Vertigo Games released its latest virtual reality (VR) shooter After the Fall for most major headsets in 2021, managing $1.4 million in sales during the first 24 hours. If you’re a PlayStation VR owner hoping for a physical edition then you’re in luck, there’s one on the way in the form of the Frontrunner Edition.
Part of Vertigo Games’ Frontrunner Season for After the Fall, PlayStation VR’s After the Fall – Frontrunner Edition will be an exclusive physical version due to arrive on 25th March retailing for £39.99 GBP/$49.99 USD. It’ll feature:
Full access to the Frontrunner Season
PSVR exclusive “Ultimate Buster” Skin
After the Fall PS4 Theme & Avatars
After the Fall Official Digital Soundtrack
After the Fall Digital Artbook
The After the Fall – Frontrunner Season kicks off this month for all supported headsets (Meta Quest 2, PC VR and PSVR). It’s free for all current players who purchased the Launch -and Deluxe Editions of After the Fall, adding new gameplay modes, more locations and additional weapons. These will all be gradually rolled out during the upcoming months.
After the Fall is primarily a 4-player co-op where you and your teammates go on Harvest Runs to collect valuable resources, all the while fighting off the deadly Snowbreed. Once human, these are now monstrous mutations living in the frozen wasteland that is an alternate future, Los Angeles.
The videogame features 32-player hubs so if you don’t have enough party members another can easily join. Or bots are available to make up the numbers when required. Harvest Runs offer the chance to gain valuable loot to upgrade your weapons, making your next run even more devastating. Inbetween runs you can also try out the other mode, a 4v4 competitive multiplayer.
As further details regarding After the Fall’s – Frontrunner Season are released, gmw3 will let you know.
In 2003, Mark Zuckerberg — then a second-year student at Harvard — wrote the software for a site called Facemash. He also hacked into the university’s security network, copying student ID images used by the dormitories and pasting them into his site code. Visitors of Facemash were encouraged to compare two student photos side-by-side and then vote on which one was “hotter”.
Three days after its launch, Facemash was shut down by Harvard executives. After dodging charges of breach of security, violating individual privacy and narrowly avoiding expulsion, Zuckerberg would launch a new website to connect with his peers — TheFacebook. His road to riches was set — but so would be his controversy-laden trail.
Fast-forward down this path and you might already know that in 2022, Meta (the social media giant’s rebranded name) has been bestowed with what appears to be a rocky start. From meteoric stock drops to a failed cryptocurrency launch, things haven’t been looking peachy for Zuckerberg’s hoped-for metaverse empire.
Is this just a blip in the radar for Meta, or are we starting to see Zuckerberg’s resolve finally crack? Is it possible that Meta might not be cut out for Web3? Let’s take a look at some of the things that have happened since the start of the year, before diving into what this might mean for the tech giant’s future.
A historic decrease in market capitalisation
Last week, Meta Platforms Inc. faced a historic drop in their stock price — losing a total of $31 billion USD in market value — the largest ever recorded one-day loss in history for a US-based company. Since then, its stock has continued to decline — allowing the company to see the loss of roughly one-third of its value in less than a week.
This has also brought Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth down from $120.6 billion to about $92 billion, effectively pushing him outside of the list of the world’s top 10 wealthiest people.
This change was reportedly due to a massive decline in Facebook’s user base, with the social media giant’s fourth-quarter results falling short of analysts’ expectations. Since May 2020, this is the first time that Meta has been worth less than $600 billion. Moreover, this has given other tech giants a major boost in value — such as NVIDIA, which has now closed at $627 billion.
To top things off, recent spending via the Reality Labs Division — the company’s business unit focused on developing greater XR initiatives for the metaverse — has also caused Meta to experience a loss of more than $10 billion from its first entry points into Web3. What has this money been spent on? According to the company’s CFO, $4.2 billion of lost funds have been spent on “employee costs, research and development and costs of items sold.”
