As COVID continues to delay our favorite artists’ tours -- or, worse, cancel them altogether -- the time has come for the music industry to come up with an alternative solution. Live streams and drive-in concerts have certainly started to fill the gap, but they still aren’t the same as a real, live concert experience.
So now TikTok and The Weeknd have teamed up to bring an augmented reality concert to your living room. While this isn’t the first augmented reality concert to come from Wave, a Los Angeles-based start-up specializing in entertainment technology, it may be the biggest. The event has been named “The Weeknd Experience”, and its goal is to put you, the viewer, inside of the Weeknd’s mind.
As exciting as this new technology is, it definitely won’t be replacing live performances anytime soon. The performance clocked in at just about twenty minutes, but there was a lot of action-packed into that time. Rolling Stone sums it up best: “The 20-minute performance featured virtual renditions of “Pray for Me,” “Blinding Lights,” “Save Your Tears,” the remix of “In Your Eyes” complete with a cameo by Doja Cat as her cat avatar and, at the seven-minute mark, a minute-long snippet of an unreleased song.” That’s a whole lot of excitement for those of us who have been cooped up in quarantine for the better part of 2020!
This event was also used to fundraise for the Equal Justice Initiative. Fans donated in the TikTok app prior to the show and then the app matched donations. There was also some merchandise available only during the event, the proceeds of which will also be donated.
So, we are still able to create new things, to do good, and to have fun during these times. It’s important to remember that, and perhaps equally important to attend live events, even virtual and AR ones, in order to foster a bit of normalcy in our lives.
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