Bridge Conference to unite music & tech leaders
As part of its forthcoming 25th anniversary celebrations, EXIT Festival has unveiled a new multidisciplinary music conference. Bridge will take place from 20-22 May in Umag, Croatia with the aim of bringing together business leaders from the music and technology sectors.
Organisers emphasise that the event will connect global promoters, artists, managers, and agents with tech leaders to explore how technologies like AI, blockchain, Web3, and VR can elevate the music industry and unlock new income streams.
“In a time of rapid change and an uncertain economic environment, staying updated with the latest industry developments is crucial for competitiveness and growth” says Jenni Cochrane, CEO of Bridge conference.
Alongside Cochrane, the Bridge board features prominent figures such as EXIT founder Dušan Kovačević and Ivan Milivojev; head of Networking Music International AB and IFF co-founder Ruud Berends; and Tixbase founder Emil R. Ljesnjanin.
“The concept behind Bridge is ‘La Dolce Vita – bridging business and pleasure’.”
The advisory board features Maria May, Head of Electronic at CAA, Steve Hogan, senior agent at WME, Julie Pilat, former Apple Music exec and President of Music at Invisible Narratives, Greg Parmley head of ILMC/IFF, Holger Jan Schmidt General Secretary of YOUROPE, and Sarah Jane Nicholson, MD of Paradise Worldwide.
The event will take place on the Adriatic coast at the 5* Kempinski Hotel in Croatia’s Istrian region. Alongside the bridging music and technology, Bridge will serve as a networking hub for music industry leaders from key regions worldwide.
“The conference promises not just business insights on the future of the music industry, but also a taste of the region’s famed gastronomy,” says Cochrane. “The concept behind Bridge is ‘La Dolce Vita – bridging business and pleasure’. Bridge will foster key relationships and conversations and set to a unique culinary and cultural backdrop.”
The conference will directly precede the seventh edition of the EXIT-backed Sea Star Festival, set for 22-25 May in Umag. Previous editions of Sea Star has featured artists including Prodigy, Wu-Tang-Clan, Paul Kalkbrenner, Amelie Lens and Fatboy Slim.
EXIT has twice been the recipient of the best major festival gong at the European Festival Awards. “We’re planning a quantum leap for EXIT with numerous new features and projects for the 25th anniversary,” Kovačević told IQ following this year’s edition. “We’re gearing up for the strongest and most exciting year yet.”
The programme for Bridge Conference will be released early in 2025, and invites are being sent to selected individuals. Attendance is limited to just 200 participants and interested parties are encouraged to pre-register.
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Lyte founder resigns amid reported shutdown
The founder and CEO of ticketing exchange firm Lyte has resigned amid uncertainty about the future of the company.
The US-based firm suddenly went dark last week, with a message on its website reading “Our website is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance. We should be back shortly”.
Now, the firm’s leader Ant Taylor has confirmed his resignation from the company after 10 years of operation.
He told Billboard that an “emergency board/creditors effort [is] underway” to find a potential buyer to repay punters and promoters affected by Lyte’s sudden shutdown.
According to the publication, staff have been laid off, and potentially numerous concert promoters have been left “unpaid” for “hundreds of thousands of dollars” worth of tickets.
High-profile clients for Lyte included Baja Beach festival, the Lost Lands festival in Ohio, Pitchfork Music Festival and Newport Folk Festival, although it’s unclear which events are owed money by Lyte.
Lyte acquired the assets of Festicket in 2022 after the latter firm collapsed with debts of more than £22.5m
As recently as the beginning of last week, Lyte was promoting its Lyte Groups solution and at the beginning of September, it announced a partnership with Revolt World Festival in Atlanta.
Taylor launched Lyte in 2014, raising around $53 million in four major funding rounds, with his biggest investors believed to be Chamath Palihapitiya from Silicon Valley VC Social Capital and New York hedge fund manager Joseph Edelman.
Lyte bills itself as a fan-to-fan ticket exchange where fans could list tickets to events they couldn’t attend and ethically resell those tickets to other fans wanting to attend a concert.