Jacob Furst, director and professor at DePaul University’s College of Computing and Digital Media, poses a great question: “For a technology platform that has, since it was created, been growing — when you reach a peak, what do you do now when you can’t grow any more — if your business model is based on acquiring new customers and growing?”
A soured relationship with Apple
Starting with iOS 14.5 and all later versions, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework requires that apps ask for users’ permission before they can track them across any apps or websites they visit. The latest iOS update has allowed users to manually select whether they wish to be tracked for ads or other related purposes. It has also snuffed the IDFA (identifier for advertisers) — a unique device code that allows companies to track users’ activity across iOS apps and services for ad targeting.
This feature change has taken a huge blow to Meta’s business model. In the past week, the company revealed that this shift in function is projected to reduce the social media company’s sales this year by up to $10 billion.
Zuckerberg has been vocal about his animosity towards the change, framing it as detrimental to small businesses who use Facebook’s platform to target their customers and generate leads. If iOS users opt-out of tracking, this will give Facebook or other ad providers far less data to source for targeted advertising — making it tougher for businesses to target local customers.
Despite this blowback, however, Apple has continuously defended its deployment of App Tracking Transparency (ATT) — with representatives asserting that the option to give users a choice on whether they want to be tracked or not supports their business model against competitors.
Following the launch of ATT, Apple has also spoken against surveillance capitalism, claiming that: “Some apps have trackers embedded in them that are taking more data than they need. Sharing it with third parties, like advertisers and data brokers, [has been] happening without your knowledge or permission. Your information is for sale. You have become the product.”
This, of course, isn’t the first instance of privacy violation being tied to Zuckerberg’s empire. And should Meta become a leader in the metaverse, are we right to fear that it won’t be the last?
Failure to launch its own crypto
In an attempt to work with the crypto and blockchain technologies that are collectively building Web3, Meta ended 2021 with a goal to achieve ‘deep compatibility’ with blockchain. By co-founding the Diem Association, the hope was that the organisation would serve as Meta’s monetary authority. However, the company’s attempt to launch its own sponsored cryptocurrency has also petered out.
Meta’s cryptocurrency project was designed to “empower billions of people”, with hopes that 1.7 billion users would be able to create their own digital wallets. However, Meta and its partners were met with resistance from regulators.
A reported quarter of the founding members of the project dropped out before their inaugural meeting in Geneva — including service giants such as Visa, Mastercard, eBay and PayPal. According to Bloomberg, the Diem Association has made the decision to sell its assets after ultimately admitting defeat. Meta has apparently agreed to sell any of their assets tied to the project for about $200 million.
Failure to join the crypto space doesn’t bode well for Meta — particularly in the toughening regulatory environment we are currently seeing as we transition from Web2 to Web3. Moreover, the foundering of their project reveals something even more dismal — that Meta may be struggling to build new things in a landscape where that very thing is paramount.
Why the sudden decline?
These quarterly earnings reports have revealed a rather alarming statistic: that for the first time ever, Meta’s growth has stagnated across the world. For the first time in its 18-year history, Facebook has lost daily users — with the largest losses occurring in Africa, Latin America and India. It’s predicted that Zuckerberg’s quest to add as many users to the platform as possible may have reached its peak.
So, what might be causing interest in Facebook to wane?
For one, its user base seems to be ageing out of the platform. In 2019, teenage users of Facebook in the US had declined by 13% and have now been projected to have dropped by a whopping 45%. Competitor platform TikTok, which now sees a total of 1 billion users worldwide (with a growth of 10% in just the last year), appears to have become the new app of choice for Gen Z users. Instagram’s popularity, in contrast to its counterpart under the greater Meta umbrella, has also remained intact.
Even Chris Cox, Facebook’s chief product officer, has addressed the shrinking number of users under the age of 40: “Most young adults perceive Facebook as a place for people in their 40s and 50s.” Moreover, he’s admitted that “young adults perceive content as boring, misleading and negative. They often have to get past irrelevant content to get to what matters.”
