Games firm Roblox has put on concerts and album parties with a number of artists – and has sold a boatload of virtual Lil Nas X merch – but now it is preparing to put on an entire festival.
The company has teamed up with promoter Insomniac to create a virtual version of its Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas festival this weekend (23-25 October).
The Roblox experience is called Insomniac World Party, and it has opened today for people to explore in advance of the pre-show event on Friday.
Described as the “first-ever persistent music festival on Roblox” it will include recreations of the physical EDC stages, as well as famous areas of its site.
Over the weekend, sets will be broadcast from the festival itself, with artists holding virtual meet’n’greets within the Roblox world. Kaskade, DJ Snake, Alison Wonderland and Zedd are among the artists whose sets will be streamed.
Discover a world of music, where every waking moment is a party. 🎶
— Bloxy News (@Bloxy_News) October 20, 2021
From October 22-25, experience @EDC_LasVegas 2021 from the #Roblox metaverse and watch performances from globally recognized artists live from the world’s largest dance music festival.https://t.co/GeLcyN5oRJ pic.twitter.com/smZr9xkGWU
As with previous music events, Roblox has enlisted one of the top developers in its community to build the World Party experience. Wonder Works Studio is the developer behind Overlook Bay, a popular virtual pets and home-decoration game on Roblox.
There will also be virtual items; contests to win real and virtual EDC merchandise; and mini-games based on the festival’s themes.
Today’s news comes shortly after Roblox reached a deal with the US National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) to dismiss the latter’s lawsuit against the company alleging “unabashed exploitation of music without proper licences”.
Putting on a virtual festival including live streams of DJ sets is a bold move, given the potential licensing implications, so it appears to signal Roblox’s confidence that the necessary rights are covered.
Wonder Works Studio’s involvement is also noteworthy as the latest example of a prominent Roblox developer’s expansion. The company has expanded from four staff to 40 in recent months.
Warner Music Group recently chipped in to a $5.2m funding round for another Roblox developer, Supersocial, while Roblox itself expects to pay out $500m to its developer community in 2021.
The company is actively encouraging partnerships between labels, artists and now festivals on one side, and top developers from that community on the other.
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