VR Entertainment
Music in Virtual Reality – Wave paves the way for the Metaverse
Virtual Reality is taking the entertainment industry by storm, becoming more and accessible for small players in the market with each passing day. This trend has been made possible, in part, by a host of new creator-focused ventures that are making it easier to produce VR-ready experiences for a variety of audiences.
One such venture is Wave (formerly TheWaveXR), a live performance production startup that is making it possible for artists big or small to launch interactive performances online. The startup has gained massive popularity since they started in 2016, having gone onto host megastars like The Weeknd, John Legend, and Justin Bieber.
Image Credits: tirachard from Adobe Stock
As music enters the metaverse, startups like Wave are overhauling the way artists and their audiences interact – but this transition is not without its pitfalls.
Music in Virtual Reality – How Wave has changed Live Performances
Wave follows a tech-intensive approach to event broadcasting, providing artists with a haptics suit and a team of VR producers to help create live performances that are rendered in real time.
The start-up seeks to empower artists with small or scattered fanbases to entertain their audience without incurring the costs of live tours and concerts. Their unique avatar-based performance output speaks for itself, attracting even international stars to the platform. The result is a truly interactive event for fans and artists alike, unbound by the constraints of reality.
Image Credits: alexkoral from Adobe Stock
Wave is proof that virtual reality concerts are not a niche novelty, but a viable alternative to real-life performances. The ways in which it empowers artists are manifold:
1. Wider Audience
With music going global, the typical fame trajectory of an artist has changed – they are no longer needed to garner a significant domestic audience in order to break out to other countries. This still poses the problem of furthering engagement with an artist’s audience beyond periodic releases, a role that live performances would traditionally play. With VR performances, artists can reach audiences they may never be able to interact with otherwise.
2. Reduced Cost of Production
Live tours are a massive logistical undertaking, requiring many people with varying skillsets to come together as a single well-oiled machine. For artists, this directly translates to hiring and paying a large staff to ensure production quality is upheld. Upcoming artists either rely on (often exploitative) record labels to bear these costs, or pay from their own pockets. In either case, the huge upfront costs often prove prohibitive to new players, limiting an artist’s reach severely.
Image Credits: Elroi from Adobe Stock
Enter VR – all that an artist requires today is some equipment and expertise to put up live performances, often with a small team and a lean budget. This lets them enjoy a far larger share of the revenue as well, which is crucial given the meagre payout from streaming platforms.
3. Increased creative freedom
Art is the ultimate form of self-expression; empowering musicians with greater control over how their performances look and feel is the step in the right direction, for creators and audiences alike. With VR as another tool in their repertoire, small artists can make their performances just as spectacular as widely-known popstars.
Virtual reality frees artists of physical constraints, with the extent of their imagination being the only real limit. Artists can perform in graphically-enhanced environments – even on simulations of different planets, or an abstract liminal space. With VR reducing the resource gap between artists at different levels of career success, creating a memorable experience is finally becoming more a matter of ingenuity than economics.
Image Credits: Tierney from Adobe Stock
WaveVR takes a step back – the future of metaverse music
In 2017, Wave had launched the WaveVR on Steam and Oculus, for musicians and audiences to enjoy performances live via VR headsets. Unfortunately, the application was discontinued earlier this year. This was partly due to the discontinuation of Google Poly, on which the application’s VR rendering system was based. These technical difficulties as well as slower than anticipated adoption rates forced the company to mothball their rendering model and focus instead on increasing their reach.
While the start-up has promised to restart their VR wing upon securing the requisite resources, it is likely that this decision will cost them the position of the market leader. The app’s discontinuation is a temporary setback in the wider metaverse music scene. Ventures the world over are moving towards immersive experiences, a shift accelerated by Facebook (now Meta)’s brand overhaul. For its part, Wave has demonstrated how powerful the premise of VR-powered performances is, sowing the seed for a future where the technology and the art form will exist in perfect synergy.