All of this — coupled with some of the reputational damage we mentioned earlier — makes it largely unsurprising that Meta seems to be alienating a good chunk of its user base. In its constant push for data, Facebook has been losing the trust of its users for quite some time. Between several instances of privacy violation and data breaching, an ongoing antitrust case, questionable censorship rules and now revelations of mental health endangerment from one of its former staff members, it should only seem right that we, as users, hold the platform accountable for failing to comply with the law and for putting our personal data at risk.
Of course, all of this also poses a final question: do we really want to bring these themes into Web3?
Web3 is intended to be the successor to our current internet — which is probably why it’s being characterised by concepts of greater freedom, autonomy and creative control through a more decentralised framework. Web3’s very foundation is being built upon the idea that the type of control seen in the earlier days of the web will be returned to users and brands — the control that platforms like Facebook have taken away. People are tired of having their data misused — and younger audiences are right to be less than enamoured by a platform that their predecessors no longer trust.
What’s next?
Despite recent setbacks, Zuckerberg has asserted that he is nevertheless encouraged by Meta’s progress and that he will continue to invest in its future, also citing Instagram’s Reels as an important growth area for the business as a whole. However, what does this spell for Meta’s path towards metaverse leadership — particularly as we see decentralised platforms (such as Decentraland and The Sandbox) start to build greater user bases and communities for Web3?
So far, the forecast doesn’t look too good for Meta’s Reality Labs Division. The company’s losses experienced in 2021 were apparently in line with Zuckerberg’s estimated investments and are expected to be even bigger this year. In fact, reports suggest that Reality Labs has put a massive drag on Meta’s overall margin — preventing the company from having up to $56 billion in profit. According to Meta’s CFO, operating losses are expected to “increase meaningfully” in 2022.
With plans to build the world’s fastest AI supercomputer, it appears that Zuckerberg isn’t ready to rest just yet. But if many of his users are, this certainly spells trouble for Meta’s future in Web3. Time will tell what happens next.
Every weekend gmw3 gathers together vacancies from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industries, in locations around the globe to help make finding that ideal job easier. Below is a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on immersive entertainment.
Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hubto check as well.
If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).
We’ll see you next week on gmw3 at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
British developer Maze Theory (Doctor Who: The Edge of Time)initially revealed plans for an officially licensed version of hit TV show Peaky Blinders back in 2019, offering fans the chance to really step into the gangster drama. Several release windows have been mentioned since then but today the team has unveiled a new trailer as well as earmarking 2022 as the launch year.
Working in collaboration with Peaky Blinders‘ series owner and series producer, Caryn Mandabach Productions, Maze Theory has been able to introduce new characters alongside favourites such as Tommy Shelby and Arthur Shelby – voiced by Cillian Murphy and Paul Anderson respectively.
Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom will be authentic to the show, where players can experience Birmingham’s underground world during atmospheric 1920s England. It’ll feature dramatic cinematic moments with them having to “make meaningful and complex moral choices to earn their place,” notes the studio.
“For the first time, fans will have access to believable and responsive characters from Peaky Blinders, coming face-to-face with Tommy Shelby and encountering first-hand some terrifying situations. It’s an intense and thrilling experience,” Maze Theory’s CEO Ian Hambleton said in a statement.
Iconic locations such as the Garrison Pub, Charlie’s Yard and Shelby’s Betting Shop will appear throughout. As an added extra for fans, they’ll be able to unlock easter eggs to learn even more about each character’s history in the show.
“At Maze Theory, we’re committed to pushing the boundaries of entertainment and creating highly innovative fan and gaming experiences,” Hambleton continues. “We’re very excited to be giving fans and VR enthusiasts access to the Peaky Blinders’ world.”
