This month Peter Jackson releases a new Beatles documentary, Get Back. Unreleased footage inside the recording studio for Let it Be. Culminating with the Beatles last ever live performance, on the rooftop of their head office.
Watching the trailer I was thinking: I wish I was there.
I'm sure you have dreamed of playing with your favourite band. Maybe it's Oasis at Knebworth, Coldplay at Glastonbury or Elton John at Dodgers Stadium.
The closest you get is the front row. For many, even that is a dream. Instead, Youtube clips of the latest shows will have to do.
How fans consume music has changed dramatically since the Beatles first record. You no longer need to sift through the records in your local store. You can listen to 'Let it be' instantly.
In contrast, how fan musicians play at home hasn't changed much.
In 1954 John Lennon was learning to play the guitar in his bedroom. The learning experience today is not much different. Today you have access to online guitar tabs, video lessons and backing tracks. But at the end of the day, you are still in your bedroom.
This is all about to change.
Virtual Reality will transform your bedroom into Abbey Road Studio.
This experience will be so real, it will make the hairs on your hands stand up.
VR is not a new idea. The first VR headsets were developed in the 1980s by Nasa. Later Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel Snow Crash imagined a world in which people used VR goggles to access a series of interconnected worlds called metaverses.
After decades of development, three important events are colliding. An increasing digital life accelerating by the pandemic, advances in VR technology and the blockchain.
The pandemic has accelerated our digital lives dramatically. Vast numbers of people primarily experience their colleagues digitally via Zoom. It is estimated that by 2025 4-6hrs of your day will be spent in virtual reality.
How fans experience music is also changing. 8 out of 10 people attended a live music performance online in 2020.
Artists are also investing in online performances. In 2021 Arianna Grande played a virtual concert in Minecraft to 78 million people.
Let that sink in for a second.
The "metaverse" has many sceptics. Many see this as a dystopian future rather than utopia. Music has also been at the forefront of innovation. When the Beatles recorded Sgt Peppers they pushed the boundaries of what was possible. There is an opportunity to push the boundaries further with virtual reality.
Today we have the most advanced VR technology that's ever existed. And it's only going to get better. Facebook have committed their future to the metaverse. They plan to hire 10,000 developers in Europe alone. This investment will lead to a rapid acceleration in technology. Owners of the Oculus Quest 2 headset already know how immersive the experience is today. Once you start playing in Virtual Reality, it will become the primary space where you experience music.
Blockchain is the final piece of the puzzle. Today music is centralised into a few big platforms. The experience is great for fans but many artists struggle to make a living. The blockchain changes this. It enables decentralised ownership of digital assets. This means artists who produce music will directly own their assets. No middle men.
This is done through Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). A way to have verifiable ownership of a digital asset. Already at $10.7 Billion sales volume in Q3 2021 this will only grow. NFT's will become the primary way artists sell music and concert tickets. Most exciting is that virtual reality offers new revenue streams.
Gaming already has a massive economy around digital assets. Characters, player skins and weapons. The most rare have a huge price tag. The same idea can be applied to music. Guitar Skins, Digital Amps, Digital Band T-Shirts. The opportunities are endless. Your next guitar could be a digital telecaster to play in the metaverse.
These ideas might sound like a far distant future. But many of these are possible today.
GuitarXR will make this world a reality.
Our first offering brings virtual reality to guitar players.
Plugin your guitar. Put on your VR headset. You are then transported from your bedroom into a live music studio. You can play Don't Look Back In Anger alongside a professional house band. The immersion is spine tingling.
But this is just the start.
We are building a music metaverse. A new digital world to transform who artists and fans experience music.
Enabling fans to have the live music experience from home. Breaking down the barriers between artists and fans through virtual reality spaces. Opening a marketplace for new digital assets to be traded. The future for concerts is even more exciting. With this new virtual reality, why be a static member of the audience. Be fully immersed in the experience with the band.
Most of all using virtual reality to create deeper connections within the music community. Virtual Reality enables relationships to grow. Your next band will exist of members entirely from the metaverse.
