Web 3.0 has presented myriad new opportunities, and the music metaverse is one of the biggest trends in the entertainment sector. Many artists and creators benefited from the metaverse wave as it gave fans value and helped monetize their work in new ways.

When artists like Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg bought land and built empires in the Metaverse, many artists used the virtual space to connect directly with their fans. People created avatars, made wearables, and crossed fantasy lands without traveling. When an artist performs in the music Metaverse, people around the globe can ‘come’ to the concert and enjoy it.

Virtual-world enabling platforms like Sandbox and Decentraland became very popular after musicians like Travis Scott, Ariana Grande, and Justin Beiber hosted events. Music production companies organized music-dance festivals virtually with play areas and merchandise space inside the virtual venue. Anyone can attend a music event virtually from the comfort of their home. There is no need to book air tickets to see your favorite artist. Moreover, you will have the chance to invest in NFTs (whether in songs, art, or other exclusive content) while supporting your favorite musicians. Read ahead to know more about how music metaverse creates user immersive experiences.

What is a Metaverse?

The Metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds where people can interact, do business, and forge social connections using their virtual avatars. The technology titans and gaming giants such as Meta, Microsoft, Epic Games, and Nvidia create their own virtual worlds or metaverses. Within the Metaverse, you can make friends, rear virtual pets, design virtual fashion items, create and sell digital art and earn money.

What does the Metaverse mean for music creators?

Music Concert

Before Covid, you never would have expected to be at music events of top stars like The Weeknd, Justin Beiber, or Travis Scott. But witnessing your favorite musicians as virtual humans has a unique appeal. With their new virtual avatars, you see them in an entirely new context a few inches away from you.

The Weeknd’s virtual concert introduced an animated version of the artist performing his hit song Blinding Lights, where a team of virtual backup dancers performed the famous TikTok dance for the song.

Tavis Scott’s virtual concert took the fans to the next level with his skyscraper 3D avatar performance. In contrast, Ariana Grande’s virtual event took place for several days, where her giant virtual twin interacted with the fans during her performance by lifting them into the sky as she sang her hit album 7 Rings.

Music streaming in the Metaverse

Even though Audius launched in late 2019 is a prime example, the music metaverse took off in 2021 when Rapper Snoop Dogg became active in The Sandbox and built a virtual mansion to host events that required a private pass NFT for entrance. Streaming music videos in Metaverse gives artists complete control, removing intermediaries from the equation.

In addition, the music streaming application Spotify entered the Metaverse with the first music-themed island, Spotify Island. The island is unique and music-themed, where they can groove, explore sounds and share experiences with others. Spotify itself described the island as an ‘audio oasis,’ as the island is a destination for sound quests, hangouts, and exclusive merchandise.

Music Festivals and Gaming nights

The festivals in the music metaverse could have everything you would expect at a regular, live music festival, including a VIP area exclusive to Meta key holders, food trucks, and a merch village where people could buy wearables.

The world’s largest dance music event, Electric Daisy Carnival, became the first music festival in the Metaverse. Premiered with a new experience dedicated to music, the festival brought people worldwide who could not physically attend the event to the Roblox platform. The space featured mini-games, virtual merchandise, and dance battles against friends and also astonished the guests with fan race through the vast metaverse world to collect cuddly animals and build homes at the festival venue.

DJ in Metaverse

Anyone interested in conducting a DJ party in the Metaverse, this is your opportunity to organize DJ. You need to buy land or build a space and need your VR gear to interact within the virtual or augmented reality metaverse. Decentraland is the first platform to host the first music festival in the Metaverse featuring  80 artists and DJs.

Music companies in the Metaverse

From marketplaces filling in the gaps in music streaming services to full-blown NFT bands, the Metaverse is bringing a new dawn to music industries. Below are some major companies investing in the new movement:

Universal Music Group

UMG is already home to some of music’s biggest names. Its next-gen label, 10:22 PM, launched the music group Kingship last year. The group has some of the famous characters of NFTs, the Bored Ape Yacht Club, one of the most successful non-fungible token projects of all time.

The music industry giant has also partnered with avatar technology company Genies, which has done a lot of work for the Metaverse, including creating Paris Hilton’s avatar and previously collaborating with UMG to develop avatars for artists like Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes.

Warner Music

Warner Music Group has partnered with the decentralized gaming virtual world, The Sandbox, to create a performance venue in the Metaverse. The hybrid musical theme park and concert hall, the virtual venue, offers innovative music experiences, according to WMG. As one of the first movers in the area of metaverse concerts, they announced that they are developing persistent, immersive social music experiences that can go against real-world limitations and allow artists and their fans to connect like never before.

Billboard

The giant of the entertainment publishing world, Billboard, has teamed up with Universal Music Group to create a new NFT project called ChartStars, a collection of curated digital collectibles available on the Flow blockchain. ChartStars will consist of a collection of “artist-focused digital artwork” created to commemorate various accomplishments and defining moments of the Billboard Charts.

T-Series

Asia’s largest music label, publisher, and India’s largest film studio, T-Series, has announced its foray into NFTs with the association with Hefty Entertainment (a Hungama division). Hefty Metaverse aims to foster an ecosystem that will collaborate, interact and engage with flourishing web 3.0, transiting their consumers into the Metaverse and leveraging their extensive global library and distribution network across Indian languages.

How to launch Music on Metaverse? 

The music metaverse is changing the music industry in many ways. The industry’s outlook changed when any independent artist could virtually tap into new audiences, build a virtual brand and make money, where avatars, wearables, and other music NFTs added some fancy advantages to artists and a fanatic. Below are a couple of ways to get into the music metaverse.

Hosting on Popular Metaverse Platforms

The first step is to create an account in the particular platform of choice and open a digital wallet connected to the user’s account, where all the digital currency will be safely kept. You can choose any of the popular metaverse platforms. Each platform has unique characteristics when it comes to wallet options and integrations.

Many platforms, such as Minecraft, Roblox, or Decentraland, have hosted successful music events in the Metaverse. We can take the example of Travis Scott performing in the Fortnite virtual world, where more than 12 million players logged in to watch the concert. Anyone can get real fans by getting yourself an avatar and getting into these metaverse platforms. You can get your music artists and jam up your virtual brand if you have a place to host.

All you need is a VR headset, and once you are in, you will see a little avatar of yours who can talk to people attending the concert, dance, and enjoy like you would in a real-world event. The tickets can be minted as an NFT, which can be sold or bought using crypto or fiat currencies, depending on the platform. Through these NFT tickets, the audience can get exclusive perks like collectibles, VIP  seats, or back-stage meetups with the artist.

Creating Your Metaverse

You can build your Metaverse with the help of our experts in Accubits. It involves the development of the 3D virtual environment to build the venue, virtual avatars, adding features and facilities for the visitors, allocation of booths to sponsors & exhibitors, promotion materials, and so on.

A tailored platform gives you control and allows you to reach a large audience across the globe with ease & efficiency. It makes the event accessible across different platforms and devices, resulting in heightened reach for better prospects.

Future of Music in the Metaverse

In a few decades, tech companies have translated the Metaverse from a sci-fi concept to reality. This new era will most definitely, unleash a plethora of opportunities for the music industry, artists, and businesses. The music metaverse gives a chance and promises to enhance social interaction, experimentation, and amusement. However, musicians, content creators, and entertainment industry players need to think outside the box to cope with current music trends in the virtual world. You are now looking at a new economic and creative virtual landscape by concreting the way for music creators and fans to take their music love to the virtual world.

Author

Accubits Technologies is a full-service software provider offering product development and digital transformation services to Governments, Tech startups, Fortune 1000 companies, and Businesses.