Jamie Glazebrook, Executive Producer of season 1 – 6 Peaky Blinders, Caryn Mandabach Productions adds: “Maze Theory has brought the world of Peaky Blinders to life in an entirely new way. Now you have the chance to walk the streets of Small Heath alongside the Shelby family. I can’t wait for the fans to experience this.”
While it’s great to hear Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom is on its way there’s still no confirmation regarding supported headsets. You can learn more about the tech behind the videogame as well as Maze Theory’s plans for the future in gmw3’s interview with Hambleton.
A year ago gmw3 reported on Sir David Attenborough once again lending his narration skills to another immersive project, The Green Planet AR Experience. An in-person augmented reality (AR) experience inspired by the natural history series, tomorrow it’ll open for the first time; located at Piccadilly Circus in London, UK.
A collaborative effort created by Factory 42 with BBC Studios and powered by EE’s 5G network, The Green Planet AR Experience offers guests the chance to wander through six digitally enhanced environments – including rainforests, freshwater and saltwater worlds, and desert landscapes.
Upon entering the experience guests are provided with a 5G-enabled smartphone: “which acts as their dynamic window into the world of plants.” They’ll also get to enjoy the company of a virtual Sir David Attenborough who’ll guide them on this natural history adventure.
“You’ll see that plants can be as aggressive, competitive and dramatic as any living thing on the planet – and how they form intriguing relationships with animals. And you’ll discover why plants are so vital for the future of our planet. Your device is a window into a secret world,” says Sir David Attenborough in a statement.
The Green Planet AR Experience takes around 40-60 minutes is free to attend but tickets are limited, released periodically. There are none available for the initial opening but more tickets will be released on 17th February so make sure to keep an eye out. The entire event runs until 9th March 2022.
The entire project is the work of The Green Planet 5G AR Consortium, made up of six creative, technology and scientific organisations. It was one of nine projects to win £2.2m GBP funding from the UK government’s 5G Create competition backed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.
For continued updates on the latest AR use cases, keep reading gmw3.
A couple of weeks ago Japanese virtual reality (VR) developer Amata K.K. revealed its next project, an action-adventure called The Tale of Onogoro. Today, the first solid gameplay details have been unveiled, alongside a new trailer and confirmation that it’ll be a Meta Quest exclusive.
Combining Japanese culture and steampunk elements, The Tale of Onogoro sees you join Japanese high priestess Haru Kose on a journey through a fantasy world filled with puzzles and giant beings called “Kami”.
“These Kami often manifest as “Incensed Kami” and go on rampages, causing havoc in their wake. Shinto priests and priestesses are dispatched by shrines to quell each Incensed Kami that manifests, risking their lives to protect the citizens,” explains the synopsis.
“One day, it is reported that five Incensed Kami have manifested on the sacred floating island, Onogoro Island. Haru, as the High Priestess of the Grand Holy Shrine: Daijingu is dispatched to the island to see to the matter. However, the man responsible for the appearance of the five Incensed Kami on the island, Masatake Arakida, attacks Haru and steals parts of her body. He then chains her to a quelling stone and locks her away in a shrine. In a desperate attempt to summon reinforcements, Haru accidentally summons the Player to her world.”
You are a ghost-like character in Kose’s world able to interact with it by using divine ancient relics called the Celestial Weapons. With these devices, you can interact with various puzzle elements, fight the Kami and manoeuvre the quelling stone she’s attached to. Keeping Kose alive is vital as you’re both linked, so if one of you takes damage so does the other.
From the looks of it, The Tale of Onogoro is shaping up to be a much bigger VR title than Amata K.K.’s previous project, Last Labyrinth.
Coming to Meta Quest this spring, The Tale of Onogoro will retail for $29.99 USD. Check out the new trailer below and for further updates keep reading gmw3.
The latest videogame company to announce metaverse plans is Bandai Namco as part of its mid-term plan that’ll run from April 2022 to March 2025. This will see it invest ¥15.0 billion Yen ($130 million USD) in an “IP Metaverse”, designed to create communities and content fans with their favourite Bandai Namco franchises.
