Capitol Records has signed virtual artist FN Meka. He has over 10 million followers on his TikTok.
(0)
MBW is statistically pretty good. We’re not usually known for being good at A&R.
However, there is one major label signature that we spotted fairly early on.
Last April, I told you about a robot rapper named FN Meka. The creator of the virtual artist (who we’ll get back to later) says at the time he created Meka using thousands of data points gleaned from video games and social media.
In just over a year, FN Meka has over 10 million followers on TikTok.
Not only that, but he just “signed” to one of the most powerful record companies in the world, Capitol Records/Capitol Music Group.
Capitol claims FN Meka, with over 1 billion views on TikTok, is the #1 “virtual being” on its video platform. The world’s first AR artist signed with a major label.
major debut single, Florida Water – A collaboration between Billboard chart-topping Gunna and professional Fortnite player Clix is out today (Friday, August 12th).
It was produced by Turbo (Travis Scott, Young Thug, Lil Baby) and executive produced by DJ Holliday (Gucci Mane, Nicki Minaj).
Ryan Luden, executive vice president of experiential marketing and business development at Capitol Music Group, told MBW that the project is “the intersection of music, technology and gaming culture” and “just a preview of what’s to come.” It’s nothing more than that,” he said.
“That song florida water Meet at the intersection of music, technology and gaming culture… [it’s] It’s just a preview of what’s to come.”
Ryan Ruden, Capitol Music Group
Ruden added: “This latest project with FN Meka and Clix is the first of its kind, but just an evolution of his 80-year history of innovation at Capitol Records.”
The move is one of Capitol’s boldest moves under the leadership of Michelle Jubelirer, who was appointed Chairman and CEO of Capitol Music Group in December 2021.
MBW explained last year: But everything about him is based on his AI, from his lyrics to the chords and tempos that underpin his music. ”
in line with the release of florida water In addition to its streaming platform, Capitol also signed a “unique partnership” with royalty-free music startup Slip.stream.
as a result, florida water Creators can now use their music on YouTube and Twitch “without monetization or removal.”
Slip.stream recently raised a $7.5 million Series A round from investors including Sony Music Entertainment, Third Prime and Lightshed Ventures. calls itself a “creator-safe music platform”.
Founded by entrepreneurs David Carson (founder of Fuse, Heavy.com, New Stand), Dan Demole (founder of Jingle Punks) and Jesse Korwin (CMO of Jingle Punks).
The platform offers a “piracy-free” library of over 100,000 tracks and sound effects, filled with “real music by real artists.”
In December, music industry veteran Anthony Martini stepped down as CEO of Royalty Exchange to join Slip.stream as Chief Music Officer and Partner.
Martini is also co-founder of Factory New, the ‘virtual’ record label that first ‘signed’ FN Meka.
In an interview with MBW last year, Martini explained that the company “analyzes certain popular songs in certain genres, lyrical content, chords, melodies, tempos, sounds, etc.” to create a song.
“At the moment, human voices are performing the vocals, but we want computers to be able to come up with and execute their own words, and even collaborate with other computers as ‘co-authors’.” It is working. ”
Virtual artists are increasingly intertwined in the world of major labels.
For example, Universal Music Group, owner of Capitol Music Group, has invested in this trend through its Web3 label 10:22PM with virtual NFT band KINGSHIP. UMG also signed a broad global partnership last year with ‘avatar technology company’ Genies to develop avatars and digital wearables for UMG’s artist roster.
Warner Records also recently entered into a global partnership with K-Pop giant SM Entertainment and girl group aespa, a ‘metaverse girl group’ consisting of four human members and four virtual members. Meanwhile, last year, Warner Music Group’s pan-Asian dance label in China, Whet Records, signed a virtual artist, or “virtual idol,” named Ha Jiang.
Sony Music has also experimented with virtual versions of real artists on gaming platforms such as Roblox.
Other prominent players in the virtual artist space include Spirit Bomb with virtual artists such as Xen, SUBI and AntiFragile. The music played by these avatars was created in collaboration with human musicians and producers.
Another successful example of a VR artist is someone like Lil Miquela. Her Instagram followers are her 3 million and her monthly listeners on Spotify are in the hundreds of thousands. league of legends K-pop band, K/DA – voiced by humans, but with avatars in the foreground.
In an interview with MBW last year, Anthony Martini, now chief music strategist and partner at Slip.stream, explained the appeal of investing in virtual artist development.
Comments
Post a Comment