Immersive Concert Experiences May Be New Normal

No one could have imagined the large leap that technology would take as we entered the year 2020. These past 22 months have proven to be prime time for new technology to come out. Businesses and consumers have both been tossed into the adoption of new trends and unfamiliar technology although some likely saw it coming.

In the live music industry, many content platforms switched to meet new demands while some decision makers and power players were finally forced to take this new technology seriously rather than ignoring it as was done previously. 

We have been afforded a bit of perspective on the furtherance of technology’s journey as we venture through 2021 from some virtual music experiences that occurred.  There is also enough user-adoption data that it speaks for itself, and it seems as though virtual concerts are going to be occupying part of the market and that the music industry will never be the same again. 

What percentage of the market are virtual concerts going to occupy is the real question? Also, what other technological breakthroughs can we expect moving forward? 

Virtual Livestreams

When everyone was first being ordered to stay at home, dozens of livestreams from artists were played on the internet and most of them were not monetized. Gorillaz, Dua Lipa, Glass Animals, and even Jen-Michel Jarre, a 72-year-old pioneer of music, all put on contributions to the livestreams. Some artists were able to provide some immersive livestreams online that were a step above a normal livestream, and they probably pushed the medium forward just a bit. 

There are reports that indicate that these shows matched up with real events in terms of participation/attendance as well as recoupment that exceeded production budgets. This shows that artist’s respective fan bases are willing to pay to watch the artist from home and it shows that there is business that can be done even amidst a pandemic and lock downs. 

Aside from these being established artists with large fan bases as well as marketing and production budgets, these shows were made special as they were the first to use real staging and lighting in a livestream format. This is a no-brainer considering that the technology involved in concerts is what commands the high prices and provides the best entertainment. 

Since there was healthy money gain and the way the public reacted to this type of entertainment was good, it is safe to say we will likely be seeing a lot more of this type of entertainment throughout the coming years. Though there is the risk that people will get tired of livestream entertainment, we do not see it happening anytime soon. 

Platform Based Experiences

Gaming platforms were the media sector that cause the next big splash across both the entertainment and music industries. Epic Games’ Fortnite, after their pre-COVID concert with Marshmello, managed to redefine virtual music events alongside Travis Scott and later on with J Balvin, a LatinX superstar. Roblox, not one to be outdone, teamed up with Minecraft and both managed to cause quite the stir in real life. 

It makes sense that these would be the first companies to join the immersive party since they have so much capital and manage to maintain captive audiences. It will be interesting going forward to see if these companies use these events as a head start for creating their own metaverses. We will be waiting to see.

Platform based social virtual reality has had the hardest time capturing user’s attention. There are so many options for consumers and they tend to choose whichever option their headset manufacturer prefers or by accepting invitations from their friends to join a specific application. 

Whatever the case may be, the industry has been whittled down to just a few major players including: Venues (Facebook/Oculus); Altspace VR (the “original” social virtual reality platform owned by Microsoft now); Sansar (well known virtual festivals are becoming common here); Wave (a virtual reality music application that turned into a social platform); VRChat ( a massive multiplayer online social platform that is known for its avatar selection options).

Inside these social platforms, users are beginning to host their own get togethers where their avatars can dance with friend’s avatars while they interact and artists are getting into this new opportunity to engage with their fan bases, usually for a fee, however. We are just now beginning to really see the potential that this market truly has. 

Similar to the gaming platforms available, music festivals have also taken to this new industry and managed to migrate to virtual reality with stunning success. Aside from the premium livestreams, virtual music festivals have become the most successful in terms of attracting attendees. 

Tomorrowland, a very popular real world music festival, was one of the first to switch over to virtual reality. The event organizers state to have sold over 1 million tickets and it was so successful that they did a New Year’s Eve show and are playing with the idea of doing even more shows. 

This sets the table for the expansion of all music festivals moving forward because no in-person festival could handle that many people in attendance. While there are still kinks to be worked out such as hardware and framework incompatibility, server performance issues and more, this is still a bold step to defining a new normal for entertainment.

The Future of VR

There are many problems that have to be overcome such as connectivity issues, music licensing, avatar uniformity, and more. That cannot stop us from noticing the potential for growth and expansion with this new technology. 

We can only assume for the moment that the future of this new technology is going to be booming with profits and excitement as much as any other media vertical. 

The future for immersive concerts is in fact very promising. People are rapidly adapting to the new technology coming out and this marks a new era for entertainment amidst lockdowns and viruses. The wellbeing of the music industry may be relying on the success of this new frontier.