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 licence 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 DAS. 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 roll-out.

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 organisations directly through the album app including the family’s own Jamaica-based charity, the Bob Marley Foundation.