Live Nation is one of the leading companies behind promoting live concerts and other music events, and now it’s taking shows to an all-new level with virtual reality.
The company was involved in a pair of announcements this week could make the company a well-known name in the VR world by bringing concert viewers a “you are there” experience.
Its first partnership is with NextVR, in which it will broadcast a variety of concerts through virtual reality. The deal, which is expected to go for five years, will begin this summer with a yet-to-be-named act, according to Re/Code.
“This agreement actually spans from what you might consider an intimate performance to very large music festivals,” said NextVR co-founder Dave Cole.
The deal is expected to begin with free events, although pay-per-view concerts could be a possibility down the road. It could go a long way toward popularizing VR technology, depending on which artists Live Nation features.
The second partnership involves the streaming video service Hulu. The online channel recently announced that it’s working with Live Nation to create a new virtual reality series; one that recreates the feeling of walking out onto a concert stage for the first time.
No other details about the VR series have been revealed yet, but it be exclusive to the Samsung Gear VR headset (where Hulu recently launched its VR app), and will be separate from the company’s other services.
We’re likely to learn more about Live Nation’s VR initiatives over the summer, and then we’ll see who’s ready to take the virtual concert stage.
