Upload Videos That Contain Licensed Music Thanks to Facebook and Universal Music Group Agreement

It maybe easy to create your own 2D or 360-degree videos but when you want add that something extra – like a kicking soundtrack – before sharing with the world that’s where problems can arise, namely due to artists work being copyrighted so it can’t be used here there and everywhere. That’s about to change however, with Facebook and Universal Music Group (UMG) announcing multi-year agreement under which UMG will license its recorded music and publishing catalogs for video and other social experiences across Facebook, Instagram and Oculus.

The partnership aims to facilitate deeper engagement between artists and fans, empowering users to express themselves through music, share the songs they love and build communities around music-fueled culture. This means that users will be able to upload videos that contain licensed music and personalise their music experiences on Facebook, Instagram and Oculus, while sharing videos with friends and family.

Enabling a variety of features across Facebook’s platforms, the agreement is intended to serve as a foundation for a strategic partnership roadmap that will deliver new music-based experiences online. And in time, functionality will expand to enable access to a vast library of music across a series of social features.

Tamara Hrivnak, Head of Music Business Development and Partnerships, Facebook, said in a statement: “There is a magnetic relationship between music and community building. We are excited to bring that to life on Facebook, Instagram, Oculus and Messenger in partnership with UMG. Music lovers, artists and writers will all be right at home as we open up creativity, connection and innovation through music and video.”

Going forward, the companies will experiment hand-in-hand to introduce new music-based products to these Facebook platforms, including Messenger. This will likely include Facebook’s beta social app Facebook Spaces which recently went cross-platform by supporting HTC Vive.

“Together, Facebook and UMG are creating a dynamic new model for collaboration between music companies and social platforms to advance the interests of recording artists and songwriters while enhancing the social experience of music for their fans,”said Michael Nash, Executive Vice President of Digital Strategy, Universal Music Group. “This partnership is an important first step demonstrating that innovation and fair compensation for music creators are mutually reinforcing – they thrive together. We look forward to Facebook becoming a significant contributor to a healthy ecosystem for music that will benefit artists, fans and all those who invest in bringing great music to the world.”

As further details are released on how the agreement will improve the social VR experience, VRFocus will let you know.

WITHIN and Universal Music Group to Collaborate on VR and AR music Experiences

Over the past year Universal Music Group (UMG) has been gradually moving into the field of virtual reality (VR), partnering with entrepreneur Simon Fuller to bring Abba to VR, and collaborating with music platform MelodyVR. Its latest endeavour sees the company team up with immersive entertainment firm WITHIN to develop augmented reality (AR) and VR music experiences featuring artists from UMG’s roster.

The pair will work together to create multiple immersive experiences that will be distributed on WITHIN’s app, whilst integrating VR and AR across the creation, production, marketing and promotion of UMG’s new musical tracks, from the recording studio to the release parties, concert stages and more.

“Music is one of the most uniquely transformative mediums of human expression; combining it with immersive AR and VR experiences creates a new artform exponentially more powerful than the sum of its parts,” said Chris Milk, Co-Founder and CEO of WITHIN in a statement. “This partnership allows us the incredible opportunity to work with top artists at UMG to create ever more meaningful and expressive immersive music experiences.”

As yet neither UMG or WITHIN have confirmed what content will likely be seen first. But this isn’t the first time they’ve worked together as WITHIN already has two immersive experiences available from UMG artists, animated VR music video for The Chemical Brothers’ song “Under Neon Lights” featuring St. Vincent. And “KIDS” by OneRepublic which premiered worldwide through the app.

“We are huge admirers of Chris’s innovative and creative work in music and VR, as well as the premium experiences WITHIN offers to music fans,” said Michele Anthony, Executive Vice President at UMG. “Working with our labels and artists, UMG has produced numerous VR experiences and this agreement will help evolve our strategy. Together, UMG and WITHIN will push the boundaries of how audiences experience music and create new ways for artists to forge deeper connections with their fans.”

VRFocus will continue its coverage of WITHIN and UMG, reporting back with the latest announcements.

Sony Music and MelodyVR Agree Licensing Deal

MelodyVR, a virtual reality (VR) music content platform which is a subsidiary of EVR Holdings PLC, has announced a new licensing and distribution agreement today with Sony Music Entertainment. This will give MelodyVR the right to produce and distribute VR content created with Sony Music artists. 

Sony Music’s current roster of artists includes both local musicians and international superstars, alongside a vast catalog featuring some of the biggest recordings in music history. It’s also home to Columbia Records, Epic Records, Legacy Recordings, Masterworks, RCA Records, Sony Classical, Sony Music Latin, and Syco Music.

Anthony Matchett, CEO of EVR Holdings, said in a statement: “I’m incredibly pleased to announce our global partnership with Sony Music for Virtual Reality content creation. We are thrilled to be working more closely with the Sony Music team and with their exceptional roster of talent, I look forward to us creating even more amazing content together.”

