Liam Payne is about to perform a concert that will make music-business history. The One Direction star’s show will be the first virtual-reality broadcast of its kind, says music-technology platform MelodyVR.
Liam Payne (Photo by Mike Marsland/Mike Marsland/WireImage) Getty
Liam Payne is about to perform a concert that will make music-business history. The One Direction star’s show will be the first virtual-reality broadcast of its kind, says music-technology platform MelodyVR.
Fans can see the December 19 show at home as it happens. They need an Oculus Go or Samsung GearVR headset with the MelodyVR app installed and an internet connection. Viewers can change their angle over 360 degrees just as if they were there and select any location at the venue, even onstage with Payne himself.
MelodyVR says the gig will be “a significant milestone” in its technology, the first time an unlimited number of users can see a concert in real time on VR. The company already offers VR shows of previously-filmed shows by some 750 artists as varied as Kiss, The Who, Post Malone, Imagine Dragons, Macklemore, the Chainsmokers, Niall Horan, Bebe Rexha, Wiz Khalifa, the London Symphony Orchestra, 2 Chainz, Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, Five Finger Death Punch and the Pixies.
A small number of tickets to attend Payne’s London show in person have been made available free of charge to fans via the MelodyVR website.
“There are so many fans who can’t get close to the artists they love,” says MelodyVR’s founder Anthony Matchett. “The fans may be on the other side of the planet. Perhaps it is not affordable or the show has sold out. Many of the artists we work with have tours that sell out in minutes.