Sandbox VR Announces $37M Series B Funding to Expand Out-of-home VR Locations
Out-of-home VR destination Sandbox VR today announced an additional $37 million funding round that the company is using to support its continued expansion. In addition to its dozen worldwide locations, Sandbox VR says it’s working to nearly doubling that.
The Series B funding was led by a16z, and includes participation by Alibaba and Craft. According to Crunchbase data, this puts their lifetime outside financing to around $120 million.
Like pretty much everyone in the out-of-home entertainment sector, Sandbox VR went through its own share of financial challenges over the past year due to COVID-19 closures. It both filed for, and reemerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy following debt restructure.
“We are excited to use the latest round of funding for content development, cutting edge technology and accelerated growth,” says Steve Zhao, CEO and founder of Sandbox VR. “With more stores on the way, we’ll be ramping up our internal studios as well as developing our SDK to open up publishing in the near future.”
And it appears Sandbox VR is making a quick comeback. The company opened three locations in July—Austin, Las Vegas, and Shanghai—and is aiming to open ten more as it enters 2022. Currently, the company operates 12 locations across North America and Asia. Paramus (New Jersey), Toronto (Canada) and London (UK) locations are marked as “coming soon.”
The fresh funding round suggests that VR arcades may be seeing a renewal in investor confidence, although Sandbox VR is probably one of the best-positioned in the sector due to its relatively small physical footprint requirements, in-house content studio, and licensed IP such as its Star Trek: Discovery multiplayer missions.
Sandbox VR has survived The VOID, one of its biggest competitors (certainly the most flashy), which permanently closed all locations worldwide last year. Coincidentally, The VOID’s flagship space at the Grand Canal Shoppes in Las Vegas is now a Sandbox VR location.
Facebook Changes Its Name To ‘Meta’: The First Ever Incorporated Metaverse Company
On 28th October, Mark Zuckerburg doubled down on his commitment to be the face of the oncoming metaverse era by signing off on the move to rebrand the parent company, Facebook Inc., to Meta. The hour-long keynote presentation was unveiled at the Connect 2021 conference, where Mark goes over all the fundamental changes the rebranding brings along, as well as exploring his and his company’s vision moving forward. The social media giant is bringing the limelight to their increasing investments and commitment into AR/VR technologies and the growing size of the Facebook Reality Labs. This move has multiple implications, from marketing and finance to technological, and has caused a stir amongst critics and journalists alike.
Facebook aka Meta Company – Highlights
The biggest and clearest sign of a shift in the company’s focus was highlighted by the medium of the presentation itself. Mark Zuckerburg gave the entire presentation and walked the attendees of the conference through all the changes in a serene VR environment. After introducing the rebranding of the parent company to Meta in the first 10 minutes, the rest of the feature was about how the platforms will look, feel and behave as they incorporate VR and AR as the building blocks. The keynote went over multiple pressing concerns of how Meta’s metaverse will incorporate interactions, entertainment, art, merchandising and marketing, and gave an insight into the vision of the future by Zuckerburg and team.
Image Credits: Tegan Reyes (on behalf of Meta)
From its inception, the parent company Facebook Inc. (now Meta), had represented itself as a social media and advertising platform. With the rebranding exercise, the company now identifies itself as a social technologies and metaverse company. This rebranding has no direct implications on the portfolio of applications and platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and other subsidiaries) the company manages, as their name remains unchanged.
In Mark’s interview with the Verge, he states that Meta has become an ecosystem of applications in the last few years, and having their flagship application – Facebook, share the name has led to confusion amongst its users and investors. A similar move had been made by Google in 2015 when they rebranded the parent company as Alphabet. The re-branding is a push to separate the identities and create a clearer distinction between the platforms and the parent organisation.
Image Credits: Tegan Reyes (on behalf of Meta)
While the rebranding is a subtle way to distinguish parts of the social media conglomerate, this transition is more evident in their financial reporting, as moving forward Meta Inc. will report on their two distinct wings – ‘The Family of Apps’ and ‘Reality Labs’. As the portfolio of Meta increases the share of AR/VR tech (Oculus and Reality Labs) investments and the growing workforce in the vertical, this rebranding is a clear signal of the internal shifts in the company that have been years in the making.