Bandai Namco’s new logo for 2022
With an IP library of videogames that includes Dark Souls, Soul Caliber, Pac-Man, Gundam, the upcoming Elden Ring, and virtual reality (VR) titles such as Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown and One Piece Grand Cruise VR, Bandai Namco has a rich roster to pick from. Then there’s all the anime content.
The “metaverse” is quite the buzzword at the moment, with most tech and videogame companies expressing some interest in developing a metaverse plan. Alongside the ¥15.0 billion that’ll help “Establishment of data foundation (data universe), [and] development of content,” Bandai Namco will also incest ¥25.0 billion (approx. $215 million) in new IP creation and “Groupwide IP projects.”
“In this IP Metaverse, we are anticipating virtual spaces that will enable customers to enjoy a wide range of entertainment on an IP axis, as well as frameworks that leverage Bandai Namco’s distinctive strengths to fuse physical products and venues with digital elements,” stated Bandai Namco’s mid-term plan, first reported by VGC.”
“Through the IP Metaverse, we will establish communities among Bandai Namco and fans, as well as among fans themselves. Through these communities and content, we will build deep, broad, multifaceted connections that continue for long periods of time, and we will focus on the quality of those connections. In this way, we will work to maximize IP value over the medium to long term.”
This isn’t Bandai Namco’s first dalliance with the metaverse though. During the Tokyo Games Show (TGS) in 2021 as part of its digital component, the company had a massive presence in the Digital Area where guests could learn all about its latest videogames.
Could the Bandai Namco metaverse be one homogenous whole or a fragmented selection of IP’s, at the moment that’s unknown? When details do arise, gmw3 will let you know.
Cortopia Studios’ magic-based PvP title Wands has been doing the rounds since the days of Samsung Gear VR. Now the studio has announced a spiritual successor to the competitive multiplayer, Wands Alliances.
Set in an alternate Victorian-era London, Cortopia Studios and publisher Beyond Frames have said that Wands Alliances will feature team-based 3v3 gameplay. Players will have to: “tactically utilize their play space and covers to achieve victory against their opponents.”
That roomscale addition will certainly change the dynamic of Wands’ original gameplay where you teleported between various spots around an arena. It sounds like it could be similar to the Space Pirate Trainer DX update that added an arena mode requiring a 10m x 10m (32ft x 32ft). Whilst that made for some epic virtual combat, trying to find an area that large which has WiFi was always easy.
That’s likely not the case as most players will want to play at home. Either way, no footage of Wands Alliances has been shown so far so you’ll have to wait and see. A teaser trailer was released highlighting a selection of weapons that look like upgraded magical staffs from the first videogame.
Wands. Image credit: Cortopia Studios
“We wanted to challenge ourselves to find a room scale gameplay mechanic in a PvP game, whereas most other titles in the genre deliver a more stationary play style. We found the Wands universe to be the right path and we have worked really hard to bring 3v3 magical battles to VR in a completely new package,” said Ricky Helgesson, co-founder of Beyond Frames and Head of Design at Cortopia. “We’re finally getting ready to launch Wands Alliances in 2022, almost 6 years after Wands in 2016 and I cannot wait to start playing it with the wider VR community.”
Wands Alliances is currently slated to arrive for Meta Quest 2 during 2022. For continued updates on the title, keep reading gmw3.
If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? To be fair, the same can be asked about music. If it can’t be shared with anyone other than its creator, then what value does it truly hold?
Since its early days, the landscape of the internet has transformed how music files are shared, consumed and monetised. From the days of Napster to the kingship of current streaming services, continuous advancements in digital technologies have played a key role in scaling the music industry over the course of our digital era. Within the last decade, digital streaming platforms like Spotify have further revolutionised how people consume music — serving as an intermediary between artists and labels and charging users a small fee for unbounded access and customised offerings.