In 2022, the company acquired Festicket and Event Genius assets signalling “significant and immediate growth for Lyte”. London-headquartered Festicket, which acquired Event Genius and the associated Ticket Arena consumer website and brand in 2019, formally entered administration earlier that year and owed more than £22.5 million at the time of its collapse.
Festicket and Event Genius worked with hundreds of festivals and events across the UK, EU, Australia and Latin America, including BPM Festival, Ibiza Rocks, Summer Daze and Annie Mac’s Lost & Found Festival.
At the time, Lyte pledged to “find ways to reconcile and rebuild with affected promoter clients”, but the Ticketing Business reports the firm became saddled with Festicket’s debts and made a “series of missteps” in attempting to placate creditors.
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ILMC 36: Exploring AI’s potential for live music
The transformative potential of artificial intelligence’s (AI) on the live music and entertainment sector was analysed in detail at the International Live Music Conference (ILMC).
Hosted by Cliff Fluet, founder and MD of Eleven, yesterday’s Artificial Intelligence: Moving at Light Speed session featured guests Sammy Andrews of Deviate Digital, Pulsar’s Fran D’Orazio, Observatory’s Ben Sheppee, AXS’ chief strategy officer Marc Ruxin, and aurismatic’s Richard Kurka, who joined the panel via satellite.
Fluet reckoned that AI’s impact makes it “comparable to steam or electricity” in a bygone era.
“Pretty much every innovation from a technological or business perspective is, in some way shape or form, going to be AI-powered going forward,” said Fluet. “Unlike a lot of innovations, 85% of the planet has a device that’s powered and enabled by AI. It’s probably likely to be one of the last ever human inventions.”
In terms of how AI can be incorporated into live performance, the opportunities are bountiful despite the industry’s heavy reliance on the human aspect. However, despite its continued improvement at a rapid rate, Andrews believes such advanced technology still needs a “human eye”.
“Though every platform that we use to advertise live music already has AI embedded into it, there’s sometimes a ‘hit or miss’ element to it”
“Though every platform that we use to advertise live music already has AI embedded into it, there’s sometimes a ‘hit or miss’ element to it,” she explained. “We’ve seen a couple of platforms that will remain nameless, checking random music, altering the copy your artist took weeks to approve, and so forth. But we’re halfway there when it comes to correctly identifying audiences and being able to show them the right sort of content. It’s only going to get better.”
The panel soon segued from marketing to ticketing, and AI’s potential to optimise pricing strategies for live events to guarantee maximum profitability and accessibility.
“Dynamic pricing has been around for some time,” said Ruxin. “The reason it hasn’t been broadly adopted in the live performance sector in the way that it has been accepted by consumers is because of two factors: you have artists who want actual fans to be paying appropriate prices for tickets to their shows, and then you have a business mechanism that involves the need to optimise prices and seats.”
Ruxin further discussed the potential of AI to detect counterfeit tickets. “It’s only a matter of when and not if,” he said, with emphasis on how facial recognition technology is a template for AI to discern which tickets are real or otherwise.
Having talked about using aurismatic as “essentially a Shazam alternative for live music using AI”, Kurka added that one of his company’s main goals is to establish something that he firmly believes is “missing in the live music sector”.
“It could work well in smaller gigs that operate on smaller budgets”
On the topic of “predictive analytics”, D’Orazio believed that AI provides those without technological and data expertise the chance to “emulate someone like [Mad Men character] Don Draper in the 1950s”.
“Trend forecasting can now go back in the hands of the people that don’t have technical or scientific backgrounds,” D’Orazio said, noticing an irony in advanced AI technology encouraging a throwback to an “older method of creative thinking and advertising”.
When asked on whether there is a general misconception that AI is a cheaper method of creating something, Sheppee answered in the affirmative.
“There are costs when creating visual elements with AI,” he said. However, he admitted that AI can also be used to circumvent the possibility of copyright infringement. “Last year, we had consulted a band who wanted to use an image they either didn’t have rights to, or the rights were really expensive. We managed to generate a piece of content that was broadly similar, which rendered it a cost-saving exercise.”
