metaverse. We know that there are music metaverses and
venues, and metaverse platforms based around music creation already, and there are others on the way. A good example of this is Pixelynx, Deadmau5’s music based metaverse platform. He founded the platform, one that was completely based around the music, but then was acquired by Animoca Brands, a company with a broad portfolio of web3, blockchain and traditional games, which is a huge web3 holding company, so from launch to exit, Deadmau5 did very well out of the partnership.
How is Lickd positioned to capitalise on user-generated content as it starts to colonise new platforms – such as those we might collectively call “the metaverse”? I think it’s important to outline that wherever there is opportunity for the music industry online, it will require some sort of micro licensing commercial model, and some sort of proprietary tech, either to enable the licensing or to protect the end user. That’s where Lickd is perfectly positioned. Our mission
is to democratise music for the world’s creators. Our first product looked at creators as video content creators, but as the world changes and the digital landscape evolves, creators will also include builders in the metaverse. We all know that the metaverse is inevitable. We’ve all
been in it in some description as early as 15 years ago, when virtual meetings became incepted, and experiences like ‘The Sims’ and ‘Second Life’ were popular. But as time goes on, it will just start to play a bigger and bigger role in future generations’ lives. With metaverse graphics and experiences improving as
more focus is put on it, so do the expectations on how it sounds. I’ve been to virtual venues, often music themed virtual venues and heard stock music or music that I don’t recognise and that’s not adding to the experience. Whenever that happens, it’s a red flag for me. This all comes back to the complexities of music licensing, but it also tells me there’s an opportunity here and that opportunity is almost always taken by stock music companies on day one. I see Lickd’s role here as the voice to help bridge
that gap, exploring more ways we can coalesce in this ever-changing digital world. With the fragmented music industry and all the complexities around rights, we’re responsible in packaging it up in a way that is in the interests of songwriters and artists, but also to the betterment of the environment and that involves us building technology and bespoke commercial models. In the physical world, there are endless studies around
how the right music choices in store can affect purchasing, and how different BPM’s can generate different
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behaviours with groups of users. It goes without saying that everything built in the metaverse is essentially a meet up spot of some description, whether it’s a retail outlet or a bar or a club environment, or just a place to hang out with friends. Most places in the real world use commercial music to create atmosphere, to create engagement, to encourage dwell time. And if the metaverse has any chance of succeeding, it needs to be able to replicate that real life experience. The metaverse is very early on in its development, but
it will eventually get there. And so the opportunity for the music industry is posing the questions to creators like, ‘how can we help the metaverse sound good?’ ‘How can we all benefit from that?’ and ‘how can we enable it by building proprietary technology and creating the viable commercial model We’ve worked with Vegas City to pilot Chorus, which
is the world’s first metaverse background music player. It enables users to select a playlist to be played in their venue, but also ensures that only those attendees are hearing it. The challenge for us was how do we build a music
player that gives the venues choice and can read vectors, coordinates and blueprints in the metaverse. When we see an opportunity like that, we ask, how can we solve this problem? What’s the opportunity for everyone involved? And often you’ll find that there’s a win-win for everyone. When you see a win for everyone in a value chain, it becomes a no brainer.
Aside from bringing on board more partners, are there any plans to expand the service in other directions? Are there still deals to be done? Over the past two years, we’ve already entered into partnerships with the likes of Warner Music Group (in August 2020). And in September 2021, we secured £5.1 million ($7m) in funding from investors including WMG and Fortnite creator Epic Games, which bought D2C music platform Bandcamp in March. From inception, we’ve built ourselves out as an industry
platform that is made up of popular music from over 10,000 labels and publishers. Our portfolio and catalogues of music demonstrate this, having key industry players like Universal, Warner, Sony, BMG and Kobalt on board. But there are always more deals to be done, as music consumption grows and demands increase. At Lickd, we also do lots of work with independent
distributors. There’s around 1.4 million songs on the Lickd at present, but incredibly, another 6 million have been delivered and are waiting to go live. The vast majority of them will be emerging acts and we certainly do our best to help and encourage discovery on the platform.
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