Hello everyone and especially New Age, Space, Ambient and Contemporary Classical music fans! The Mallorca 360 Season 1 Soundtrack, which includes the tracks used on Mallorca 360’s relaxing 360º VR videos is now available on for purchase and streaming:

Purchase

• Gumroad (direct from me and package includes extras): https://gum.co/vROkH
• Bandcamp: https://francoesteve.bandcamp.com/album/mallorca-360-season-1-original-series-soundtrack
• CDBaby (my distributor): https://goo.gl/TUsq6u
• iTunes / Apple Music: https://goo.gl/NZdX5z
• Amazon (España): https://amzn.to/2JJHWoA
• Amazon (USA): https://amzn.to/2O6j4L6
• Amazon (UK): https://amzn.to/2uRgf84
• Google Play: https://goo.gl/t859Ac
• Tidal: http://tidal.com/es/store/album/91362884

Streaming

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7naHQI18Ib57kUrUOxXv0H?si=lr2FnAbTTSWKTDOcGWimHw
• Apple Music: https://goo.gl/NZdX5z
• Google Play: https://goo.gl/t859Ac
• Tidal: https://goo.gl/c8E3bT
• Deezer: https://goo.gl/ayNj4i

It’s also available on all the popular online stores and streaming services, so go get it!

Some of my patrons got to listen to the music before everyone else as well as getting it free. Become my patron now right on Patreon: https://patreon.com/FrancoEsteve There are different tiers, but I like to give value to all patrons, so no matter which tier you choose, you’ll get something and a huge thank you from me, of course.

Haven’t seen the videos or heard the music?

Here are the links to the videos on YouTube:

1. Song: Alien Planet- Video: Mallorca 360 Formentor Talaia d’Albercutx Tower View in 360º VR 4K- Link: https://youtu.be/NArTgAy7Brg

2. Song: Siurana Spell — Video: Mallorca 360 Siurana Water Canal in Muro in 360º VR 4K- Link: https://youtu.be/7c00mddjprY

3. Song: The Wait (the single from my upcoming contemporary classical album, The Hunt) — Video: Mallorca 360 Music Mix of 360º VR images and video 1.0 4K- Link: https://youtu.be/LGMRu9Zt0vI

4. Song: Ethereal- Video: Mallorca 360 S’illot Beach View in 360º 4K- Link: https://youtu.be/cIlcR5zPBu4

5. Song: Lament (Mallorca 360 Version)- Video: Mallorca 360 Son Serra de Marina Dunes View in 360º 4K- Link: https://youtu.be/-kawQXFh_8Y

6. Song: Quicksand(the single from my upcoming contemporary classical album, The Hunt) — Video: Mallorca 360 Music Mix of 360º VR images and video 2.0 4K- Link: https://youtu.be/30U3Ix7j0C0

7. Song: Holiday Cheer- Video: Mallorca 360 Passeig des Born in Palma in 360º 4K- Link: https://youtu.be/XkM8XzE7CPo

Remember that these videos are best viewed with a VR viewer. You can have the full experience by simple watching them on your mobile with a cheap Google Cardboard viewer (around 4 to 6 euros or dollars) which you can get from my Amazon affiliate links here:

• Amazon Spain: http://amzn.to/2zU9ZhG
• Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2zU4oIf
• Amazon USA: http://amzn.to/2yQubkh

Don’t forget the final release is on the22nd. In the meantime, enjoy the videos! Thank you everyone!

Want to know more about Franco’s music? Go here!

Don’t forget to stay up to date by liking the Franco Esteve Facebook page, as well as following bNowhere and Franco Esteve on Twitter and on Spotify and here on Medium. Thanks again and Enjoy! :)

—

Protect your privacyand support Franco Esteve by signing up for my favorite VPN service, NordVPN, using this link: https://goo.gl/Vuqm5v
It’s the one I personally use, and it’s the best in the world. :)

Remember that patrons get early access to music, videos, art, and more. Become a patron today! https://patreon.com/FrancoEsteve

There’s more to come… soon. :)

Note: Amazon links are affiliate links.

***UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect the album’s release information and availability.

Mallorca 360 Season 1 Soundtrack Now Available was originally published in Mallorca 360 Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Unlike its more powerful sister, 360 VR is a passive experience. It shares a lot of the common wonders of virtual reality, like immersion and full 360 degree views, but you don’t get to interact or move about the world in the way that you would with tethered and fully powered virtual reality (think Oculus Rift or Playstation VR). 360 VR is most commonly viewed with a smartphone paired with a Google Cardboard or compatible viewer. Its main advantages are affordability and portability while still allowing for an amazing and fully immersive experience.

The Park Bench

There are a lot of amazing experiences to be had with 360VR, from investigative journalism to short films to rides to commanding views of the world. At Mallorca 360 we’re currently focused on what Franco Esteve calls the “Park Bench Moment or Experience.” What this means is that we look for places where we ourselves would love to have a park bench to sit on and just sit there and experience it.

Now, one might be inclined to think this is only in the remote outskirts of the world, out in nature, or in a controlled, park environment, but “park bench moments” can also exist in the middle of a busy street or city center. It can be people watching, contemplating nature, a beautiful beach, a stream, or a forest, but it’s that wonderful experience of just existing, listening and taking in the outside world. It’s something we sometimes miss in our everyday lives.

Mallorca is full of places that communicate this particular experience, and we already offer quite a few of them. Here are six of our favorites in no particular order, two with wonderful music, especially created by Franco Esteve for them, and the others with the natural sounds of the locations themselves:

We’re sure you already have favorites of your own, or will have some soon as well, as you too have your own “park bench moment or experience”.

Though we hope to bring you other 360 degree, VR experiences in the future, we will always continue to produce this type of park bench experience. We love them, as we ourselves continue searching for that park bench moment for us to experience. Lots of you have communicated your love of these as well, and we’re very happy that it’s helped those of you who’ve been sick in bed or unable to travel or had been searching for a religious contemplation experience. Thank you for your messages and comments.

Support us on Patreon. Become a patron, and you’ll get access to lots of extra content and receive goodies. It’s a way for us to continue bringing you those wonderful park bench moments and experiences. Become a patron now!

You can also support Mallorca 360 by using a VPN to protect your privacy. It’s easy to use and protects your data from hackers, governments, and corporations. By getting our favorite VPN, NordVPN, you help Mallorca 360 at no extra cost to use. Use this link and help us continue bringing you more videos: https://goo.gl/Vuqm5v

Don’t forget to visit our channels on YouTube and on VeeR and to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thank you for watching, for reading, and for your support of our work.

The Park Bench Moment or Experience was originally published in Mallorca 360 Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

There are many ways to experience virtual reality, and more particularly, 360 degree VR, sometimes referred to as spherical video or panoramic video. We currently publish our videos in three places: YouTube, VeeR, and our website through YouTube embedding. Enjoying our videos is easy, but to have the best experience, continue reading below.

A Note About Quality

Our videos are all currently filmed and published in 4K 360 VR at a frame rate of 30 frames per second (NTSC 29.97), but depending on your connection, YouTube lowers that quality. It sometimes lowers it to an unacceptable level, but you can do something about it.

On YouTube videos there’s a cog wheel icon which you can click on for settings. Depending on the platform, you may have to click on the three-dot menu “…”. You can see an example here:

From the quality menu, select the highest quality available, which with our current crop of videos is usually Google’s 2160s 4K. As you can see here:

If you find that your connection is making viewing in that quality impossible, simply click on the next one down. Remember that the lower you go, the worse it’ll get, so it might be more prudent to either wait to get to a faster WiFi or patiently wait for the higher quality version to load.

