"Play Hard" is a song by French DJ and record producer David Guetta featuring vocals from American singers Ne-Yo and Akon. It was released on 15 March 2013 as the third single from the 2012 re-release of Guetta's fifth studio album, Nothing but the Beat (2011). This is the third collaboration between Guetta and Akon since "Sexy Bitch" in 2009 and "Crank It Up" in 2011. All three artists co-wrote the song along with Frédéric Riesterer and Giorgio Tuinfort, both of whom produced the song with Guetta. It features a prominent synthesizer riff sampled from the 1998 song "Better Off Alone" by Dutch Eurodance project Alice Deejay; as a result, Sebastiaan Molijn and Eelke Kalberg are credited as songwriters.