He added that while AI isn’t feasible to use in large-scale arenas like Las Vegas Sphere, “It could work well in smaller gigs that operate on smaller budgets.”
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CAA signs AI tech and content firm Futureverse
Talent giant Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has signed AI and metaverse technology and content company Futureverse.
Deadline reports that the businesses will collaborate to create new opportunities for talent and IP, “spanning web3, the metaverse, virtual games, worlds and experiences, AI, and beyond”.
The strategic partnership will enable Futureverse to “bolster its strategic entertainment efforts to accelerate the creation of technology experiences in collaboration with well-known IP”.
“We are thrilled to be working with Futureverse, who are establishing themselves as leaders in the technology and entertainment space,” says Phil Quist of CAA. “This relationship is not just a meeting of minds, but a fusion of capabilities that will accelerate our shared vision for a smarter, more connected world.”
Co-founded by Shara Senderoff and Aaron McDonald, Futureverse announced the close of a $54 million Series A funding round in July 2023, led by 10T Holdings, LLC, and including participation from Ripple.
“Futureverse’s strategic collaboration with CAA has forged a strong alignment in fostering the development of mutually beneficial business models”
In the last year, Futureverse has linked up with the likes of Warner Music Group, FIFA, Authentic Brands Group (ABG), Mastercard, Wimbledon, Death Row Records, Wētā Workshop, Snoop Dogg, Timbaland, Keanu Reeves and Alexandra Grant. It launched AI-powered game AI League in cooperation with FIFA on iOS and Android and has partnered with ABG, IP Rights holders of the Muhammad Ali Enterprises, to release the first AI-powered boxing game, Muhammad Ali – The Next Legends.
In August meanwhile, it announced the publication of research in the advancement of music AI with the launch of JEN 1, an “unprecedented universal high-fidelity model for text-to-music generation”.
“At a substantial moment in the evolution of technology, it’s critical to architect a thoughtful and creative approach to the integration of both talent and IP into the dynamic landscape of innovation,” says Senderoff. “Futureverse’s strategic collaboration with CAA has forged a strong alignment in fostering the development of mutually beneficial business models that empower creators with groundbreaking tools and lucrative revenue opportunities.
“As pioneers in AI, web3 and metaverse infrastructure, driven by a deep appreciation for art and humanity, we see an incredibly bright future for the world of entertainment. Joining forces with CAA amplifies and accelerates the dialogue and partnerships that reinforce and expand our shared vision.”
Artémis, an investment firm led by billionaire French businessman Francois-Henri Pinault, acquired a majority stake in CAA in September this year.
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TagMix to expand to 40 festivals in 2024
Software solution TagMix is expanding to cover up to 40 festivals across Europe next summer following a successful season.
TagMix’s technology allows clips from live performances – captured on any phone or video device – to be merged with professional audio direct from the sound desk. High-quality content can be instantly posted online, even while performances are ongoing, without traditional editing or poor audio quality.
UK festivals including Creamfields, Isle of Wight, 2000 Trees, El Dorado, The Big Feastival and Lakefest reported a significant increase in social media reach and engagement from TagMix-enhanced content. Both views and likes were 300% higher on average than content posted by the same events whose audio had not been enhanced by the service.
“The data from this summer shows conclusively that, if only 1% of the new, highly targeted fans delivered by TagMix convert to ticket sales, festivals can anticipate an average revenue bump of £290,000 each, per year,” says Steve Jenner, TagMix’s director of festivals.
The Chemical Brothers utilised TagMix at their Isle Of Wight headline appearance to preview new single Live Again on Instagram
“It also presents an avenue for festivals to shift towards a more robust, year-round, data-driven business model and for brand partners to engage audiences much more effectively and measurably.”
The Chemical Brothers utilised TagMix at their Isle Of Wight headline appearance to preview new single Live Again on Instagram, while a clip of Craig Charles’ DJ set at Cambridge Club Festival achieved over 10.5 million views on Facebook.
