Virtual Music News — June 2020
Artists & fans are connecting virtually now more than ever. Here are the major virtual and immersive music announcements from June, 2020. Scroll down for details on upcoming July Virtual Events as well! See you next month.
Landscape and Investment
The E-Fest Game: How Minecraft and Fortnite Have Changed the Concert Landscape (LA Weekly)
Event Recap: 5G & The Future of Music (Alley)
Music Industry Mogul Scooter Braun Invests in Virtual Concert Startup (EDM Tunes)
Wave opens the door for musicians looking for a ‘metaverse’ beyond Fortnite (Techcrunch)
Augmented Reality News
Hipster Bait turns music discovery into an AR scavenger hunt (Musically)
Christina Aguilera Wants You To Try The ‘Bionic’ Face With An AI Lens Filter (The Things)
J Balvin Will Go Behind ‘Colores’ in Groundbreaking AR Livestream: Exclusive (Billboard)
Want a tiny K-pop star to perform on your desk? LG U+ has you covered (Korea Daily)
Spatial Audio
Google Creative Lab Launches Lines of Play, an Experiment to Showcase AR Core Depth API. (Forbes) Lines of Play features spatial audio so that what users hear correlates to the real-world position of the augmented dominos.
Apple is bringing spatial audio to AirPods Pro
Bose gives up on its augmented reality sound project (the Verge)
Adobe Aero augmented reality creation tool gets spatial audio support (Cult of Mac)
ESYO season to culminate in digital festival (Saratogian) Using VR technology and spatial audio, Bengraff was able to create an immersive experience that places the audience in the center of the orchestra.
Virtual Reality News
Hatsune Miku Is Getting Her Very Own VR ‘Amusement Park’ This Summer (Upload VR)
Rock alongside I Prevail with VR “DOA” video (ABC News)
Beamz Interactive Announces Inclusion of Additional Content and a Major Sale With Its Jam Studio VR Apps (Global News Wire)
Lady Gaga, Blackpink Dabble in VR (Sort of) for ‘Sour Candy’ Lyric Video (Rolling Stone)
12th Planet to Bring ‘Swamplex Next Level’ Mixed Reality Virtual Show to Stadio (Billboard)
Tech for At-Home Disease Detection; Using Virtual Reality to Attend Concerts (Cheddar)
James Casey Launches ‘Aux Chord’ Virtual Music Venue (JamBase)
June VR Concerts and Events
Fortnite hosted a Diplo concert in its new party mode (the Verge)
French composer Jarre to perform world’s first ‘Matrix avatar’ concert (France 24)
MDL BEAST announces border breaking digital music festival in celebration of World Music Day (Business World)
Hip Hop Legends Cypress Hill To Perform Virtual 360° Livestream On June 19th! (Iconvsicon)
Notable July Virtual Events
Glastonbury’s Shangri-La team launch new VR festival Lost Horizon
Inside Rave Family Block Fest: A Virtual Music Festival On Minecraft (Forbes)
UPDATE: Rave Family Blockfest Postponed
Tomorrowland goes virtual with Around The World festival (Musically)
Take A Trip to Outer Space for Unrated, a New Virtual Concert (Rolling Stone)
Podcast
SXSW Spanning Realities With Music (Panel: Amy LaMeyer, Tony Parisi, Rebecca Barkin, Eric Wagliardo) (The AR Show). Originally intended for a panel at SXSW. In the conversation, we explore new methods for listeners and artists to span realities with music. We talk about which experiences are getting traction, as well as where the technology shines, and where it still falls short.
