XONE, a music tech startup that was part of Abbey Road Red’s six-month bespoke incubation program, has teamed up with British band easy life to launch an immersive metaverse experience for the band’s fans.
The collaboration saw the launch of the “dream house”, which brings the band’s latest album artwork to life in 3D, allowing fans to engage with the band inside a mobile-based virtual world.
XONE’s co-founders James Shannon and Alica Molito, who previously founded mixed reality agency Auras Studios, launched XONE’s mobile XR platform in beta in 2021.
The platform gained traction in the Web3 space before branching into the music industry. The company now merges social features, mobile-first AR technology, and blockchain mechanics to give iOS and Android users the ability to design and build 3D virtual spaces called ‘XONEs’.
The partnership with easy life came about 10 months after XONE joined Abbey Road Red, the music tech incubator of London’s Abbey Road Studios, which in turn is owned by Universal Music Group.
Easy life’s label, Island Records (UK), is also owned by Universal Music.
The aim of dream house is also to prepare XONE for its public launch and to pitch to artists. The experience is based on the cover artwork from easy life’s latest album release, Maybe In Another Life.
The launch follows the public release of the XONE mobile app, released out of beta in April. The virtual world will allow fans to enter the “dreamlike world” as their virtual avatars. They will be able to explore and discover easy life branded collectibles, play minigames, and listen to music.
Fans can also use XONE’s drag and drop builder tool to build their own easy life-inspired rooms inside the house and compete for the best fan room.
“This activation completes the journey we began with our first AR activations five years ago, making augmented reality filters for Glass Animals and other brilliant artists. We wanted to develop that experience and bring music a mobile first metaverse experience that’s rich, rewarding and easy to use for both artists and fans, while opening up new experiences and possibilities,” said XONE’s co-founders James Shannon and Alica Molito.
“As XONE evolves we will make creating these kinds of experiences available to all artists and creators. We see this as a new type of content that could greatly enhance fan’s connection to an artist and to each other.”
James Shannon and Alica Molito, XONE
“As XONE evolves we will make creating these kinds of experiences available to all artists and creators. We see this as a new type of content that could greatly enhance fan’s connection to an artist and to each other.”
Easy life’s Murray Matravers added: “We’re so excited for our fans to be able to go inside the Maybe In Another Life house and explore it. Our album cover was based on a real-life model created by Will Child, so to have XONE build it digitally and create rooms & experiences inspired by songs from the album is so cool for us, loads of hidden gems in there, enjoy!”
“Our album cover was based on a real-life model created by Will Child, so to have XONE build it digitally and create rooms & experiences inspired by songs from the album is so cool for us, loads of hidden gems in there, enjoy!”
Murray Matravers, EASY Life
This isn’t the first time that easy live ventured into the metaverse space. The band, in 2021, partnered with Epic Games, the maker of popular battle royale game Fortnite, to headline an “interactive music experience” at a virtual recreation of London’s music venue The O2 arena, within Fortnite Creative.
Lewis Lister, Senior Audience Manager at Island Records, said: “We’re so excited to partner with XONE to bring this innovative digital experience to the easy life fans & beyond.
“Will Child’s model house formed the basis of so much of our album creative, so it’s amazing to be able to bring it to life as a playable 3D experience. It’s also a great way of bringing fans back into the world of Maybe In Another Life with rooms themed around album tracks to shine a light on some of the band’s most recent catalogue.”
Abbey Road Red’s Innovation Manager Karim Fanous, said: “It’s been inspiring to watch our XONE-ies live and breathe the journeys of their nomadic and highly creative digital lives into this first artist activation with easy life.”
He added: “The way easy life and Island leaned in to help make it a reality is testament to the value they see in the XONE platform as a rich, authentic and distinctive engagement experience for their fans. It was a pleasure and an honor to play Red’s part and help secure this opportunity during incubation with our board members and team-mates at Universal Music.”
Abbey Road Red also served as the incubator for Siri co-founder Tom Gruber’s music startup, LifeScore.
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