After-Meta: Public Reception
The rebranding exercise has stirred a myriad spectrum of views on the matter, the majority of them are leaning on the negative side of the spectrum due to the failing reputation of Facebook, both as a platform and a parent company. With increasing scrutiny on the internal workings of the organisation’s decision making since the ‘Facebook Papers’ leak, many speculate that the rebranding might just be a gimmick to distance the company from the tanking reputation of the platform.
While these rumours were debunked by Mark earlier and were purely speculative, others point out that this move, and the bigger focus of the company to make metaverse a reality, is motivated by wanting to reduce the company’s dependency on competitors such as Google and Apple. As companies that own the app stores on which ‘The Family of Apps’ are downloaded through, Meta has to pay a large 30% commission on its in-app sales to the operating software owners, which in Mark’s words are “stifling innovation and growth”.
Image Credits: Tegan Reyes (on behalf of Meta)
Beyond the reputational issues, re-branding is also being seen with the lens of an embarrassing debacle. The name ‘Meta’ is already an incorporated organisation dealing in AR tech, which the marketing team behind this shift got to know about after their big announcement, and are now trying to salvage the situation by offering $20 million for the naming rights.
What could’ve been a large and eventful day for metaverse and AR/VR enthusiasts around the world, a beacon of the inevitable virtual future, has turned into another rainy day (in the series of rainy days) for the tech giant.
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Entertainment & Empathy | How VR Is Set To Transform Cinema
With the invention of the video camera, an entire industry has been created around the trade of telling stories. Visualized on a screen and recorded for posterity, movies remain one of the most far-reaching and engaging channels for cultivating an audience. With the advent of VR, the medium of movies is set to experience a paradigm shift, propelled by the increasing availability and affordability of Virtual Reality software and headsets across the world.
Image Courtesy: Brilliant Eye from Adobe Stock
For cinematographers, being able to modulate sensory input for viewers is of paramount importance. In order to portray immersive and empathy-inducing experiences, cinema halls have been perfected over the last century as the ideal place to catch a movie. Even then, the best cinema hall in the world cannot compete with a VR headset. Given their ability to isolate viewers’ senses, headsets provide seamless (and screen-less) visuals. Combined with spatial audio, the immersive experience provided by VR is unparalleled.
The technological edge of VR lends itself best to two disparate movie genres – horror, and documentaries. Here’s how:
VR in Horror
Since Alfred Hitchcock elevated the genre to the limelight, horror movies have been an important part of pop culture. Yet, despite a marked improvement in graphics and cinematic tech, horror movies are not as fear-inducing as they used to be – especially since audiences have grown wise to repetitive plotlines and jump scares.
With VR, horror can be reimagined entirely. When viewers see a story unfold around them through a 360-degree interface, the veil of separation becomes virtually non-existent. Isolated by the headset, the viewers of a horror flick will be truly transported within the story’s setting. The reactions generated in this setting will not simply be sympathetic to the protagonist, but a real reaction to the horror atmosphere.
Image Courtesy: aijiro from Adobe Stock
The internationally acclaimed ‘The Ring’ franchise has taken the lead in this direction, with the launch of “The Ring VR”. Shot from the PoV of the antagonist, the film provides a promising glimpse into how the genre is set to change and adapt with new technology.
VR in Documentaries
While horror deals with the realm of nightmares, documentaries delve into the details of our world as it exists. Commemorative and educational in nature, documentaries are considered dull and slow by most viewers – to the point of being considered “cinematic lectures”.
Yet, the genre plays the critical role of spreading awareness and starting conversations on a host of topics – cultural, political, and economic. Given the surge in VR usage in recent years, documentary makers across the world have started exploring the genre through the lens of a headset.
With the newfound ability to make the viewer the protagonist, the avenues available to tell stories have multiplied manifold. Culturally significant narratives – such as Anne Frank’s experience of living in the Secret Annex during WW 2 – are being rejuvenated with the help of VR, where a viewer can walk and interact with the living space she shared with her family.
