Chinese record label Modern Sky plans to make the virtual world a big part of its business model.
Shen Lihui, Founder of the two-decades-old independent label, says developing virtual musicians, organizing virtual music festivals, and selling original digital artworks as NFTs are all parts of its 2022 strategy. Modern Sky has also released its first virtual musician called Miro, a portmanteau of the words for mirror and miracle.
Modern Sky previously worked on virtual musicians adapted from real stars or famous online characters. Miro is the company’s first original virtual artist.
Virtual idols are a huge market inside of China, with the market value reaching $540 million in 2020. That figure has risen as the pandemic has forced many Chinese people to shelter in place. Consultancy group iiMedia says it expects the virtual artist market to grow to $16 billion by the end of 2022. Of course, Modern Sky isn’t the only record label inside China that is embracing the metaverse.
Tencent Music has announced the launch of TMELAND, calling it China’s first virtual music festival. Because of China’s strict rules around public impropriety, many labels are seeking virtual stars that cannot be canceled.
“Celebrities can pose massive risks to music companies,” says Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia. “A more digital focus can cater to the needs of the young audience, improve the popularity of platforms and accumulate more virtual idol IPs, which is beneficial to platforms’ short-term publicity, revenue, and long-term development.”
Modern Sky is also planning to launch a virtual version of its popular Strawberry Music Festival. This virtual version of the festival will also feature virtual artists performing inside the virtual world, interacting with attendees.
A Chinese think-tank has warned about the risks in the virtual idol sector, however. China lacks the regulatory requirements or documents to guide companies interested in investing in what it calls the “digital utopian ideology.”
Bland, boring anti-music performed by cartoon characters fails to excite. You tout this as if it were something interesting or cool, but it actually speaks volumes about how the Communists are eliminating anything regarding artistic expression. BTW it wasn’t the pandemic that forced people to shelter in place, it was the Chinese government, who incidentally exacerbated the problem by suppressing and even disappearing people who spoke out.
Yamaha created Vocaloid singing software, originally only for Steinberg’s Cubase DAW but the new version can work on other DAW’s. It’s really creative and there’s lot’s of pop artists / labels using it.
Artist names such as Bing Bong, Bubblegum Land, Pinky Pig and Pals, Lucky Kiss among others all deploying this technology.
I think virtual pop artists and software singers are great and offer a tremendous amount of opportunities for music producers and record labels.
Vocaloid software being the best.