MelodyVR

“Over the last two years our company has worked tirelessly to secure the necessary licensing and rights for the creation and exploitation of Virtual Reality content with the world’s most recognisable, musicians and artists. The completion of our negotiations with all three of the world’s major record labels – Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and now Sony Music Entertainment, is an extremely significant milestone for our company and in my opinion, provides significant validation in regard to our market leading position, our on-going success and the long-term value of our business.”

The deal is a worldwide, multi-year agreement, which will enable VR content created with Sony Music artists to be available first on MelodyVR’s upcoming platform followed by a period of joint-exploitation by both parties.

This is the third major distribution announcement by MelodyVR, with the first coming in December 2016 after revealing a partnership with Warner Music Group (WMG). The second came in March this year, bringing Universal Music Group on board.

“Now that MelodyVR has secured the record label agreements needed to facilitate the global launch of our VR music platform, our focus is to expand upon the distribution network for the MelodyVR app and to increase the size and scale of our potential consumer base at launch,” continued Matchett. “Having recently announced a global partnership with Microsoft, that will see MelodyVR made available to over 500,000,000 Windows 10 consumers, we now seek to enter into further agreements with leading VR hardware and smartphone manufacturers such as Facebook, Samsung, Google, HTC and Sony PlayStation amongst others, further increasing the breadth and reach of MelodyVR.”

The MelodyVR app has yet to launch, with registrations open for the beta. While there’s been no official confirmation on when the app will become available, with this third deal in place it’s possible that MelodyVR will be a one-stop shop for the latest immersive music content. Most VR headset platforms will be supported, including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, Samsung Gear VR, Google Daydream, Google Cardboard and iOS.

For any further MelodyVR updates, keep reading VRFocus.

MelodyVR Partner With Universal Music Group

Music content platform MelodyVR has announced a partnership with Universal Music Group to bring virtual reality music experiences featuring UMG’s catalogue of artists to the platform.

Following on from MelodyVR’s addition of the Warner Music Catalogue to the platform in December last year, MelodyVR will now be able to offer content featuring artists from Universal Music Group’s significant roster. The content platform app will enable users to watch 360-degree video of concerts and see exclusive behind-the-scenes content such as interviews and backstage footage.

MelodyVR

Anthony Matchett, CEO of MelodyVR, said: “We’re incredibly excited to announce our agreement with Universal Music and look forward to working with their acclaimed roster of artists to create even more amazing VR experiences. We’re proud to feature Universal Music artists on the MelodyVR platform and we can’t wait to show music fans across the globe what we’ve been creating together.”

Michael Nash, Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy at UMG, said: “At Universal Music, virtual reality is one of several exciting new arenas, enabled by the evolution of technology, which we are developing for our artists to create deeper connections with their fans. Given the depth of engagement possible with VR, many of our artists are interested in producing more of this content and we have a robust pipeline of projects coming soon. We’re excited to work with MelodyVR to make these incredible new experiences available on their platform.”

MelodyVR is currently in Beta and is seeking testers to try the early version of the app and report feedback. You can sign up at the official MelodyVR website.

VRFocus will bring you further information on MelodyVR and related apps when it comes in.

VRLIVE And Avenged Sevenfold Partner For Global VR Event

This Thursday, 27th October multi-platinum rock band, Avenged Sevenfold will be holding a live-streamed 360-degree performance in partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG), Capitol Records and VRLIVE.

Streamed globally via UMG’s newly released VRTGO VR platform, powered by VRLIVE, fans will be able to experience Avenged Sevenfold’s set almost as if they were there. And for those at the concert, 50 Samsung Gear VR head-mounted displays (HMD) will be available so that attendees can see what it’s like actually on stage. This will all be shot using Nokia’s professional grade OZO camera which has been used for other similar events.

Universal Music Group Avenged Sevenfold

“We are constantly working to create opportunities for our artists to connect with their fans in new and exciting ways,” says Michelle Jubelirer, COO, Capitol Records. “We’re thrilled to work with Avenged Sevenfold and VRLIVE to bring this unique experience to Avenged Sevenfold fans around the world.”

“VRTGO is a truly immersive and creative platform for our artists to tell their stories and invite their fans around the world to experience live performances and music videos like never before,” says Deborah Hyacinth, SVP Digital Marketing Innovation, UMG. “We’ve employed state of the art technology to make VRTGO a cross-device platform and home to some of the world’s best VR content.”

“We are excited about our partnership with Universal Music Group as it gives us the opportunity to provide the viewing audience with unprecedented levels of access,” stated VRLIVE Founder and CEO Heiner Lippman.  “Virtual Reality is destined to change the media landscape, which will enable users to not just view entertainment, rather, it allows them to experience it, and VRLIVE will continue to transform how people view and interact with the world around them.”

Last week Avenged Sevenfold made headlines with the release of “The Stage,” a new track co-produced by the band and Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Tool).

To watch Avenged Sevenfold in action simply download the VRTGO app for free on either iOS or Android platforms. And for all the latest VR news from around the world, keep reading VRFocus.