MTV Introduces VMAs Metaverse Performance Category

Kristin Snyder

Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.

Virtual Justin Bieber under a galaxy-colored sky.
Courtesy of Wave

If video killed the radio star, maybe the metaverse can create a new kind of star.

MTV’s Video Music Awards, airing in August, will introduce the new Best Metaverse Performance category. Nominees include Ariana Grande, Blackpink, BTS, Charli XCX, Justin Bieber and Twenty One Pilots. The new category, which defines a metaverse performance as digital artists performing for a digital crowd within a digital space, shows that the virtual stage has become integral to the music industry.


The Los Angeles-based entertainment technology company Waveproduced Bieber’s “interactive virtual experience,” which featured his digital avatar performing for fans who could chat with one another and send emoji reactions. Bieber had previously invested in the company. The other Metaverse Performance nominees performed in video games, with Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft/YouTube and PUBG Mobile providing space for digital concerts.

The metaverse has quickly crept into awards shows. Earlier in 2022, Lizzo performed at the first metaverse awards show, Song Breaker Awards hosted on Roblox. Additionally, the Recording Academy planned a whole week’s worth of virtual events in the lead-up to the 64th Grammy Awards, including a virtual performance by Camilo. Other industries are also integrating digital elements, with The Game Awards letting fans attend a virtual red carpet and The Fashion Awards introducing an award for metaverse design.

As COVID-19 remains a concern and traditional concert ticket prices skyrocket, a number of Los Angeles startups are betting that virtual concerts are here to stay. Megan Thee Stallion produced her virtual concert tour “Enter Thee Hottieverse” with virtual reality startup AmazeVR, a West Hollywood-based company that recently took its efforts global through a partnership with South Korean entertainment company SM Entertainment. Rapper Kid Cudi co-founded Encore, an app meant to bring live performances to fans’ phones.

Virtual concerts took off during the pandemic, and the music industry seems to have committed to the idea. Warner Music Group partnered with Wave in 2021 to develop avatars and NFTs for its artists, and earlier this year, Snapchat teamed with Universal Pictures to bring Jennifer Lopez’s Bitmoji to the virtual stage.
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Relativity Space Launches World’s First 3D-Printed Rocket, But Falls Short of Orbit

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Relativity Space Launches World’s First 3D-Printed Rocket, But Falls Short of Orbit
Photo: Relativity Space

The largest 3D-printed object to ever fly had liftoff yesterday as Long Beach-based Relativity Space launched its Terran 1 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Terran 1 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at around 7 p.m. PST March 22. It was Relativity’s third attempt at sending Terran 1 to the cosmos and the nighttime launch was quite a sight to behold. The clarity of the night sky was perfect to see the blue jets of flame cascading out of Terran 1’s nine Aeon 1 engines, all 3D-printed, as the rocket took off.

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Sports Stadiums Are Turning to Immersive Sound to Keep Fans Engaged

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Sports Stadiums Are Turning to Immersive Sound to Keep Fans Engaged
Photo: Edge Sound Research

In 2020, the Minnesota Twins experimented with a new technology that brought fans the ability to physically feel the sounds they were hearing in the stadium in the back of their seats as part of a new immersive way to experience baseball.

The tech was made by Riverside-based startup Edge Sound Research, which built a mobile lounge – basically, a small seating section equipped with its technology and on wheels to travel around the stadium – for Twins fans to experience what it calls “embodied audio” around Target field. It was a bid on the Twins’ part to keep fans more engaged during the game, and Edge Sound Research CEO Valtteri Salomaki said the Twins were impressed.

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B Capital’s Howard Morgan On The Key To Early Stage Investing

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

B Capital’s Howard Morgan On The Key To Early Stage Investing
Provided by LAV

On this episode of the LA Venture podcast, B Capital Group General Partner and Chair Howard Morgan discusses his thoughts on early stage investing and the importance of company ownership.


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