K-pop on the metaverse
Expect platforms that will surpass SNS…We’re going to pick a new land of opportunity
Expectation of synergy by combining games and advertisements to provide personalized content for fans
1. Four idol groups come out as avatars, dance in a virtual space, take selfies with fans, and give out autographs.
2. Seven idol groups will release the music video of the choreography version for the first time in the world in a virtual space. When I buy an idol choreography, my avatar dances like an idol.
If you think of it as a novel or science fiction movie scene depicting the upcoming future, you should read this article to the end. The example above is not an imagination of the future, but a story of what has already happened. It all happened on the Metabus.
Metabus is a combination of ‘meta’, which means virtual and transcendent, and ‘universe’, which means the world, and refers to the virtual world. It was first introduced in 1992 in the novel “Snow Crash,” written by American novelist Neil Stevenson. In the novel, the characters can enter the virtual world ‘metabus’ only by borrowing a virtual body called ‘Avatar’.
The first group is BLACKPINK. In September last year, he came out as a 3D avatar on Naver’s Metabus platform Geppetto and held a fan signing event. Did people come to see an avatar that wasn’t real? As many as 46 million people visited the fan signing event as avatars during the full-day event.
Group 2 is BTS (BTS). In September last year, the music video for the choreography version of the new song “Dynamite” was released for the first time in the world in the metaverse game “Fortnite.” 2.7 million people around the world watched this.
K-pop is permeating the metaverse world in various ways. Lee Soo-man, general producer of SM Entertainment, announced his vision in June and introduced Espa, an idol group active in the metaverse world. Espa is a group that combines four real members and their four avatars. Members work with another self, Avatar. In the music video, members and avatars appear together to dance or sing. They also participate in fan meetings and concerts.
Virtual singers based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology also came out. 3D rabbit artist Apoki released his first single ‘Get It Out’ in February. The relay dance video of the song (dancing in different order for each part of the song) received 1 million views a week after it was released. YouTube subscribers reach 300,000 and TikTok followers, a short form video service, reach 2.4 million.
Why are K-pop singers on the metaverse like this? The COVID-19 incident affected. With the offline performance stage gradually decreasing due to COVID-19, people want to see the performance even online. Singers who want to be on stage and audiences who want to see them meet in the metaverse space.
Hankyoreh
Virtual character singer Apoki (second right). Apoki’s Instagram
Another reason is that Metabus is expected to grow into a next-generation platform that goes beyond social networking service (SNS) platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. K-pop singers mainly worked on the SNS platform, attracting fans from all over the world. This is why they are actively trying to preoccupy metaverse, which is expected to be a land of new opportunities in the future.
Kim Sang-kyun, an industrial engineering professor at Kangwon National University, a metaverse expert, said, “Entertainment companies are trying to use metaverse as a platform to create new content. On Metabus, K-pop singers can diversify their content. You can transform a song into a dance or a game. It can also be used as a space to communicate with fans.
Metabus is also a good container for K-pop singers’ worldviews. Kim Young-dae, a music critic, said, “K-pop idols have received responses that characters that exist in cartoons and animations seem to have been actually implemented before. They are made up of members with different looks and abilities, and are also given new personalities with mythical and fictional worldviews. In other words, the real person represents a virtual world view. The worldview embodied by K-pop idols can be expanded indefinitely without any limitations in metaverse, he said.
It can also provide personalized content to fans beyond time and space. It is impossible for BLACKPINK to sign for 46 million fans offline for 15 days, but as it is possible on Metabus. In addition, Metabus creates numerous contents and synergy such as games and advertisements, and through this, it is possible to pioneer new business models.
Hankyoreh
BTS’s “Fortnite” performance screen. YouTube, Galmuri
The metaverse target class is the MZ generation (the generation born in the early 1980s and 2000s). It is a class that mainly uses metaverse. Macroscopically, they are struggling with job shortages and are upset by soaring housing prices. They want to escape this reality and achieve vicarious satisfaction in the virtual world. Microscopically, they enjoy living in a different “sub-character” (shortened for a sub-character, which refers to a new appearance or character that is not what they usually, they enjoy living in a different way.
Wi Jung-hyun, a business professor at Chung-Ang University, said, “The so-called ‘386 generation’ and ‘X generation’ are unfamiliar with the separation of reality and virtual self, but the MJ generation tends to think that characters don’t have to be the same as themselves,” adding, “MJet generation is gaining popularity.”
How long can the popularity in the metaverse continue? There is also an opinion that it is a moment. Adam, the nation’s No. 1 cyber singer who appeared in January 1998, did so. It gained popularity by selling 200,000 albums containing the title song “Love that is not in the world,” but it did not last long. After that, I had to go down from the stage because I was forgotten by people.
So, how can I keep running on the metaverse? If you just stop with something new or novel, your popularity also stops. You need to breathe life into it to last long. In order to form a new fandom on the metaverse, the character must have its own unique charm and personality.
Producer Kim Hyung-seok, who recently introduced a metaverse-based cyber band, said, “Because it is a metaverse, it should not end with ‘fun’ and ‘wonderful’. You have to be attracted. To do this, the character must be energized. We need to find a point that is fun and touching. We need a humanities approach that explores humans, he said.
YouTube has been able to expand global fandom by K-pop singers such as BTS and Black Pink. They captivated fans around the world with their own worldview and stories in videos, not text. Attention is focusing on whether K-pop singers will continue to succeed in Metabus in the future.
Source: www.hani.co.kr