Desktop VR and other browser peculiarities

While our videos look great on every platform, the best way to experience them is with a Google Cardboard or other virtual reality viewer. When you look at them on a desktop browser, you usually get this view:

You can use the wheel to move the video around or click and drag the video itself. It’s a nice way to look at the videos with the effect turned on, but not ideal. Still, it’s better than the alternative, which is no effect at all. In that case, you get the full, stretched out image, which you can see here:

It still looks nice if the original is decent, but the nadir is stretched and you can clearly notice distortions, though when it’s just blue sky, that’s hidden a bit. Some players simply don’t work, and on iOS, it’s usually a toss up in that regard, which is why we recommend using the YouTube or VeeR apps to best enjoy them on iOS. Here’s another example of the Safari browser player that didn’t work properly with the YouTube Sa Coma video on iOS:

For the best experience, you should really use the YouTube or VeeR apps and your mobile (you can often just click on the YouTube icon on a video to go there, if installed), preferably with a Google Cardboard.

Google Cardboard or other VR Viewers

Google Cardboard and other VR viewers provide that fully immersive experience that fulfills the promise of 360 VR and puts you right in the middle of the video. It’s what 360 video is really created for and is the ideal viewing experience. You haven’t seen 360 VR video or photos unless you’ve seen them with a Google Cardboard or other viewer. The experience is simply mind-blowing in comparison. Most people report having an “aha” moment when they try it, feeling highly euphoric, especially if it’s a good quality video that shows a scene they enjoy. Once you’ve tried it like that, you don’t want to experience it any other way. It’s simply amazing.

Thankfully, it’s quite cheap and easy to get it. Google Cardboard viewers are usually between 5 and 10 dollars/euros/insert-your-currency-equivalent-here and work with most any sized smartphone. There are more expensive options that take you all the way to the full, virtual reality experience (and expense) of an Oculus Rift. For our videos, a Google Cardboard is enough, as it’s cheap, light, portable, and works anywhere with just your smartphone. It’s simply amazing that something so simple can provide such an amazing experience. We love it.

When watching on YouTube or VeeR, it’s simple to activate the feature:

Click on the Google Cardboard icon that appears on the bottom, and the view will change to this:

Align the center line between your eyes in your Google Cardboard and you’re good to go. Depending on your configuration, you can even navigate the controls simply by moving your head as shown in this next image:

If the Google Cardboard icon doesn’t appear, check the settings cog or triple-dot menu (depending on the platform you’ll have one or the other). You should be able to activate it there when available for your platform.

Enjoy!

That’s it. Now, go enjoy our videos! With smartphone and Google Cardboard in tow, you can experience Mallorca as if you were right here right now, anytime and from anywhere. Watch our 360 VR videos here: YouTube, VeeR, and our website.

Thank you for reading. Don’t forget to click that clap button, 10, 20, 50 times, and thank you for following, subscribing, liking, and everything else on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, VeeR, and Instagram.

Also, visit our website, and while there, you can watch videos and subscribe to our newsletter. Thank you.

Note: Google Cardboard links throughout the article are affiliate links that take you to Amazon USA which help support Mallorca 360 when you shop through them. In Spain, use: http://amzn.to/2zU9ZhG and in the UK: http://amzn.to/2zU4oIf

Thank you for your support. You can also support our work while protecting your privacy by getting our favorite VPN, NordVPN, using this affiliate link (Free trial available): https://goo.gl/Vuqm5v

How to best experience 360º VR Video was originally published in Mallorca 360 Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Mind and Body

The relationship between our mental health and our body health has been well established, from how our minds can make us physically ill to how they can help accelerate our healing or prevent illness altogether. Once we’re ill though, it’s hard to get our minds out of the depressive spiral that an illness can drive us to, especially when we’re fully bedridden.

This is where a simple, cheap Google Cardboard comes in, and where 360 virtual reality comes into play. By entering the fully immersive experience of 360 degree, spherical video, you can trick the mind into thinking you’re actually sitting on the rocks by the Mediterranean Sea in Porto Cristo, or on the sands of Son Moll or Cala Agulla beaches, or at the top of the mountains over Alcudia Bay at the Puig de Sa Tudossa in the Llevant Peninsula Natural Park in Artà. With some headphones, your mobile phone, and a five dollar piece of cardboard, you can transport yourself from your bedroom to some of the most spectacular places around the world.