Agreements with the major labels ensures automatic rights clearance for the majority of acts, with data from this year’s Independent Venue Week highlighting that 71% of artists tagged in a TagMix-enhanced post would share it to their own audiences.
“Artists greatly appreciated our presence at the festivals, as it allowed their live festival moments to shine online, capturing the true essence of their sound rather than the usual poor reflections they’re used to from phone-captured audio, or an overdubbed studio recording,” says TagMix founder and CEO Andy Dean.
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D.Live launches new tech division
German venue operator D.Live is launching a new division offering digital and software solutions developed in-house over the last five years.
D.Tech offers “tailor-made and tried-and-tested software solutions for venue operators, event organisers and other companies,” according to a release.
The programmes promise comprehensive solutions for all workflows in the event industry, and to streamline and digitalise companies’ internal processes.
The D.Tech suite includes an ERP/event management tool, a booking calendar, a Computer-Aided Facility Management, accreditation software, intranet software and a closed committee board.
“Since our founding five years ago, we have continuously worked on solutions to improve our business operations”
“The launch of D.Tech is a groundbreaking step for us and underlines our commitment to making technology accessible to our industry. Since our founding five years ago, we have continuously worked on solutions to improve our business operations. Now we are going one step further and offering our proven IT solutions to other companies and event organisers,” says Michael Brill, CEO of D.Live .
Burkhard Hintzsche, chairman of the D.LIVE supervisory board, adds: “Thanks to new technologies, for example, the company has succeeded in an exemplary manner in optimising the information situation and communication with us as the supervisory board – information asymmetries have since become a thing of the past.”
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Ticketmaster rolls out SafeTix tech to festivals
Ticketmaster has launched SafeTix, its anti-counterfeit ticketing technology, at festivals for the first time.
Following the March rollout in venues in the UK and Ireland, SafeTix launched this summer at festivals including Isle of Wight, Parklife, BBC Radio 1’s Biggest Weekend and TRNSMT.
The technology links a fan’s digital ticket to their Ticketmaster account through an encrypted barcode that automatically refreshes every few seconds, preventing resellers from exploiting screenshots or photocopies of tickets to sell them multiple times.
The tickets also include NFC (Near Field Communication) technology that allows fans to enter venues through a simple “tap and go” experience at venue entrances.
“We used to have so many fans turn up with fake tickets they purchased at ridiculous prices from unofficial secondary sites”
Four million SafeTix have been scanned at numerous festivals and in 100 venues across the UK and Ireland since March.
“We used Ticketmaster’s SafeTix at our sell-out Arctic Monkeys and Muse shows with great success,” says Geoff Ellis, CEO of DF Concerts.
“We used to have so many fans turn up with fake tickets they purchased at ridiculous prices from unofficial secondary sites, only to be turned away. The SafeTix technology has completely eliminated this issue, with a barcode that constantly updates and cannot be screenshot.”
SafeTix was initially launched in North American venues in 2019 and has since been rolled out in Australia, New Zealand and Mexico. Globally, Ticketmaster scanned more than 20 million SafeTix in July alone.
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IQ 117 out now: Lewis Capaldi, Schueremans, France
IQ 117, the latest issue of the international live music industry’s favourite magazine, is available to read online now.
The March 2023 issue sees Belgian promoter Herman Schueremans look back on 50 years in the live music industry, while Lewis Capaldi’s team discuss what made the singer’s latest tour such a success.
Elsewhere, the full agenda for the 35th edition of the International Live Music Conference is revealed and the New Tech panel is previewed.
Plus, IQ editor James Hanley examines the current state of the live event insurance market and Adam Woods puts the French business under le microscope.
For this edition’s double header of columns and comments, Marcel Hunziker talks up the benefits of developing a presence on TikTok and Sheryl Pinckney-Maas outlines the reasons to consider crowdsourced data to enhance event security.
In addition, Joe Hastings highlights the work of Help Musicians in tackling mental health issues in the music industry and Chris Bray explains how the ILMC scheme to introduce young professionals to the conference fits with ASM Global’s own future leadership plans.
