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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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MetaFests and Vatom partner on festivals toolkit

Steve Jenner’s UK-based Web3 specialist MetaFests is partnering with US-based tech platform Vatom to launch blockchain-powered toolkit Digital Lanyard for festivals.

Digital Landyard enables festival organisers and their brand partners to engage audiences year-round and build their own Web3 experiences via the Vatom platform.

Vatom’s platform has previously been used to support global events including Elrow’s summer season in Ibiza, Monegros Desert Festival in Spain and iHeart Radio Music Festival in Las Vegas. Lakefest is the first UK festival confirmed to be using Digital Lanyard.

“It has already been shown that Web3 tech can solve some of the festival industry’s greatest tribulations, from cashflow seasonality to a lack of visibility on customer activities inside the event, let alone outside it. Digital Lanyard now offers event operators transformative new powers to level-up their businesses without requiring any additional knowledge, time, skills, or resources,” says Jenner, MetaFests’ founder and director.

“As such, we’re thrilled to have formed this partnership with Vatom, who not only share our vision but come armed with the technology to make it an instant reality, having already proven it in a diversity of festival environments.”

“The power of Web3 applied to live events means that the types of authentic audience connections we have been wanting to deliver are possible in a fun and fan-friendly way”

Based on the Vatom Universal Wallet, Digital Lanyard offers an app-style experience for fans to receive essential event information and pre-event branded activities, earn on-site rewards, and post-event communications. The Digital Lanyard provides a Web3 suite featuring a blockchain-enabled wallet for collectibles including photos from the event, an augmented reality viewer, smart digital objects, and collectibles while maintaining a seamless onboarding experience for the fans and providing fan insights to event organisers.

“The power of Web3 applied to live events means that the types of authentic audience connections we have been wanting to deliver are possible in a fun and fan-friendly way,” says Steve Machin, Vatom’s global director of entertainment. “We are thrilled to be working with MetaFests who are bringing all their festival expertise to this ground-breaking product. Excited to already see the reaction to the Digital Lanyard on the event side, and from brands looking to connect with the music community across the UK festival landscape.”

Before the event, attendees can earn loyalty points for actions such as making an early ticket purchase or booking a green travel option while onsite the platform enables fans to gain further rewards for arriving early, supporting charity partners, eco-responsibility and spending behaviour.

After the event, Digital Lanyard extends the visitor experience year-round, empowering the organiser to maintain the visitor’s attention and fortify their loyalty with a continual stream of multimedia content, collectibles, competitions, games, rewards, and offers.

 


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Web3 pioneer Vatom grows leadership team

Venice, California-based Web3 company Vatom has welcomed industry pioneer Steve Machin to its leadership team alongside Elrow president Vicenc Marti.

Marti was announced as the new MD of Vatom Europe earlier this month, with Machin now confirmed to be taking on the role of global director of entertainment. Machin will be based in London, UK and Marti at Vatom Europe’s new Barcelona HQ.

The two newly created roles will be key in strategically growing Vatom’s global presence and partnerships, co-creating “a new era of Web3-enabled fan engagement and experiences”.

“The calibre of live event, entertainment and business acumen that Vicenc and Steve bring to the company is unparalleled”

“We consistently lead the way in Web3, providing a next-generation-experience platform to connect with audiences in ways that offer real value and continuous engagement – the music, sport and entertainment industries are at the forefront of this evolution,” says Eric Pulier, CEO of Vatom and creator of the Smart NFT. “The calibre of live event, entertainment and business acumen that Vicenc and Steve bring to the company is unparalleled and will further enable us to deliver to fans deeper and more meaningful experiences with the brands, creators, and artists they love.”

EDM event company Elrow has produced more than 160 shows across 40 countries and recently announced a strategic partnership with Vatom.

“At Elrow, each day I saw the power of music connect people around the world,” says Marti. “Vatom and Web3 take connection to a whole new level, and I am excited to work with this talented team to evolve how people think about and experience entertainment with Web3.”

“Web3.0 technologies are already fundamentally changing the way we connect with our favourite artists and brands”

Machin, meanwhile, previously held senior corporate positions at Live Nation and Ticketmaster and is well known for chairing the new technology committee at ILMC.

“Like Web2.0 before it, Web3.0 technologies are already fundamentally changing the way we connect with our favourite artists and brands, how we experience concerts and shows, and ultimately how we will connect with each other” noted Steve Machin. “There is always immense innovation at the intersection of any new technology and the creative industries, and I am excited to help bring to life the opportunities that the rapidly evolving metaverse has to offer to brands and creators”

Vatom also recently announced a partnership with iHeart Media to offer fans one-of-a-kind experiences across iHeart live music events, podcasts, experiences, content, and competitions through Vatom’s Web3 platform. Both Machin and Marti will play key roles in the development and execution of these strategic partnerships.

 


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Web3 firm teams with Elrow to launch Vatom Europe

California-based Web3 company Vatom has signalled its European expansion by unveiling a newly formed strategic partnership with Superstruct-owned Spanish events brand Elrow.

Vatom Europe will operate out of Barcelona, Spain, with Elrow president and board member Vicenc Marti taking on the new role of Vatom GM for Europe, overseeing all European operations.

The collaboration promises to bring immersive Web3 experiences to festival-goers, enabling both virtual and real life experiences.

“We love the idea of offering personalised experiences and awards to our most special fans of our shows through leveraging innovative technology such as Vatom’s,” says Elrow CEO and founder Juan Arnau Jr. “We’re always looking for new ways to engage fans like never before, so now having the ability to offer these next level experiences to attendees is very meaningful.”

“There is clearly a huge appetite for the immersive virtual experiences that Vatom enables”

Vatom plans to continue building its presence throughout Europe and launched its first collaboration with Elrow Town Madrid last month. Using Vatom’s cross-chain, NFT-focused digital wallet, accessible through the festival app, fans unlocked free, collectible NFTs and participated in an AR egg hunt on festival grounds to access exclusive offerings.

“When we first introduced the Elrow family to Vatom technology, the fan response far exceeded our expectations,” adds Marti. “There is clearly a huge appetite for the immersive virtual experiences that Vatom enables, and we’re excited to explore the endless ways this technology can enhance the future of music festivals and fan engagement.”

Vatom’s Web3 platform technology will be integrated into Elrow’s portfolio, with activations expected throughout the year at events in Ibiza, London, Amsterdam, Croatia, New York and San Francisco.

“Given Elrow’s status as a global powerhouse of music experiences, we felt they were the perfect partner to embrace Web3 innovations and further-scale Vatom’s metaverse platform internationally,” adds Eric Pulier, founder and CEO of Vatom. “Not only will our newfound presence in Europe allow us to create more innovative, interconnected, and rewarding experiences for Elrow attendees, but it will enable other global brands the ability to easily create and interact with their consumers in more immersive ways.”

 


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