But it’s not just about leaving the bedroom.

VR and overcoming phobias

Maybe you’re afraid of the water or have a great fear of heights or are really afraid of bees. Scientists have been working with VR technologies to explore how virtual reality can help in overcoming psychological issues and disorders. The Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, for example, has been funding research into using VR cognitive therapy to help patients to overcome delusions with great success. Their results have been published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, and paint a promising picture of where VR technology is headed and how it can help people in different health related areas.

Now, if you’re afraid of water, you can get up close and personal. Agoraphobic? Strap on that Google Cardboard and explore being outside within the safety of your own home. Have a problem with heights? Stand at the cliff’s edge without actually exposing yourself to any danger. These and many other issues are currently under study with promising success.

This is all without even touching on how 360 VR cuts down on costs and improves health practitioner training amongst other educational uses.

Discomforts

There’s been a lot of talk about the discomforts of Virtual Reality, but thankfully, most of those have been addressed through better technology and clever software. Now, unfortunately, not all content is created equal, nor is the technology the same. The most obvious danger is obviously eyestrain.

Like any technology where you look at a screen, one must follow the usual guidelines to reduce eyestrain, like remembering to blink, to take breaks and look away every now and again, etc. Many other issues like nausea or disorientation have been resolved by technologies like those developed by Oculus, but since not all content is equal and not all viewers are equal, one must find content that is of acceptable quality.

VR is processor intensive, so it takes up a lot of resources to properly display the images as you move your head around. This causes a number of issues, especially as you put your Google Cardboard to your face and as you pan from side to side, depending on what device you’re using. To avoid many common issues when using a mobile viewer:

• Adjust slowly and make sure your mobile is properly aligned with your eyes. It’s important for your eyes to be able to focus properly and for the image to look correctly.
• Don’t move too fast. Moving too fast with a lot of 360 content can cause nausea and disorientation for some people, similar to what happens with 3D to a small percentage of the population. This often happens with lower quality content or less powerful devices.
• Remember to blink. With electronic devices and screens we have the tendency to not blink as often. This causes our eyes to dry out, irritate, and to strain more than normal. It’s also important to limit your sessions and take rests while focusing on objects away from your screen.
• Careful when using it while standing up. Better to use a rotating chair. Often, people standing up move around or spin too much and get either lightheaded, dizzy, or knock into physical objects around the room. Be careful.

The comforts of traveling without moving

Like everyone else, we at Mallorca 360 also get ill with colds, the flu, and all the usual stuff, but when we find ourselves bedridden, we make sure we have our Google Cardboard and mobile close by, so we can enjoy being “outside” in all the Majorcan locations we love. No bugs, no annoyances, no effort, no illness, just peace, beauty, and happiness.

Protect your eyes and be judicious in your use and you’ll be transported to wherever you want to go. What better benefit than the ability to travel without moving, and without needing a science fiction, space folding, spaceship. Just put your mobile in a cheap piece of cardboard (Google Cardboard) and you’re good to travel from the comfort of your bed.

When we’ve been ill or stuck somewhere, we’re the first to travel virtually and have felt better for it. We’re sure you will too.

Just scratching the surface

Scientists are only starting to discover the health benefits of VR. Everyone is just scratching the surface of what’s possible. We’re happy to be at the forefront of 360VR, offering the opportunity for you to be able to relax while experiencing one of Mallorca’s gorgeous locations, and we can’t wait to bring you even more. So, the next time you’re bedridden, don’t forget your Google Cardboard and to visit our website or our channel on YouTube or VeeR.

We hope you’ll feel better, and we’re sure you will. :)

Thank you for reading. Don’t forget to click that clap button, 10, 20, 50 times, and thank you for following, subscribing, liking, and everything else on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, VeeR, and Instagram.

Find out about how to watch 360VR and more on our website, and while there, you can watch videos and subscribe to our newsletter. Thank you.