As always, the majority of the magazine’s content will appear online in some form in the next four weeks.
However, if you can’t wait for your fix of essential live music industry features, opinion and analysis, click here to subscribe to IQ from just £6.25 a month – or check out what you’re missing out on with the limited preview below:
Chapter and Metaverse
Technology companies around the world are investing incredible amounts of money to develop engaging virtual reality worlds in the metaverse, and many have identified live music performance as integral to their plans. Here, IQ profiles 20 companies to keep an eye on as live concerts in the metaverse become more common.
DecentRaland
Touting itself as “the first fully decentralised virtual world,” Decentraland’s remit from day one was to hand over control to the people who create and play in its virtual space. Through its DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation), users are in control of the policies created to determine how this VR world behaves: for example, what kinds of wearable items are allowed, moderation of content, land policy and auctions, among others. The organisation has a calendar of music events, including the DCL Music Metaverse Festival on 10 November.
Decentraland.org
AmazeVR
AmazeVR claims to be “ushering in the next stage of music.” Through its proprietary camera technology and software, the company produces virtual reality (VR) concerts, creating entirely new musical experiences that bring fans closer to artists than ever before.
Most fans of music don’t have the luxury of seeing their favourite artists in concert for a myriad of reasons – schedule conflicts, geographic location, or financial burden, to name a few. However, AmazeVR concerts offer the immersive experience of seeing your favourite artist up close and personal, even from home. The company’s goal is to allow fans to be able to experience their favourite artists anytime, anywhere.
The platform captivated fans earlier this year with the first-ever VR concert tour featuring Megan Thee Stallion in her Enter Thee Hottieverse tour across 15 major cities in the US with over 15,000 concertgoers. Moving forward, these VR concerts will be accessible online, and the developers envision them be- coming a key component of all artists’ release strategies and album rollouts, setting a new paradigm for both artists and their fans beyond the existing live, in-person concerts.
With the VR market topping nearly 15 million active users in the Meta Quest ecosystem alone, artists can expect even more diverse opportunities to reach their fans via VR and the metaverse and build their brand through exclusive online interactive events, digital merchandising, and revenue sharing from VR app marketplace activity.
AmazeVR is preparing to launch its music metaverse service across all major VR app stores in the first half of 2023 with a line-up of established and emerging artists, both from the US and Korea (through the company’s joint venture with K-pop giant SM Entertainment), including, again, Megan Thee Stallion.
Amazevr.com
Dot Big Bang
With over 2m plays on its main hub and incredible performance in just a browser, dot big bang offers artists a chance to reach fans from across the globe – no matter the technology they own. As long as fans have a browser and an Internet connection, they are able to be a part of dot big bang’s online world and take part in an artist’s performance.
Promoting accessibility above all else, dot big bang offers players an experience they can have anywhere, anytime.
dot big bang is the chosen collaborative platform for 13.4m subscriber YouTuber PrestonPlayz, who has successfully hosted a number of sessions, with his audience jumping into custom games by clicking a link on his social channels. dot big bang offers instant engagement and collaboration all through the click of a link – and no sign-up is required, meaning fans and performers can quickly host and join an event whenever they want.
As a game development platform as well as a collaborative gaming platform, dot big bang can be used to create the perfect venue experience for fans, thanks to its accessible development tools.
You can reach out to dot big bang at [email protected] or via Twitter, Instagram or Discord.
Dotbigbang.com
Epic Games’ Fortnite
With first-of-its-kind music experiences such as Travis Scott’s Astronomical and the Rift Tour Featuring Ariana Grande, Fortnite remains a pioneer in bringing interactive experiences to the virtual space. Since its beginnings, Fortnite has become a coalescence of popular culture – amassing over 400m registered accounts globally – and has continued to expand its reach into music alongside film, fashion, and beyond.
Working with a series of international artists through the Soundwaves Series (finishing this impressive musical line-up with French-Malian singer Aya Nakamura), Fortnite has introduced its worldwide audience of millions to a variety of music from across the globe. Each experience is carefully crafted for each artist through Fortnite’s impressive creative toolset, which places the experience-building capabilities in the hands of any creator or brand that wants to realise their own unique virtual experience.
