Australian singer-songwriter Tash Sultana is promoting their newly released album ‘Terra Firma’ with a new Fortnite map based on its cover art, designed by renowned Melbourne-based artist Pat Fox.

The custom map, designed and built by Lootmate, allows Fortnite players the opportunity to explore the album’s ‘visual world’, discover easter eggs, and win the in-game currency V-Bucks by sharing themselves inside the map.

A livestreamed map launch took place earlier today on Twitch, hosted by Australian gamer and internet personality Loserfruit, which marked the first time an Australian artist has had a custom map inside the game.

As part of the album promotion, Sultana also performed some tracks from the album during week two of the Fortnite Championship Series OCE, presented by The Australian Open.

Sultana is the latest in a long line of artists to appear in the Epic Games-developed Fortnite, which is the most successful free-to-play video game of all time.

Fortnite hosted its first-ever in-game concert with RCA-signed DJ Marshmello in February 2020 – a ten-minute show which attracted more than ten million people.

Travis Scott trumped that in April 2020 with the premiere of Astronomical, which drew more than 12 million players and, across five shows and two encores, is believed to have attracted around 45.8 million viewers.

Tasha Sultana is the first Australian artist to make custom map inside Fortnite

While Reggaeton superstar J Balvin delivered a special performance as part of Fortnite’s Halloween-themed event, Fortnitemares 2020: Midas’ Revenge.

Roblox is also an increasingly popular destination for artists to promote their music and has hosted highly successful events with double Grammy award-winning rapper Lil Nas X and global pop star Ava Max.

Last September, Max promoted her album ‘Heaven & Hell’ with a virtual launch party in Roblox, in a space dubbed the ‘Sky-High Dance Floor’.

During the launch, Max answered questions from participants before performing some of the songs from the album. The event also featured a merch store and in-game quests. The highest concurrent player peak reached 166,620 people.

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After a decade at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), UK booking agent Jake Leighton-Pope has left to launch a new artist management company.

Leighton-Pope started his career in management, working with artists including Paul Oakenfold and Richard Ashchroft at Marc Marot’s Terra Firma Artist Management, before moving into merch with Universal’s merchandise division, Bravado.

He joined CAA in London, where his roster included Will Young, Little Dragon, Dodie and Cherry Glazerr, in 2008.

“I started in management 20 years ago, and it’s time for me to go back,” Leighton-Pope tells IQ. “I loved being an agent – I did it for ten years and had a great time – but I’m in my 40s now, and it was time for a change.”

“I started in management 20 years ago, and it’s time for me to go back”

He adds that leaving CAA – and his former colleagues, including UK office co-heads Emma Banks and Mike Greek and head of music Rob Light – is bittersweet, and was an amicable split. “It was as good [an experience] as someone leaving a company after ten years could be,” he explains.

“I love them and they love me. I’m leaving with a heavy heart.”

While it’s “very early days” for his new, as-yet unnamed company, Leighton-Pope says the new business is “about bringing all my years of experience together” to offer a full-service management offering to his new roster. His first artist is up-and-coming London-based electronic act Anna Straker, who he is co-managing with James Barnes of the Forty Four management.

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