On April 19 TheWaveVR announced $6 million in new funding for its socially interactive virtual reality platform and the addition of investor Alice Lloyd George to the company's board. Co-founder/CEO Adam Arrigo and George spoke with Billboard about the non-linear user engagement they believe makes their music-VR experience stand out from the competition. "We can literally meet up inside Tokimonsta's new album right now and talk about it," said Arrigo, "or we could build our own private, custom space to listen to the album."
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At SXSW 2018, TheWaveVR's technical level of performance was good enough to net a Steven Spielberg partnership, as Ready Player One's Distracted Globe nightclub was virtually recreated for festivalgoers. A live Facebook set in November 2017 with Kill The Noise drew 32,000 views with a peak of 600 simultaneous users. Additional upcoming WaveVR community parties are posted on their website's calendar.
Meanwhile, the company has developed its own Wave Builder application to create virtual worlds. Its service has been tested extensively in Steam and the new investment will improve its compatibility with other platforms. TheWaveVR even raised its latest round of investment with venture capital pitches conducted inside virtual reality.
"You need to incorporate co-presence with other people in VR itself into the pitch," said Arrigo. "We held three separate VC sessions within a three-hour period."
Based in Austin, Texas, TheWaveVR is also expanding its presence in Los Angeles, where art director David Wexler aka Strangeloop is based. An artist on Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder label, Wexler is one of the founders of Strangeloop Studios, a group of visual show designers for artists including Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd. Wexler is encouraging his fellow visual artists to take advantage of Wave Builder's use of Google's Tilt Brush and Poly API to easily make and share 3-D designs, and his musical labelmates at Brainfeeder have been among the platform's early adopters.
"We spoke with a lot of people in music and other creative communities," said George. "They were so excited about the opportunity to express their creative visions in a more complete way — to move from simply the linear, sequential album arrangement to creating an entirely new world from scratch, and sharing that with their fans."