However, Spotify has not shied away from its own controversy — with recent reports accusing the streaming giant of not giving artists the lion’s share of their generated revenue. On the flip side, blockchain technology is now presenting new ways for artists to directly market the rights to their work without any need for intermediaries. It’s now widely predicted that thanks to the growing adoption of NFTs in the music industry, popular music streaming services are now treading through murky waters.
So, what’s next for digital music sharing? First, let’s do a quick recap on the history and current pitfalls of digital file-sharing and streaming services. We’ll then break down what music NFTs are and how we may see blockchain technology eventually cannibalise the music streaming industry as we know it.
The earlier (and slower) days of music file sharing
Before we all gained access to the World Wide Web, the practice of making computer files available to anyone across a unified network was completely unheard of. But once the internet became a household concept, file sharing quickly became one of its most revolutionary advents. When the internet became mainstream, we saw the opening of Pandora’s box for unbridled access to licenced digital music, downloads and illegal file-sharing.
Those old enough to remember the early days of file-sharing might recall using now-antiquated P2P (peer-to-peer) sharing applications (such as Napster or LimeWire) to download audio or video files. Few things can still match the excitement of completing a day-long download of a new track on a 56k modem — but the unfair utility of these platforms was known by everyone (and was even behind one of music’s biggest controversies).
Of course, the key issue behind regular music downloading was piracy. Unlicenced music was often sourced from illegally uploaded audio files, uploaded to live on the hard drives of millions of users and then shared across a vast network, allowing zero royalties to be absorbed by the artists themselves. Everyone loved having access to their favourite music without having to pay for it, but everyone also knew they weren’t exactly supporting the industry’s greater backbone. Today, we can see how this concept helped redefine the way we think about issues such as copyright, intellectual property and monetisation.
Digital service providers (such as Spotify and Apple Music) eventually became the preferred way for users to share and consume music online, helping to curb illegal file sharing and serving as a middleman between artists and record labels. Unlike peer-to-peer sharing applications, streaming services have actually incentivised listeners to fork out a small amount of money in exchange for access to continuous streaming, a near-unlimited music library and personalised recommendations created through sophisticated data collection.
Many experts believe that in the wake of illegal P2P sharing, Spotify should be credited for saving the music industry. According to Bill Werde, former editor of Billboard and current director of the Bandier Program in Recording and Entertainment Industries at Syracuse University: “Before there was streaming, the [music] business had lost revenue for 15 straight years. Once streaming took hold, those losses flattened out. Now, over the last four or so years we’ve seen growth.”
From the sounds of it, Spotify has ostensibly saved the music industry from a long reign of music piracy. So, why is this belief not shared by everyone in the biz?
The problem with today’s music streaming platforms
In the last fiscal year, Spotify has reportedly generated a total of $8 billion USD in collective revenue. With 100 million subscribers across the globe, the platform has proven to be popular in multiple markets worldwide. Apple Music is the streaming giant’s closest competitor, boasting approximately half of Spotify’s global subscriber base.
What’s the deal, then? Well, it appears that the other main incentive behind their paid subscription model — the idea that users can pay for artists to be fairly remunerated for their work — hasn’t quite become the utopic alternative to illegal downloading, if you ask several big names in music.
Last year, a long list of UK artists including Paul McCartney, Kate Bush and Stevie Nicks wrote a petition to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, calling for new legislation to protect artists against unfair compensation. Organised by the Musicians’ Union, the letter argued for a change in legislation that would “put the value of music back where it belongs — in the hands of music makers.”
Independent artists who also found themselves frustrated with inequity organised a series of protests (called “Justice at Spotify”) that took place in front of the streaming platform’s various worldwide offices. Led by electronic artist Julia Holter, the group demanded increased payments to right holders and greater transparency for musicians.