Fortnite also offers additional ways to discover music through its in-game car radio, playable character outfits (e.g. Silk Sonic and Coachella Cosmetic Sets), Emotes, and Lobby Tracks. UK’s easy life and O2 experience gave fans a brand-new song, exclusively made as an in-game Lobby Track.
Fortnite is available on console, PC, Android, and cloud-based game-streaming services, making it easily accessible to the core fan or casual audience.
Epicgames.com/fortnite
Meta
So confident was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg about the prospects for the metaverse, that he last year rebranded the company as Meta to highlight its shift in direction.
The corporation is investing billions of dollars in the development of the metaverse and has already recognised music as central to engaging users. In addition to launching its own platform for virtual gigs – Horizon Venues – Meta has acquired music VR operations Beat Games and Supernatural, as it looks to secure market share in the environment.
The company recently rolled out its new Meta Quest Pro VR headset, to mixed reviews, while another new function is its Avatar Store, which could have interesting possibilities for virtual merchandise for any artists that choose to use the platform.
Meta.com
Napster
While there are no historic VR gigs on the Napster platform, the company recently hired Roblox music chief Jon Vlassopulos as its CEO and disclosed it has raised an eight-figure sum in new financing, which it will use to fund acquisitions in the Web3 sector, as it looks to follow the Roblox pathway into hosting live music content. Indeed, Vlassopulos has stated that he hopes to make music as popular as Web3 gaming within the next 24 to 36 months.
Napster.com
Niantic
Niantic is the developer of the world’s most successful mobile AR game, Pokémon Go, and is expanding its reach into the live music sector. It’s already run a project with Ed Sheeran in late 2021, while its Lightship software development kit has been used by the likes of Coachella Festival and Warner Music Group. Niantic has also reportedly invested in Pixelynx – another early adopter of Lightship.
Nianticlabs.com
Pixelynx
Pixelynx is a new venture that is focussed on blurring the lines between music, blockchain, and gaming.
Founded by a number of electronic music luminaries, including artists Richie Hawtin (Plastikman) and Joel Zimmerman (deadmau5), Pixelynx is “building technology and acquiring equity in a range of start-ups that will form the foundation of how music is experienced in the metaverse”.
The company says it is building a global network of artists, visionaries, and start-ups that are passionate about re-imagining how the music industry evolves through Web3 and the metaverse. Its goal is to establish a transparent alternative to the metaverse services that are being developed by the “monolithic giants that control the current network of platforms that musicians, fans, and gamers rely on.”
Pixelynx.io
Ristband
Ristband is a music metaverse platform where events taking place in the real world can have a digital twin of the physical world happening in real time, combining the excitement of a live event with the power and reach of digital social experiences.
The Ristband team includes artist Roman Rappack as its chief creative officer. His band, Miro Shot, has experimented extensively with AR, VR, and mixed-reality technology at its concerts for a number of years.
The company is the recipient of a grant from Epic Games, which it is using to help create a metaverse that can be used by independent artists, rather than just the A-list acts that dominate charts and airwaves.
Ristband.co
Roblox
Spearheaded by former global head of music Jon Vlassopulos, gaming platform Roblox has leveraged its global appeal to facilitate a number of album launches and virtual performances, with the likes of Lil Nas X, Tai Verdes, Twenty One Pilots, David Guetta, George Ezra, Charlie XCX, and Lizzo, to name but a few, enjoying various degrees of success with their events.
Roblox has also been embraced by the likes of The Grammys and the BRIT Awards to attract a different audience, while Electric Daisy Carnival pioneered the way for festivals to become involved.
Roblox.com
Sandbox
Built on the blockchain, The Sandbox offers a wide range of exploration across its metaverse, consisting of 166,464 unique pieces of LAND, each belonging to a user. Founded in 2011, it is a community driven platform where creators can monetise Voxel assets and gaming experiences.