Note: Google Cardboard links throughout the article are affiliate links that take you to Amazon Spain and help support Mallorca 360 when you shop through them. In the USA, use: http://amzn.to/2yQubkh and in the UK: http://amzn.to/2zU4oIf

Thank you for your support. You can also support our work while protecting your privacy by getting our favorite VPN, NordVPN, using this affiliate link: https://goo.gl/Vuqm5v Thank you! :)

Treating illness with 360VR was originally published in Mallorca 360 Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We’re big fans of virtual reality and some of us have been involved in 360º panorama production in one way or another since the 90s. Like many others, we’ve been waiting for technology to catch up and make it easier and more accessible for everyone to enjoy the immersive experience of virtual reality. Thanks to advances in technology, and a mainstream push from Oculus and Google, it’s now available on everyone’s phone, and fully immersive with a simple piece of cardboard.

We also love our island, our “roqueta” (little rock), and what better way to present it to the world than to show so many of the places we love in full 360º spherical panoramas. That was the birth of this idea, and of this channel. Through it, you can sit and relax at some of Mallorca’s wonderful locations, looking around with your mouse, tablet, mobile, or preferably with a Google Cardboard.

Why spherical 360 and not full VR

It’s simple. Full VR requires expensive goggles and computer hardware, whereas spherical 360º VR panoramas are accessible to anyone on most devices and with a simple, cheap, cardboard viewer you can build yourself (or get from Google or others on Amazon), you get the full immersion. The difference is that 360 is passive whereas full VR is active.

Full VR is excellent for gaming and artificial worlds you “walk through” with controllers, a full headset, all tied to a computer system. 360VR is something you can enjoy anywhere, at anytime, with just your smartphone. With 360VR you can have an immersive experience no matter where you are, especially with the light, cheap cardboard viewer. We hope you’ll enjoy relaxing with our videos and that you’ll fully immerse yourself in them. Don’t know how to watch? Click here.

Present and Future

We started our project with a YouTube channel, launching five initial, relaxing 360º 4K spherical videos. They’re great to relax and to contemplate the sounds and sights of different Majorcan locations with. Every week, we launch a new video, announcing it through social media on our Facebook page, on Twitter, and Instagram, and adding it to our new website.

Next week, for our tenth video, and to celebrate our launch success, we’re trying something different. We’re putting together a small selection of locations, some from photos, others from angles we didn’t include before for different reasons, and creating a video that cycles through them with music by Franco Esteve. It’s short, it’s quick, and we hope you enjoy it. It highlights a bit of what we’re trying to do with our channel, as we grow into more locations, videos, and concepts.

How we fund our website and channel

Mallorca 360 is a labor of love, but like everything else in life, producing these videos, maintaining the sites, social media, etc., comes with expenses. Our goal is not money. Our goal is to be able to continue to produce and run our channel, to continue to better the quality and equipment, and for everyone to enjoy all of it. For this reason, we’ve included some affiliate links to Amazon and to our favorite VPN, NordVPN, throughout our website and on the descriptions to our videos, so be sure and use them to shop Amazon and to protect your privacy with a VPN (if you’re not using a VPN right now, you should). We’ve also now started offering some 360º photography and video services to local companies, including the possibility to Sponsor a Video. The hope here is to cover the costs to continue to produce these videos.

No one enjoys full blown advertising everywhere. Now, we may not be able to control whether or not some of our channels add advertising, but we’re trying to keep it to a minimum or to a less intrusive level, while covering production costs. We wish to thank y’all for your support in keeping this goal and in helping us to continue to grow our channel. We’re considering other support and funding options in the future as well.

Go enjoy our new website!

Thank you for reading, following, liking, but most of all for watching and enjoying our videos. Visit our new website here.

Haven’t seen our videos? Go visit our website, our YouTube channel, or watch us on VeeR. Don’t forget to subscribe and follow. :)

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

And finally, hit that clap button right here on this page. Hit it 10, 20, or hold up to 50 claps. Thank you. :)

A new way to relax and enjoy Mallorca was originally published in Mallorca 360 Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.