With current clauses in place, the majority of revenue generated from streaming fills the pockets of the labels. A good chunk of major labels reportedly take 50-80% of artists’ royalties, leaving them with less than half of their income before further cuts are taken by managers and distributors. And as for session musicians? They typically receive nothing.
To worsen matters, streaming became a primary source of revenue for most musicians in the post-pandemic climate. An average of 80% of musicians’ income reportedly comes from touring — which means that the inability to tour, play gigs or sell merchandise in person has left most artists in some sort of financial turmoil.
This blatant discontent in the music industry has most certainly placed Spotify on the docket. No musician wants to be left financially helpless — and the sustainability of a platform that leaves artists scrambling to earn a living has the fair right to be questioned.
Will artists eventually be able to leverage a system that will allow them to get the maximum value out of their creations, all while allowing them to feel empowered by the platforms that they use? Does NFT technology present a viable solution to this problem?
NFTs: a new way to access music
Non-fungible tokens (or NFTs) are unique digital assets, with ownership that can be established and stored on a digital ledger via blockchain technology. 2021 saw the rise of NFTs — primarily in the form of digital art. Now-popular monikers such as Beeple, Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks probably come to mind.
However, NFTs aren’t just expensive cartoons traded and touted by elite figures and celebrities. Anything — from a song to a concert ticket to a digital contract — can be an NFT. In the music world, an NFT can simply be defined as a rare collectable file that is unique. Think of it as an original painting or an autographed vinyl cover — there are many different copies of these items and more can be reproduced, but the NFT version will always be one of a kind.
Saxo Bank, a Danish investment bank, publishes a set of ten “outrageous predictions” each year. At the end of 2021, one of their predictions has been outlined quite clearly:
“Musicians are ready for change, as the current music streaming paradigm means that labels and streaming platforms capture 75-95 percent of revenue paid for listening to streamed music. In 2022, new blockchain-based technology will help them grab back their fair share of industry revenues.”
What benefits can NFTs offer artists?
While the NFT marketplace may currently look like a chaotic art-trading auction, the future appears to be very bright for NFT technology. An NFT-based platform won’t just offer artists a new way to verify ownership of rights — it will also allow them to distribute rights without needing the help of intermediaries (for example, Spotify or Apple Music).
NFTs won’t just allow artists to monetise their content in real-time — their technology will also allow them to do so directly and fairly. As it currently stands, Spotify’s current model doesn’t direct each individual subscriber’s fees towards the actual music they listen to — instead, all subscription fee revenues are shared based on each artist’s total number of streams. “Smart contract” blockchains, however, would distribute music directly to listeners without any centralised intermediaries taking a cut.
As blockchain technology will enable artists to be paid in real-time, this will also allow them to more accurately and consistently track their revenue streams. This means that NFTs will concurrently transform how listeners and consumers will be able to support musicians. Cryptocurrencies will also ensure that fans’ contributions are going directly into the wallets of their favourite artists, giving them the peace of mind that they’re actually supporting their work.
While this all might sound quite idealistic and easier to execute in theory, a creator’s economy will also provide independent artists with more creative ways to connect more directly with their fans and followers through NFTs — something not offered by rigid, standardised platforms like Spotify. Artists won’t just be restricted to sharing audio files — they’ll also be able to tack greater utility onto their NFTs, such as access to exclusive content, merchandise, backstage passes and much more.
Without an intermediary in place to choose how funds are aggregated and distributed, artists will be able to customise their streaming rates and choose how much they charge for any piece of content. Likewise, fans will also have full control over how much they choose to contribute to an artist’s work. If someone feels that an artist’s work is worth $10k or even $100k, they’ll have the opportunity to place that full amount into their hands. In short, the fans and artists will make the ultimate decisions — not the platforms.
In the words of Dallas-based rapper Rakim-Al Jabbaar: “NFTs will give artists another outlet to create exclusive content for fans in a more artistic fashion. In the future, we’ll see the value of songs appreciate, like Basquiat paintings.”