Image Courtesy: hiv360 from Adobe Stock
Using the same principle, viewers can be transported back in time in order to experience narratives attached to their geography. A viewer can explore the ruins of Pompeii, the Roman city wrecked by volcanic debris, as a pedestrian amongst the preserved structures. Using VR, viewers can also witness first-hand the effects of climate change on coral reefs, an experience that most people cannot access in-person.
As the viability and fidelity of VR tech rises, the entertainment industry is set to keep pace with each development. The foundation of this increasingly immersive and interactive storytelling is empathy; with the advent of narratives we live through and not merely witness, the new age of cinematic experiences has begun.
Entertainment & Empathy | How VR Is Set To Transform Cinema
With the invention of the video camera, an entire industry has been created around the trade of telling stories. Visualized on a screen and recorded for posterity, movies remain one of the most far-reaching and engaging channels for cultivating an audience. With the advent of VR, the medium of movies is set to experience a paradigm shift, propelled by the increasing availability and affordability of Virtual Reality software and headsets across the world.
Image Courtesy: Brilliant Eye from Adobe Stock
For cinematographers, being able to modulate sensory input for viewers is of paramount importance. In order to portray immersive and empathy-inducing experiences, cinema halls have been perfected over the last century as the ideal place to catch a movie. Even then, the best cinema hall in the world cannot compete with a VR headset. Given their ability to isolate viewers’ senses, headsets provide seamless (and screen-less) visuals. Combined with spatial audio, the immersive experience provided by VR is unparalleled.
The technological edge of VR lends itself best to two disparate movie genres – horror, and documentaries. Here’s how:
VR in Horror
Since Alfred Hitchcock elevated the genre to the limelight, horror movies have been an important part of pop culture. Yet, despite a marked improvement in graphics and cinematic tech, horror movies are not as fear-inducing as they used to be – especially since audiences have grown wise to repetitive plotlines and jump scares.
With VR, horror can be reimagined entirely. When viewers see a story unfold around them through a 360-degree interface, the veil of separation becomes virtually non-existent. Isolated by the headset, the viewers of a horror flick will be truly transported within the story’s setting. The reactions generated in this setting will not simply be sympathetic to the protagonist, but a real reaction to the horror atmosphere.
Image Courtesy: aijiro from Adobe Stock
The internationally acclaimed ‘The Ring’ franchise has taken the lead in this direction, with the launch of “The Ring VR”. Shot from the PoV of the antagonist, the film provides a promising glimpse into how the genre is set to change and adapt with new technology.
VR in Documentaries
While horror deals with the realm of nightmares, documentaries delve into the details of our world as it exists. Commemorative and educational in nature, documentaries are considered dull and slow by most viewers – to the point of being considered “cinematic lectures”.
Yet, the genre plays the critical role of spreading awareness and starting conversations on a host of topics – cultural, political, and economic. Given the surge in VR usage in recent years, documentary makers across the world have started exploring the genre through the lens of a headset.
With the newfound ability to make the viewer the protagonist, the avenues available to tell stories have multiplied manifold. Culturally significant narratives – such as Anne Frank’s experience of living in the Secret Annex during WW 2 – are being rejuvenated with the help of VR, where a viewer can walk and interact with the living space she shared with her family.
Image Courtesy: hiv360 from Adobe Stock
Using the same principle, viewers can be transported back in time in order to experience narratives attached to their geography. A viewer can explore the ruins of Pompeii, the Roman city wrecked by volcanic debris, as a pedestrian amongst the preserved structures. Using VR, viewers can also witness first-hand the effects of climate change on coral reefs, an experience that most people cannot access in-person.
As the viability and fidelity of VR tech rises, the entertainment industry is set to keep pace with each development. The foundation of this increasingly immersive and interactive storytelling is empathy; with the advent of narratives we live through and not merely witness, the new age of cinematic experiences has begun.