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A dedicated home for music memorabilia, exploring the past, present and future of music archives. Find your own piece of the story.

An introduction to… the Metaverse

The Metaverse concept is rather complex, a contemporary work in progress being shaped by users and companies exploring the field, still far from being fully determined. We asked Alexander Reppel, reader in Marketing at Royal Holloway University of London to break down the jargon

From Ristband’s musical portal to the metaverse, Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft’s in-game concerts, and MTV VMAs handing out the first ever Best Metaverse Performance award to the Korean pop group Blackpink, the musical side of the metaverse is getting rather crowded, engaging millions of users worldwide.

The cultural sector is also looking to virtual experiences in the metaverse with rising interest, with projects like artists KAWS and the Serpentine Gallery’s partnership with Fortnite building an extra level of cultural exploration into offerings for the global public. Major auction houses are also exploring the opportunities the metaverse has to offer, building their own spaces and platforms, such as Christie’s 3.0 virtual gallery and Sotheby’s Metaverse, both dedicated to NFT sales.

Within this buzzing and experimental environment, a perfect crossover virtual experience, at the intersection of music, art and technology, was Radiohead’s Kid A Mnesia virtual exhibition, launched in November 2021 to celebrate the anniversary of the band’s albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001).
But does it qualify as metaverse-material?

The metaverse concept is rather complex, a contemporary work in progress being shaped by users and companies exploring the field, still far from being fully determined.

We asked Alex Reppel, Reader in Marketing at Royal Holloway University of London, to break down the jargon and help us understand the metaverse hype: