In Singapore, at least, it seems that the Metaverse is alive and well, and it’s bringing in major partnerships with artists and record labels. Last week, Warner Music Singapore announced a collaboration with Affyn, a Singapore-based metaverse and gaming company, to bring some of its artists’ contributions to Affyn’s upcoming game.
The Metaverse as a concept is somewhat fuzzy, but in essence, it’s about creating a single virtual world for the entire internet. People can then experience this world with virtual reality goggles or other digital interfaces.
What do cryptocurrencies have to do with the Metaverse? It comes from the idea that this newfangled metaverse must have some kind of unified economy, and what’s a better way to do it than with unstoppable, decentralized, and internet-native money?
Though this “virtual world” is the ultimate vision of a metaverse, the more practical applications are about unifying all the little game worlds into one massive universe, where items from one are “interoperable” with another. Imagine being able to use an item from League of Legends in Dota 2 — this is the kind of thing current metaverse games are envisioning.
In the case of Affyn, the company is trying to go for a slightly different route with its “Evolution” concept. The new Nexus World metaverse will be based on each user’s real-world geolocation, allowing them to play in a virtual environment that simulates their surroundings, including major cities around the world.
Another interesting aspect of metaverse games is land rights. There are a number of projects who create virtual worlds and then sell parcels of virtual land in this metaverse. This is possible by assigning each land piece to a non-fungible token (NFT), making it straightforward to track the owners of each plot. It’s also very easy to sell and buy these land plots, creating a vibrant virtual real estate economy.
Music Revenue in the Metaverse
Of course, convincing people that this virtual land has value isn’t trivial. The game has to have some kind of interest and traction, making the land at least somewhat valuable. The kicker in metaverse games is that land can generate real revenue, for example, by hosting virtual concerts in it and receiving a part of the proceeds from the ticket sales, which may also be in NFT form.
This is likely the goal behind the Warner Music partnership for Affyn. The stated goal, for now, is to include the work of one of the artists under the WM Singapore label, J.M3, in the new Nexus World game. J.M3, or Jamie, will produce a custom song for the game, and she will also make a cameo in the game’s trailer as an avatar, “creating an immersive audio-visual experience for fans,” in the company’s words. J.M3 is a Singaporean artist producing unique bilingual English-Chinese songs.
Gerald Ang, Managing Director of Warner Music Singapore, explained that the decision to collaborate with Affyn was made to “explore innovative and creative approaches to promote Warner Music Singapore’s artists,” with the goal of increasing their reach in “ground-breaking ways.”
Record labels are, on aggregate, quite receptive to innovation. For example, Spotify (NYSE:SPOT), the company that popularized music streaming services, offered a hefty portion of its shares to the major record labels, who saw the writing on the wall for directly selling music CDs. Faced with stiff competition from illegal music downloads, Spotify offered a middle-of-the-ground approach that the record labels quickly pounced on.
The Metaverse and NFTs, in general, can be a new breath of fresh air for the industry, for example, by running one-off limited editions of popular songs as NFTs. Alternatively, virtual concerts within the Metaverse could be a groundbreaking and exciting new approach.
There have been a number of artists who held virtual concerts, including Ariana Grande, Post Malone, Foo Fighters, and others. These were mostly concentrated during the pandemic era, which made traditional concerts largely unfeasible.
With COVID-19 largely tamed, much of the Metaverse’s hype disappeared as people realized that we could indeed “go back to normal.” In addition, virtual reality platforms still leave a lot to be desired, especially if they are used to host events where the physical interaction and overall “vibe” offers the majority of the appeal. After all, using headphones in a quiet room offers a much better listening experience than a concert, and yet, concerts remain incredibly popular.
Affyn is trying to build up the Metaverse world bit by bit, slowly gathering players and important partnerships at a primarily local level. Its mix of augmented reality with VR can also help bridge the initial gap, similar to the viral success of Pokémon Go a few years back. Perhaps, just like the internet of the early 90s, the Metaverse will pervade life once its underlying technology makes it a truly valid alternative to “real” experiences.
