What is the Metaverse and what does it mean for musicians?

Learn about the Metaverse and how you can have a successful music career in a virtual world.

A guest post by Randi Zimmerman from the Symphonic Blog.

As an artist in an era where staying home has become the norm, finding a way to still connect with your fans and give them an experience they can keep with them beyond the physical world is exciting. Now imagine a virtual world where you can go to concerts, buy merch, interact with others and so much more, all online, from anywhere you want… What’s not to love? The Metaverse is just that, and some of the world’s top musicians are getting in on the action.

Let’s talk basics…

We can’t talk about the Metaverse without first touching on NFTs. NFTs in the music industry can take on many forms, such as ticket sales for concerts (virtual & physical), back stage passes, sample packs, previews of unreleased songs, and more.

This allows artists to monetize their fan base in new ways while NFTs offer the exciting possibility of cutting out some of the industry’s middlemen.

For artists, this means they can release exclusive or limited runs of creative works and that digitalized art can be attached to a smart contract, lines of code, built into the token that automatically execute behaviors, such as giving the original creator a royalty (10-20%) each time the token is resold in the future, and the value is largely set by the market and by demand.

When it comes to the Metaverse, the experience for artists can take many different forms.

In it, artists can offer things like: 

• Audio/Visual Art 
• Digital Merch
• Concerts 
• Immersive 3D Worlds
• Customizable Avatars 
• Tickets, Exclusive Memberships, Access Passes, and more…

Artists like Steve Aoki, Snoop Dogg, Porter Robinson, and more have all dipped their toes into this virtual landscape. Back in October, Deadmau5 launched his own virtual experience called Oberhasli, which is on-going and filled with interactive surprises for fans, mini games, and a fully immersive concert experience.

Cool, right?

But what makes this lucrative for artists?

The key to success in the Metaverse is having a strong community behind you. Even if you create the coolest experience of all time, it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have an audience of fans that actually want to engage with it.

The same goes for NFTs. — Similarly to people who collect baseball cards, owning NFTs is cool because it’s a collectible. Think about the people who bought Nipsey Hussle’s limited-run collector’s edition music or the hardcore fans who buy limited releases of their favorite artist’s vinyl. The popularity of NFTs lies in their exclusivity and the fact that the consumer now has something that not many others have.

(To learn more about NFTs, check out this article.)

In Conclusion…

Just like the world of NFTs, this is all very new. Future opportunities and mistakes are inevitable, at least until there are more precedents set and more knowledge and understanding. For now, it’s not a bad idea to stay informed and continue to explore this new world as it continues to grow. You never know, this technology has the power to change, not only the music industry, but life as we know it. 👾