Join the movement today. Sign up for GuitarXR beta access.
"Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one."
Watching the trailer I was thinking: I wish I was there.
I'm sure you have dreamed of playing with your favourite band. Maybe it's Oasis at Knebworth, Coldplay at Glastonbury or Elton John at Dodgers Stadium.
The closest you get is the front row. For many, even that is a dream. Instead, Youtube clips of the latest shows will have to do.
How fans consume music has changed dramatically since the Beatles first record. You no longer need to sift through the records in your local store. You can listen to 'Let it be' instantly.
In contrast, how fan musicians play at home hasn't changed much.
In 1954 John Lennon was learning to play the guitar in his bedroom. The learning experience today is not much different. Today you have access to online guitar tabs, video lessons and backing tracks. But at the end of the day, you are still in your bedroom.
This is all about to change.
Virtual Reality will transform your bedroom into Abbey Road Studio.
This experience will be so real, it will make the hairs on your hands stand up.
VR is not a new idea. The first VR headsets were developed in the 1980s by Nasa. Later Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel Snow Crash imagined a world in which people used VR goggles to access a series of interconnected worlds called metaverses.
After decades of development, three important events are colliding. An increasing digital life accelerating by the pandemic, advances in VR technology and the blockchain.
The pandemic has accelerated our digital lives dramatically. Vast numbers of people primarily experience their colleagues digitally via Zoom. It is estimated that by 2025 4-6hrs of your day will be spent in virtual reality.
How fans experience music is also changing. 8 out of 10 people attended a live music performance online in 2020.
Artists are also investing in online performances. In 2021 Arianna Grande played a virtual concert in Minecraft to 78 million people.
Let that sink in for a second.
The "metaverse" has many sceptics. Many see this as a dystopian future rather than utopia. Music has also been at the forefront of innovation. When the Beatles recorded Sgt Peppers they pushed the boundaries of what was possible. There is an opportunity to push the boundaries further with virtual reality.
Today we have the most advanced VR technology that's ever existed. And it's only going to get better. Facebook have committed their future to the metaverse. They plan to hire 10,000 developers in Europe alone. This investment will lead to a rapid acceleration in technology. Owners of the Oculus Quest 2 headset already know how immersive the experience is today. Once you start playing in Virtual Reality, it will become the primary space where you experience music.
Blockchain is the final piece of the puzzle. Today music is centralised into a few big platforms. The experience is great for fans but many artists struggle to make a living. The blockchain changes this. It enables decentralised ownership of digital assets. This means artists who produce music will directly own their assets. No middle men.
This is done through Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). A way to have verifiable ownership of a digital asset. Already at $10.7 Billion sales volume in Q3 2021 this will only grow. NFT's will become the primary way artists sell music and concert tickets. Most exciting is that virtual reality offers new revenue streams.
Gaming already has a massive economy around digital assets. Characters, player skins and weapons. The most rare have a huge price tag. The same idea can be applied to music. Guitar Skins, Digital Amps, Digital Band T-Shirts. The opportunities are endless. Your next guitar could be a digital telecaster to play in the metaverse.
These ideas might sound like a far distant future. But many of these are possible today.
GuitarXR will make this world a reality.
Our first offering brings virtual reality to guitar players.
Plugin your guitar. Put on your VR headset. You are then transported from your bedroom into a live music studio. You can play Don't Look Back In Anger alongside a professional house band. The immersion is spine tingling.
But this is just the start.
We are building a music metaverse. A new digital world to transform who artists and fans experience music.
Enabling fans to have the live music experience from home. Breaking down the barriers between artists and fans through virtual reality spaces. Opening a marketplace for new digital assets to be traded. The future for concerts is even more exciting. With this new virtual reality, why be a static member of the audience. Be fully immersed in the experience with the band.
Most of all using virtual reality to create deeper connections within the music community. Virtual Reality enables relationships to grow. Your next band will exist of members entirely from the metaverse.
Join the movement today. Sign up for GuitarXR beta access.
"Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one."