Soundscape VR premiered the world’s first virtual reality music stage stage at the Suwannee Hulaween Music Festival on October 26-28th, 2018.
Following a successful installation at Burning Man, Soundscape VR, created by Groove Science Studios, Inc., brought their state-of-the-art VR music experience to Florida and dazzled festival goers as they stepped into a surreal interactive and explorable virtual universe of music and light. Live music was played into the audio-reactive VR worlds and over the stage PA system simultaneously, while players created the visual experience for spectators via 120” projection screens.
Across three days of the festival, thousands of Hulaween attendees had the opportunity to experience the first-of-its-kind virtual reality activation. Consistent lines of people waiting for the chance to enter the Soundscape VR world were a regular sight; dancing, laughing, and enjoying the community of other festival-goers as they cheered on their friends manifestations projected across the big screen. Each player seemed to take a different path in exploring the world, with many finally taking off the headset only to immediately return to the back of the line for another round.
As the rhythm of the bass sent waves of light rushing through the virtual world, players took flight to explore their new realties; blasting fireworks, painting, and doodling names in the sky. One world would exist deep inside a shifting nebula of infinite scale, the next on a icy peak bathed in the glow of the aurora borealis. As one player created a cyclone of embers inside a crystalline cave, the next would spray a firehose of light, bombarding a distant planet.
Watch the Soundscape VR Hulaween aftermovie to see the installation in action here. Photos of the experience are available here.
“We were very excited to have the opportunity to host Soundscape VR at this year’s
Suwannee Hulaween Festival,” said Andrew Carroll, Producer of the festival’s ‘Spirit Lake’. “What a unique and exciting experience entering into the Soundscape VR world! Every time I stopped by the installation there were lines of people waiting to venture into this out-of-this-world experience. Most people have never seen anything like it! I hope we’re able to have them back next year.”
Soundscape VR started in 2013 as a vision of a new way to bring people closer to their favorite music, empowering artists and users alike. The company would later unveil the world’s first VR music venue at Burning Man, becoming one of the most immersive art experiences at the illustrious event. The software continued to advance as the company grew, now launching it’s festival tour where fans engage in a audiovisual sonic-adventure synchronized between two realities; a fantasy world of light and sound beyond their wildest dreams.
“There is no other project that could ever be as challenging and satisfying to me as creating Soundscape VR. To be innovators of the next evolution of music, seeing all the love music fans have for us, inspires everything we do. Every time someone takes off the headset and tells us that what just happened was most amazing experience of their entire life; it makes everything worthwhile,” says Soundscape VR CEO and founder Eric Ryan Alexander
PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that virtual reality will generate $4.9 billion in revenue in 2018, up from $421 million in 2016, and it’s set to expand the most of any entertainment industry, with 68 million headsets in use by 2021.
Soundscape VR is preparing for that growth by expanding past singular consumer use and has added capability for musicians and production companies to use Soundscape VR as a medium to perform in the real and virtual world simultaneously through synchronized performances. On December 20th, Groove Science Studios will be launching a free expansion to Soundscape VR adding private & public social VR worlds, a new multiplayer rhythm game, a redesigned interface, as well as a suite of other enhancements.
About Soundscape VR:
Soundscape VR is a sonic-visual adventure, a virtual universe to connect with friends across the globe in shared mind-bending audio-reactive fantasy worlds. Engineered by an independent collective of artists, musicians, and developers to be the premier destination for musical and artistic virtual reality content, Soundscape is regarded as one of the most immersive and technically impressive virtual reality apps in the world. Users are elevating artists’ visions through a collaboration that creates bespoke VR social worlds to match any music, creating entirely original and new visual experiences and delivering their content worldwide over our VR platform that can be described as a 24/7 music festival. As the most advanced VR music software on the market and with over 35,000 users comprising the Soundscape community, Soundscape VR is featured on the Oculus Home and Steam platforms as a free download. Soundscape VR is part of the Soundscape Universe, a collection of virtual, mixed, and augmented reality software enabling a new generation of music and art. For news on exciting partnerships with musicians, festivals, and production companies, and to learn more about the VR experience, please visit https://www.musicvisualized.com/
