Digital live shows have been an enormous speaking level within the music business a few years in the past when IRL reveals have been on pause because of the pandemic.
Reside music is again now, and enterprise is booming, as evidenced by Reside Nation’s latest blockbuster earnings, however the digital live performance area continues to be very a lot energetic.
Celebrity artists like Ed Sheeran are nonetheless seeing worth in performing nearly, with Sheeran’s upcoming Fortnite-based iHeartLand look scheduled for October.
British pop star and former Take That member Robbie Williams is making his personal “metaverse debut” by way of a partnership with London-based Vertex Labs and its metaverse platform LightCycle.
Set to launch in This fall, LightCycle is described as an AI-powered “hyper-realistic digital metropolis”, with the ambition for it to change into “the go-to vacation spot for artwork, movie, gaming, music, style, sport, property and retail”.
The platform is being developed in partnership with Dubai-based H3 Leisure.
It’s attention-grabbing to notice that Vertex Labs says its LightCycle platform was created utilizing Unreal Engine 5 and powered by “Vertex Community real-time edge rendering”.
Unreal Engine 5 is the highly effective gaming engine and 3D creation device developed by Epic Video games – the gaming large behind Fortnite (and the corporate that acquired Bandcamp final 12 months).
Right here’s a press quote from Epic on UE5 issued again in 2020: “One in every of our objectives on this subsequent technology is to realize photorealism on par with film CG and actual life, and put it inside sensible attain of growth groups of all sizes by way of extremely productive instruments and content material libraries.”
Vertex Labs is itself described as a “Metaverse, Web3 and AI infrastructure supplier, powered by decentralised, real-time edge rendering engine”.
In Could, the corporate acquired London-based Digimental, a digital artwork studio, for USD $12 million.
A preview of what Vertexlabs is looking the “landmark” Robbie Williams metaverse occasion will likely be unveiled as a part of a LightCycle preview night time at EDGE World Web3 and AI Funding Summit, happening in Hong Kong on the AsiaWorld-Expo subsequent week.
This isn’t the primary time Robbie Williams has been concerned with an AI-related challenge.
Late final 12 months, he partnered with Germany-based telco Deutsche Telekom to create a brand new model of his hit Angels. The unique has been streamed over 450 million instances on Spotify.
The challenge noticed AI used so as to add “Beethoven-style compositions” to the monitor.
“The proficient growth workforce at LightCycle have produced some unbelievable work and I’m excited to see all of it dropped at life in full 3D glory.”
Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams mentioned: “Staying linked with my followers has all the time been essential to me. I’m fascinated by the Web3 area – it’s filled with creativity and mind-blowing potential.
“It’s additionally an enormous new marketplace for music discovery. As an artist, I’m all the time in search of methods to push ahead so that is the right subsequent step in that journey.
“The proficient growth workforce at LightCycle have produced some unbelievable work and I’m excited to see all of it dropped at life in full 3D glory.”
“Robbie has a devoted and passionate fanbase and we consider that, by way of our unparalleled expertise, we will deliver them a supremely enhanced surroundings and fan-experience.”
Sara Ezen, LightCycle
Sara Ezen, CEO of LightCycle added: “Robbie has a devoted and passionate fanbase and we consider that, by way of our unparalleled expertise, we will deliver them a supremely enhanced surroundings and fan-experience.
“The live performance is actually one thing particular and we’re excited to be giving it a house in LightCycle so his followers, new and previous, can get pleasure from next-level interplay and engagement. We’re wanting ahead to seeing the place we will go together with this.”
“We hope that, by way of Robbie’s initiation into Web3, new and current followers can elevate their leisure expertise in a nearly enhanced approach.”
Ander Tsui, Vertexlabs.uk
Ander Tsui, Founder & CEO of Vertexlabs.uk added: “Robbie is a visionary inventive and, as the final word showman, his music and songs have had an enormous cultural affect.
“We’re enormously excited to be bringing this tremendous particular efficiency into LightCycle. We’ve had a variety of enjoyable creating the challenge and we will’t wait to share it with the world.
“We hope that, by way of Robbie’s initiation into Web3, new and current followers can elevate their leisure expertise in a nearly enhanced approach.”Music Enterprise Worldwide