Which projects have been successful so far?
Several artists are already starting to discover the potential offered by digital assets. From musicians to filmmakers to podcasters, figures in several corners of the entertainment industry are now using NFTs to tokenise and monetise their content.
Last year, Canadian electronic artist Grimes sold her first NFT collection for a total of $6 million. American DJ and producer 3LAU recently auctioned unique NFTs of his vinyl collection Ultraviolet, raking in an unbelievable $11 million in total earnings. Legendary EDM artist Deadmau5 has entered the NFT space with RAREZ, his own digital collectable line. Fans who join the RAREZ community are offered the ability to purchase ‘packs’, all while getting the chance to earn NFTs with varying levels of rarity. Other artists that have jumped on the NFT train include Paris Hilton, Shakira and Serj Tankian.
Will we see blockchain-supported streaming services also come to the fore? It appears so.
Catalog is a new digital record store that allows artists to release tracks as NFTs through an open music market. And taking a leaf from the model of Web1 platforms, music platform Audius has launched its own fully decentralised, peer-to-peer NFT music streaming service. Audius allows users to upload their own music and monetise through tokens, rather than through generated royalties. Both creators and users are also able to upload content for no cost and without the oversight of a third party.
Austin Virts, head of crypto marketing at Audius, highlights the significance of allowing an NFT streaming service to enter the music space: “There hasn’t really been anywhere [until] now for individuals who are not signed to a major record label to develop and grow an audience. Audius [is] utilising blockchain technology to provide the platform for over 90% of artists who are being pushed around and not catered to by massive record labels.”
What does this spell for the streaming industry and the future of music?
While music streaming platforms were originally presented as an alternative to online piracy, they haven’t quite gotten the remuneration model right.
This inequity problem has positioned NFTs to cause a complete revolution in the music industry — and it appears that both artists and investors are ready for it. Should these centralised streaming services fail to adapt to the newer demands and constructs of the music market, they will very likely face significant disruption to their business models.
As we enter a new era of the creator economy, it’s clear that both artists and fans want to see all aspects of their business models be characterised by the ideas of creative control, greater autonomy and community. Web3 is a new space that might be noisy, confusing and nascent — but it’s very clearly building a better, more profitable future for artists and creatives.
It’s time to empower musicians, allow them to take back greater control of their work and allow them to create ecosystems around themselves, rather than to place them within ecosystems that are no longer allowing them to survive. This is what Web3 is here to do.
Devolver Digital is well known for its outlandish videogames, both in and out of virtual reality (VR) with titles like Gornand Serious Sam VR. This week sees the publisher unveil the first details for a monstrous experience currently being built by indie developer Firepunchd; Tentacular VR.
Get ready for a tantalizingly tactile new VR game from @Firepunchd and Devolver Digital…
Only a few teasing video shorts have been released on Twitter so far, showcasing a quaint little seaside town nestled on the island of Lakalma, full of pint-sized inhabitants. With a David Attenborough-esque narration, the short trailer introduces what the townsfolk like to call “The Monster”. Which is where you come in.
Giant tentacles rise from the water and stuck to them are boats, shipping containers and other debris. From the looks of it, you’ve got full motion control over your tentacle arms but for what reason? Well, Firepunchd has a couple more teasing gameplay videos showcasing what looks to be a VR building experience of sorts. It’s unclear if Tentacular VR is about helping the community with your giant arms or causing chaos, as another video shows the player smashing stuff up.
More details are due to be released during the course of the week. As yet, there’s been no indication regarding what platforms Tentacular VR will support or when it might be arriving.
This will be the first VR title from Firepunchd aka Simon Cubasch, who has previously created mobile and PC games including Chicken Jump, Cool Cubes, Killscreen and Ridiculous Glitching.
As Firepunchd and Devolver Digital release further details for Tentacular VR, gmw3 will keep you updated.
