From Tupac to ABBA: Will the metaverse change how we attend concerts?
Will our favourite artists be able to live forever on the stage?
Technology = creativity
A breakthrough in the quality of music capture came with the advent ofhi-fi and stereointroduced by Yamaha. Those who embraced the technology artistically could transport a lifelike performance experience into the homes of the masses. One of the biggest bands of the 1970s and 1980s,Swedish supergroup ABBA, embraced this technology pioneering recording techniques, which is still used as standard today.
Behind this technology was the creative genius that produced millions of record sales and performances dominating the 1970s and beyond. After the apparent demise of the group, Benny and Björn expanded into the theatrical genre, composing musicals. Along with their interest in emerging technology, this sowed the seeds to recapture and reinvent the ABBA machine 40 years later.
May 2022 sees the latest technological advances in musical immortality when ABBA returns to the live stage after a 40-year absence. But this time they return as humanoids – the digital hol0gram “twins” of the original global phenomenon.
George Lucas’sIndustrial Light and Magichavecreated holographic lookalikesthat interact with a live band in a specially designed purpose-built theatre in east London. Benny, Björn, Frida, and Agnetha have provided the pre-recorded vocals and motion-captured movement which will then be reproduced by the digital avatars.
The doppelgangers are more youthful in their appearance – around their 30s, when they were at the peak of their fame – raising an interesting conundrum concerning Abba’s human mortality against their new immortality in the metaverse.
ABBA’s music is undoubtedly timeless; the simple tunes with incredibly complicated structures appeal to millions. The “Abbatars” are a reinvention for a new audience, but will they continue beyond the lives of their originals, with new creators pulling the strings?
Besides Abba and Tupac, there are other instances where “digital twinning” has been identified as a key money-making strategy. The digital bandGorillaz’2006Grammy performanceblended flawlessly with Madonna’s. And Richard Burton’s hologramperformedon a global tour ofWar of the Worldsin another 2006 performance.
Music in the metaverse
Customizing 3D avatars has become a unique way for artists to create virtual brands across several digital platforms. They can connect virtually with fans and increase loyalty and engagement, while fans can interact, express themselves and experience new things.
This is now achievable using AI software to make holograms, as researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) demonstratedin an experimentthat created holograms fairly instantaneously.
Ziva Dynamicsa pioneer in simulation and real-time character creation, employs synthetic AI-powered avatars to create autonomous and complex movement simulations based on real muscle, fat, soft tissue, and skin contact.
In April 2021, in a project calledLost Tapes Of The 27 Club, Google’sMagenta AIwas even used to compose songs in the styles of musicians who notoriously died at the age of 27, including Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Amy Winehouse.
These technologies have the potential to create realistic synthetic and AI holographic representations of departed artists, allowing them to continue creating, influencing, and performing for future audiences.
Epic Games, creators of the phenomenally successful Fortnite,predicts thatdigital twins will combine withthe metaverse, an emerging network of fully immersive digital worlds.
Disrupting the music business
Whereas live tours are time-intensive and costly for new artists, a low-cost metaverse “tour” might be a new way for music lovers to see live performances. Virtual performances byJustin Bieber,DeadMau5,andThe Weekndhave already become popular recently.
In this emerging branch of the music industry, record labels and marketing firms could be replaced bydecentralized autonomous organisations(DAOs). DAOs are online organizations that operate like cooperatives, making all decisions jointly.
DAOs are alreadydisrupting the music business– along with NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which are a way of transferring property between people online. In October 2021, PleasrDAO – a collective ofdecentralized finance(DeFi) leaders, early NFT collectors, and digital artists – paid US$4 million (£3 million) forOnce Upon a Time in Shaolinan album by New York hip-hop legends Wu-Tang Clan.
While the release of the album predates the rise of NFTs, PleasrDAO now owns the rights and has imposed strict restrictions on duplication, distribution, or public exhibition. A music-focused DAO like Pleasr may acquire bulk concert tickets, finance and organize events and manage fan-owned record labels, and marketing agencies to secure investable commodities like first-edition LPs, artwork, and instruments. This has the potential to benefit fans, new music genres, and artists alike.
This creates a new, decentralized route to the market for artists free of corporate interests or interests of individual producers, developing a fairer landscape for the future. With digital avatars likely to be at the center of this new vanguard, it will be fascinating to see how it develops in the months and years to come – and whether it will be enough for music audiences.
Article byTheo Tzanidis, Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing,University of the West of ScotlandandStephen Langston, Programme Leader for Performance,University of the West of Scotland
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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