Ever since live music events were brought to an abrupt halt last year, the search has been on for a digital platform that will enable both artists and crowds to get something like the same kind of experience in their own homes. Enter Woov, which is designed to be precisely that.
Promising to “transform the live music experience,” Woov enables you not just to watch a gig, but to actually ‘attend’ it. Crowds are placed in a digital place and can chat to each other; you can move people around on screen and hear their positioning reflected in the audio.
This ‘spatial positioning’ of the music and the crowd is one of Woov’s big selling points - the idea is that you can meet up with friends and other likeminded people and engage in conversation with them. Whether this is the kind of virtual gig experience that people actually want, of if they’d prefer to just sit back and watch the performance being broadcast to them, remains to be seen.
Woov offers support for multiple rooms - so you can get away from people who are bugging you - and you can set the levels of the voices, crowd noise and music. So, if you want to shut out everyone else’s conversations, you can.
The platform certainly has some big-hitting backers, including BT: “Instead of trying to recreate a complex visual environment, Woov makes you feel like you’re immersed in a group of friends experiencing music through the sense that matters most for music; our hearing,” he says.
“You feel the sound of your friends surrounding you, the sound of the physical space and the intensity and interaction of the crowd with the DJ. This is incredible not just for the listening audience but for the performer as well.”
“A live stream should be more than just a broadcast,” adds Carl Cox, another Woov advocate. “It is a virtual music experience that has the potential to connect the artist and the audience. Performing at the first beta event on Woov recently showed that it is possible to create the emotion of partying together in an authentic way and to feel close to the clubbers on the virtual dancefloor.”
Woov’s creators say that it has the potential to offer a new revenue stream for artists and promoters, and it also promises a seamless solution to issues relating to music rights clearance. We’re assured that there’s “a transparent revenue split of the actual value created for parties in the ecosystem”.
The platform is currently in beta and offering early-bird access. Head to the Woov website to get on the guestlist - we’re told that a stellar line-up of artist events is set to be announced.
