Feature 27
“ ARGUABLY , THESE METAVERSE ‘ WALK-THROUGH ’ EXPERIENCES ARE MORE ENGAGING THAN AN EXHIBITION BOOTH AND COULD EVEN REPLACE PHYSICAL BRAND SHOWROOMS IN A FEW SHORT YEARS . ”
of the metaverse , as not only somewhere to hang-out and play games but also a place for staging accessible experiences , by partnering with 3D gaming platforms , technologists and artists for a range of eventrelated use-cases .
Concerts are perhaps the earliest example , with DJ Marshmello attracting an audience of 10.7 million to his
February 2019 gig within Epic Games ’ Fortnite - staged before we even knew what a metaverse was .
Since then , rapper Travis Scott ’ s 15-minute virtual Fortnite concert in April 2020 saw 12.3 million concurrent live viewers , while 33 million viewers watched Lil Nas X perform on Roblox in December that year .
In August 2021 , Arianna
Grande broke all Fortnite records with a five-day , 15-minute repeated performance , which reportedly earned her tens of millions of dollars in merchandise sales and was seen by over 78 million players .
Her avatar performed against a backdrop of mazes , bouncy , colourful clouds , rainbow trails and magical llamas , all of which could be peacefully explored ( no killing allowed ) while listening to the soulful soundtrack of Grande ’ s hit songs .
These four ground-breaking concerts legitimised gaming platforms as metaverse worlds where artists can extend their reach and increase their fanbases , while experimenting with the virtual event medium .
This year already , we ’ ve seen PinkPantheress ’ avatar take to a virtual Roblox stage for a BRIT Awards after-party , David Guetta perform a 45-minute set as his avatar self in an intergalactic DJ Party World within Roblox , plus The Foo Fighters play Quest ’ s Horizon Venues after the Super Bowl .
Warner Music Group ( WMG ) meanwhile took a minority stake in immersive music streaming platform Wave in December and has now partnered with virtual world , The Sandbox to build what it describes as a ‘ combination of musical theme park and concert venue ’ where future ‘ musical experiences ’ will be held .
The Sandbox is built around blockchain and non-fungible token ( NFT ) technology , which allows users to monetise in-game resources and buy-up digital realestate called ‘ Land ’.
Users who purchase ‘ Land ’ next to WMG ’ s virtual concert arena will presumably expect to benefit from the abstract notion