- Universal Music Group is partnering with Genies to build virtual avatars for its roster of artists.
- The companies also plan to sell digital wearables like clothing and accessories to artists' fans.
- The move shows that UMG, like its industry peers, is investing more resources into the "metaverse."
Universal Music Group and digital-avatar company Genies announced a new partnership today in which Genies will build avatars and digital wearables, like virtual clothing and accessories, for performers across the company's roster of artists.
A Genies "avatar" is an animated version of a real-world celebrity that can be used in a variety of contexts: Justin Bieber created a music video with his Genies avatar, for example, while Rihanna used hers in a tweet to promote her company Fenty. Paris Hilton, who is an investor in Genies, used her genie to perform a virtual concert in the blockchain world Decentraland.
While Genies has worked with UMG-affiliated artists like Bieber and Rihanna on a one-off basis before, the new agreement opens the door for the rest of its talent to enter the metaverse should they choose to do so.
"All of their labels are leaning in," Genies' CEO Akash Nigam told Insider. "Over time we will clone everybody under the UMG roster as a Genie avatar."
Nigam said his goal is to take avatars and digital goods that have been prevalent in gaming for decades and bring them into other social-media and digital communities — or the metaverse at large.
Many companies are now interested in finding ways to enter the metaverse, a term that means different things depending on who you ask.
Some companies envision a world where digital avatars move freely between gaming platforms like Fortnite and social apps like Facebook. Others, like Snap, are turning to augmented reality glasses to bring digital elements into the real world.
Regardless of what the metaverse ends up looking like, music will probably end up having a meaningful role in our future digital lives. Music discovery and live artist performances have already taken off on apps like Roblox and TikTok, for instance.
And social media has become a cash cow for the music industry. Last year, Warner Music Group's CEO Stephen Cooper described social media as a "meaningful 9-figure revenue stream" for Warner that was "growing at a rate faster than subscription streaming." Warner Music Group announced its own partnership with Genies in April, and Cooper highlighted the company's interest in the metaverse during the company's Q4 earnings call last month.
Digital avatars like Genies' could open up a new revenue stream for artists.
UMG and Genies are planning to work with talent to sell digital wearables, like clothing or guitars, to their fans as NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which are bought and sold through blockchains like Ethereum. They can take many forms, from an internet meme to a digital key used to access a file like a music album.
Genies, which said it's raised over $100 million to-date, recently announced a partnership with blockchain company Dapper Labs to build a marketplace for buying and selling digital wearables. The new marketplace could end up serving as a hub for fans to buy and sell goods from UMG's artists.
"The wearables may unlock different music components," Akash said. "I think there's going to be unlockable events. Like, 'Oh, now because I got this wearable I can unlock, you know, the Migos show that's happening in this space.' I think things like that will happen. We're still a little bit away from that, so we're starting with basically the tip of the iceberg."