The Metaverse Is Spawning New Jobs and Unprecedented Economic Opportunity - So What Does It Mean For The Creative Industry?
Once touted as the future of the internet, it appeared that the metaverse had been finally relegated to the graveyard of technological promises that never came to be.
But news of its demise might have been greatly exaggerated.
Renewed interest in the idea of all encompassing virtual reality worlds filled with digital twins undertaking activities, from working and socializing to attending virtual events and creating new social elevators, just as we would in the physical world, is being driven in part by Apple’s upcoming release of its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset.
And while it remains to be seen whether sleek and consumer-friendly hardware is all it takes to finally turn the metaverse’s fortunes around, the race has kept attracting a number of companies hoping to crack the next digital frontier.
Some estimates pin down the metaverse as a trillion dollar El Dorado, opening up the doors to unchartered economic territories. Tech-forward companies and personalities have certainly taken notice.
Fashion houses have quickly become a metaverse fixture with virtual catwalks and NFT wearable campaigns, real world celebrities are now making frequent guest appearances on virtual events, while music superstars attract millions of fans to their metaverse concerts.
Entertainment events, traditionally a time and resource-intensive undertaking, are now shifting to virtual reality settings, particularly music shows.
Where once putting on a live performance or producing a music spectacle would require an army of people to handle laborious tasks like concept development, stage design, lighting and sound, the intersection of creativity and technology in the metaverse is revolutionizing the old way of doing things.
Now, all it takes to create a mind-bending concert is an artist avatar, a set of dedicated virtual reality creator tools and the imagination to experiment with the untested frontiers of a virtual world. In other words, the metaverse is now enabling a streamlined production of virtual entertainment and media at a global scale.
Adding to the emerging talent pool it could help create since the shift in the production pipeline is empowering artists and content creators to easily craft their own performances in the metaverse, job creation is another major benefit.
It’s with this democratization in mind that Swiss entertainment-focused metaverse developer Sensorium is emerging as a name to keep in mind.
At its core, the innovative platform bills itself as a robust creator platform that provides the tools for building virtual shows, generating music and video content, and crafting AI-driven virtual influencers.
Sensorium Galaxy’s metaverse features a complete tech stack for generating AI music in over 60 genres as well as customizable 3D spaces. Creators have free access to stages, visual effects, avatars that can be customized to perform roles such as being a DJ, backup dancer, model or artists, and the means to share and monetize their content across major streaming platforms outside their metaverse, whether in virtual reality, 360 video, desktop or regular streaming formats.
For the first time, a solo creator has the power to build and distribute virtual entertainment on a massive scale without the need for a production team.
Showcasing the talent already emerging out of these new entertainment formats, Sensorium has released a lineup of AI-driven virtual artists and DJs who perform 24/7 in the Sensorium Galaxy streaming service as well as other platforms like YouTube and Steam. Each virtual artist is fully customizable, not only in appearance but also intellect thanks to a unique personality trait configurator that Sensorium has called the ‘Mind Pyramid’.
A future where your next favorite DJ is an AI-driven artist might not lay too far away thanks to these features, with the Swiss startup predicting the rise of metaverse influencers who can create and release content of their own, building legions of adoring fans and monetizing their creativity in the same way human artists do.
But the tech developer has also gone beyond creating cutting-edge virtual artists and performers but using its AI to breathe new life into historical and cultural icons in the metaverse. In its quest to spur a new era of digital rebirths, Sensorium is immortalizing Salvador Dali and Mona Lisa as AI-based avatars. Users can have in-depth conversations with the revered surrealist artist, with plans to have Dali’s avatar also create new masterpieces in virtual worlds. Mona Lisa is being reborn as a virtual performer in Sensorium Galaxy, debuting futuristic music sets in Sensorium Galaxy.
Sensorium is betting on the development of virtual worlds to fuel an array of new roles in the entertainment world, ranging from virtual experience producers who can develop and distribute Extended Reality (XR) shows and AI Talent Managers scouting and promoting AI-driven talent in virtual spaces, to Virtual Influencer Marketing Experts who can devise campaigns and strategies like AI-based brand sponsorships for metaverse influencers.
And in this seemingly promising marriage between emerging technologies and mega AI talent, a meta Scooter Braun is bound to make its way into the lucrative realms of metaverse entertainment stardom where big bucks could be at stake.
It’s reasonable to imagine the rise of virtual impresarios, responsible for overseeing the career and image of AI virtual influencers, with the help of dedicated metaverse PR agencies.
Taking advantage of this blueprint, Sensorium is hoping to unlock new revenue streams for its users, accelerate the creation of futuristic professions and inspire innovative businesses that could not be possible without the emergence of virtual and augmented reality spaces.
According to the startup, one way it hopes to achieve this goal is by allowing creators to maintain ownership over their original content, assets and intellectual property and allow creations developed on its virtual environments to be easily licensed, sold as non-fungible tokens, and monetized across avenues such as virtual merchandise, advertising and sponsorships.
Taking it a step further, Sensorium has also hinted at developing its own talent gene pool by letting its users experiment with mixing the digital chromosomes of several virtual avatar “parents” to create newer generations of AI talent, ready to conquer virtual worlds.
Whatever the direction the metaverse takes, it’s becoming apparent that new creative professions and business models will shape how we work, experience entertainment and do business in new digital frontiers and where the future is increasingly enabled by mixed-reality environments.
Spawning new forms of work at the intersection of media, technology and creativity, startups like Sensorium are beginning to lay the groundwork for a pioneering job market.
And these newly-minted professions are poised to become vital parts of the global economy as metaverse worlds scale to become a primary venue for all aspects of our digital lives.