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Moby, Daft Punk join iPhone gaming application

NEW YORK - You’ve played the iPhone app. Now get the soundtrack. EMI Music has become the first major label to line up multiple artists for an edition of Tapulous’ popular iPhone game application Tap Tap Revenge.

The new version of the rhythm game, called Tap Tap Dance, features songs by five EMI acts—Moby, the Chemical Brothers, Digitalism, Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx—as well as independent acts Justice, Junkie XL, Soul Magic Orchestra and Morgan Page.

Tapulous will release all 10 tracks included in the game by the end of the year as a digital soundtrack that will be available exclusively through iTunes.

The Palo Alto, Calif., app developer is also in talks with other major labels and expects to launch another application with multiple artists early next year, Tapulous CEO Bart Decrem says.

“We are close to having a formula that the artists, labels, publishers and Apple are all happy with,” he says.

After Apple gets its 30% cut of Tap Tap Dance’s $4.99 sale price, that would leave about $3.50 to be divvied up among Tapulous and the other parties. The original Tap Tap Revenge, which is free, was the iTunes App Store’s most popular game download of 2008.

Despite the involvement of EMI Music, the label says it will leave promotion of Tap Tap Dance to the artists involved, according to EMI Music executive VP Cynthia Sexton. “We’re talking to them about ways of letting their fan base know through existing social networks,” she says.

While EMI’s planned digital soundtrack for Tap Tap Dance would be a first for Tapulous, the company is also positioning the growing Tap Tap franchise itself as a way for fans to hear new music. Every Thursday, Tap Tap provides game users free song downloads and exclusive remixes from well-known acts, including Katy Perry, Kaiser Chiefs and Lady Antebellum.

Christmas With Weezer, another new edition of the Tap Tap game, includes covers of six classic Christmas songs including “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “Silent Night.”

In an announcement on the band’s Web site, Weezer said the tracks were “recorded exclusively for this game and are not available anywhere else.”