Music & VR: what to keep in mind
In the first issue MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE, I talked about VR as music’s next frontier. I received a thoughtful response by Tima Vlasto, a designer and developer who has ventured into VR. The following quote is about aVR music video done with Oh..
“Anyone with a technical background was quite impressed. Except for a few jaws dropping from the tech-savvy in her fan base, no one else really was, when they normally are.”
Tima goes into more detail in Marketing Virtual Reality to the Music Industry.
Right now, I think VR music experiences work best for artists with audiences with a highly tech savvy component, like Run the Jewels or Grimecraft, or when specifically targeted to VR communities. There are numerous groups and communities on Facebook, Reddit and Slack, all eager to check out new things to do with the medium.
Virtual reality is demanding. People like passive entertainment, because it’s casual, so when you demand full attention, you need to make sure your experience deserves it. This means:
- Avoid repetition and looping
- Create an (audio)visual storyline
- Research other VR / 360 videos and give people something new
- Understand your audience (this goes first)
- Must read-guide >>>
The audience right now is small, but growing fast, very vocal, eager to try new things and influential. I believe it’s absolutely worth building these experiences, but they need to be designed very carefully.
It’s also new terrain. When entering unexplored terrain, it’s not unlikely you’ll step into something you really don’t want to be stepping into. But shit happens. Embrace it as a learning experience and make a resolution to develop even better experiences in the future.
