Category: rave

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Wave Shuts Down Live VR Music App: ‘Artists Need Audiences To Thrive’

Early live VR music app Wave is shutting down its VR-only software on Steam and Oculus.

The startup pivoted toward gaming and live-streaming a couple years ago but kept its original VR software, the Wave VR, running “just because the community in there has made such inspiring stuff,” according to a note posted on Friday to the company’s Twitter account. The note signed by Wave CEO and co-founder Adam Arrigo said the app was built on Google’s Poly 3D object hosting service, which is also shutting down at the end of June.

“As much as we’d love to, we aren’t able to spend the resources to build a new backend pipeline, since we are already spread so thin trying to accomplish our current set of non-VR objectives,” the note says. “Even though this means the Wave VR shows will come to a pause, we think this is the best decision for the long term future of the Wave community, and we promise to do everything we can to one day bring back this experience in an even more evolved form.”

The note mentions the startup’s pivot happened because “artists need audiences to thrive, and we realized VR just wasn’t there yet, and there was a bigger opportunity for artists outside headset.”

The “pause” is a loss to fans of the Wave VR who found the performances in there to be a unique experience akin to a concert or rave. You can check out the replies to the note on Twitter from fans reminiscing about meeting new people because of the software, or those who are sad because it was their favorite app.

Do you have any memories of spending time in the Wave VR app? Let us know down in the comments below!

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Social on Mobile and VR Combine in a Rave

Whether its a developer or manufacturer in virtual reality (VR) one thing they’re all trying to showcase are the social aspects of the technology. From Facebook Spaces, to AltspaceVR, vTime, Pluto VR, Geekzonia and many more, there’s a growing list of applications that’ll let users chat and hang out with each other in VR. But what about those just on mobile devices? Rave looks to bridge that gap between the two.

Available on iOS, Android and now Google Daydream and Samsung Gear VR, Rave enables all users to talk and watch videos together, no matter which platform they’re on. The app allows content to be streamed from a number of sources, including YouTube, Vimeo, Reddit, Viki, Google Drive, and Dropbox.

Rave -vr-press

“VR is an exciting new frontier for media consumption,” says Rave CEO Dr. Michael Pazaratz.  “It’s amazing to watch videos on a 65″ virtual screen, but feels too isolating”. So Rave has created a solution by combining the to worlds together, allowing VR users to watch with their friends on mobile.

“Adding social features to VR is key for the growth of the industry,” adds Pazaratz. “Linking mobile with VR opens up so many interesting options to expand the community.”

Rave can currently be downloaded for free on both mobile headsets. The company also plans to release the app for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in the future.

For any further updates on Rave, keep reading VRFocus.