Sandbox.game
Snap
Snapchat’s parent company has teamed up with Live Nation to launch AR experiences for the likes of Lollapalooza, Wireless Festival, Rolling Loud, and Electric Daisy Carnival. Say no more.
Snapchat.com
Stageverse
Stageverse is attempting to attract artists and bands to create their own unique virtual environments in the metaverse, providing ‘Stage’ land plots for interested parties that will represent their address in the metaverse. Each individual plot of land has specific coordinates and a listing on the Stage map.
“Stage land plots act primarily as gateways to other expansive spaces via portals, and landowners can personalise and build on their plot in many different ways to promote the ‘front-door’ to their expansive world,” explains the company.
Among the first acts to partner with Stageverse were Muse, who used footage from a 2019 concert to offer fans different viewpoints, as well as various items of virtual merch.
Stageverse.com
Tencent Music
In addition to its investment in Wave, music stream- ing monolith Tencent rolled out a virtual festival called TMELAND last new year. Tapping into the popularity of its karaoke business, the company also announced it was developing a metaverse feature that would give users their own individual rooms where they could invite friends to meet and interact.
The company has also teased the possibility of establishing virtual showrooms that artists could use for the likes of album launches. Tencent has more than 600m users.
Tencentmusic.com
TikTok
While there appear to be no plans for the video-hosting service to develop a metaverse platform, Chinese parent corporation ByteDance has dipped its toe into the market with the 2021 acquisition of VR headset manufacturer, Pico. Watch this space…
Tiktok.com
Unity
A games industry stalwart, Unity is marketing its development platform as an ideal toolkit to create music experiences and earlier this year revealed it had inked a partnership with Insomniac Events, whose festivals include Electric Daisy Carnival and Wonderland. The new partners are apparently working on “a brand-new, persistent metaverse world” specifically for live music.
Unity.com
Vatom
Vatom has been helping artists and brands make their metaverse dreams come true since 2015, and has hosted concerts and meet & greets for artists including Mary J Blige, Macklemore, Ellie Goulding, and Silverstein, as well as global events for brands such as Volvo, and always-on workspaces including Arup Associates.
While most people hear the term ‘metaverse’ and immediately think of a handful of people using avatars to interact in a gaming environment, the Vatom philosophy is different. At Vatom, online gatherings are not just about high-fidelity, they are part of a feature complete ecosystem that is fully scalable to support events with more than 10k attendees. Vatom ‘Spaces’ support digital collectibles, custom avatars, spatial audio, and have a full team of Vatom experts on hand to help your event run smoothly from the box office to the main stage.
Whether you are looking to host your first event and rent one of the venues in Vatom’s Soundtown – everything from the rooftop pool to the recreation of legendary Los Angeles jazz bar, Harvelles – or want to take the next step and build out your own always-on global lounge for your festival, Vatom has your back. If you want to add Smart NFTs, and a custom marketplace to drop virtual merch, they do that, too.
Vatom.com
Volta
Volta is a self-serve XR creation platform that gives artists and creators the ability to design and broadcast experiential content that goes beyond the 2D screen and reaches into the metaverse. Volta integrates seamlessly into artists existing workflows, allowing them to build new immersive worlds that were previously unimaginable. What once required a state-of-the-art production studio and a six-figure budget, is now free.
In the coming months, Volta will be introducing a feature that will enable new forms of engagement and revenue for artists. The company has already built the ability to let fans have an impact on visual content via the chat window in several streaming platforms (Twitch, YouTube, etc.). Fans type in keywords of an artist, choosing to enable one-to-one interactions (“boom” = a futuristic explosion of light); many-to-one interactions (the more people that type “boom” the bigger the explosion when the beat drops); and unified interactions (eg fans can literally play tug of war with the virtual camera angles).
These interactions can be gated by keywords, as well as things like Twitch Bits, YouTube Superchat, etc. So, whether your artists are livestreaming or using Volta on an LED wall at a gig in real life, they can give their fans control of the visual 3D world they are performing in from anywhere on the planet, earning money in the process.
