary “One Love Peace Concert” in Kingston, which took place on April 22, 1978, less than six weeks before this Music Hall performance in Boston. It was five years since Marley and the band arrived from Jamaica, with the 1977 release of EXODUS, recorded in London just after an assassination attempt on his life, turned into not just a socio-political statement, but one which included such hits as the title track, “Waiting In Vain” and “One Love,” paving the way for their next release Kaya and a world tour in ’78. Together with his music’s theme of liberation, Marley’s own rags-to-riches story brought inspiration to subjugated people around the world, where he was revered as a larger-than-life leader.

Today, Bob Marley remains one of the 20th century’s most important and influential entertainment icons. Marley’s lifestyle and music continue to inspire new generations as his legacy lives on through his music. In the digital era, he has the second-highest social media following of any posthumous celebrity, with the official Bob Marley Facebook page drawing more than 74 million fans, ranking it among the Top 20 of all Facebook pages and Top 10 among celebrity pages. Marley’s music catalog has sold millions of albums worldwide

Thirty years after its original release, Bob Marley & The Wailers’, LEGEND, shared the top of the charts, holding the No. 5 spot on Billboard’s 200 Album Chart among Maroon 5 (#1), Jeezy (#2), Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack (#3), and Ariana Grande (#4). LEGEND also holds the distinction of being the longest-charting album in the history of Billboard magazine’s Catalog Albums chart and remains the world’s best-selling reggae album. Marley’s accolades include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1994) and ASCAP Songwriters Hall of Fame (2010), a GRAMMY® Lifetime Achievement Award (2001), multiple entries in the GRAMMY® Hall Of Fame, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2001).