Volta has worked with acts such as Bonobo, Jamie Jones, Nero, Archie Hamilton, Sasha, Patrice Bäumel, TSHA, and DJ Yoda, and it is planning tours with iann dior and Richie Hawtin to name a few.
Volta-xr.com
Wave
Originally known as WaveVR, the company rebranded in 2019 when it became apparent that it would not solely use virtual reality as the lure for fans to enjoy its events.
Wave shows enable artists and fans to collaborate in, what it refers to as “the creation of the most interactive live performance experiences in the world.”
Waves are live, interactive, and immersive shows it promises are unlike any virtual concert that fans have ever experienced – combining the best of live music, gaming, and broadcast technology to transform the live entertainment environment.
The shows can be livestreamed globally on wave.watch, as well as across popular social and gaming platforms including YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, TikTok, Facebook and Roblox.
Chinese online giant Tencent Music is an investor, while artists who have used the platform include The Weeknd, John Legend, Lindsey Stirling, and Justin Bieber.
Wavexr.com
XRSpace
Founded in 2020 by the former CEO of tech specialists HTC, Peter Chou, XRSpace has already brought a 5G VR headset (XRSpace Manova) to the market and launched its own virtual reality headset called the XRSpace Mova. One of the virtual worlds it has created to provide content for that headset is PartyOn – a music event metaverse that offers opportunities from karaoke parties to VR concerts.
Xrspace.io
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Driift’s Ric Salmon on what’s next for livestreaming
Livestreaming will play a supporting role in the live industry’s return to touring, according to Driift CEO Ric Salmon.
In an interview with IQ magazine, Salmon said Driift is getting a “steady” level of inquiries for livestream events in 2022.
“Managers and artists are rightly focused on getting their businesses back up and running, and that, of course, means looking at all types of activity,” explains Salmon.
“But the words ‘live stream’ have quickly become part of the common lexicon, and we’re seeing people come to us talking about album campaigns and tours happening in 9-12 months and wanting to do a live stream within that window.
“I think the question has to be: why wouldn’t you add this type of activity to your plans alongside traditional shows, releases, and promo?” he adds.
The UK-based livestreaming company was founded in August 2020 by Salmon and Brian Message and has since sold more than 600,000 tickets for livestreamed gigs with acts including Nick Cave, Niall Horan, Kylie Minogue, Biffy Clyro, Andrea Bocelli, Laura Marling, Dermot Kennedy, Courtney Barnett and Sheryl Crow.
Its previous partners include the UK’s Glastonbury Festival where the company conceptualised, created and produced the ‘Live At Worthy Farm’ event, which featured artists including Coldplay, Haim, Jorja Smith, Idles, Wolf Alice, Michael Kiwanuka, Damon Albarn and The Smile.
“At Driift, we’ve taken a really high level of curation and artistry to the shows we’ve produced and delivered over the last 18 months, and, ultimately, I think that’s what’s driven our momentum and success,” says Salmon.
“”Technology will have a large part to do with ensuring people remain engaged in this new format”
“Technology will have a large part to do with ensuring people remain engaged in this new format, but perhaps more importantly it comes down to artistry and creativity. Frankly, we’ve seen too many shows that just aren’t good enough. These events, these online experiences, can be so much more.”
Off the back of an impressive 18 months, Driift has attracted investment from Paris-based global streaming company Deezer, and launched additional operations in New York in US and Perth in Australia.
Going into 2022, Salmon says that the company is “well setup for whatever the coming years have to throw at us”.
“Broadly speaking, like all of us, I want to see our industry bounce back and thrive. And largely, I believe it will but with a few more bumps in the road. It’s hugely important that businesses, large or small, push themselves, innovate, diversify, and grow. At our group of companies (ATC/Driift), we’re coming out of the last 18 months a more diverse, more exciting, and better-organised business.”
Upcoming shows for Driift include a series live stream with new band The Smile, comprising Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and Sons Of Kemet’s Tom Skinner.
The Smile will play three consecutive live shows within 24 hours on 29 and 30 January at Magazine London which will be broadcast live in real time.
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