In less than two months, the first music video by South Korean girls quartet MAVE: went viral, setting the stage for potential global success with nearly 20 million views on YouTube.
At first glance, MAVE: looks like any other idolized K-pop band, except that they only exist virtually. , their songs, dances, interviews, and even hairstyles created by web designers and artificial intelligence. His 19-year-old Han Su-min from Seoul said: “My friends and I use Metaverse and his platform a lot, so I feel like I could be a fan of them.”
The group’s near-human-like avatars offer a glimpse of how the Metaverse is likely to evolve as South Korea’s entertainment and tech industries join forces on this fledgling technology. The tech giant also represents a serious push for Kakao Corp to become a dominant force in entertainment. Aside from backing MAVE:, Kakao launched his 1.25 trillion won ($960 million) tender offer last week to acquire SM Entertainment, her K-pop pioneer in South Korea. .
SM is home to popular K-pop groups such as Girls’ Generation, HOT, EXO, Red Velvet, Super Junior, SHINee, NCT Dream, and Aespa. Kakao declined to comment on how it would balance the need to manage real and virtual bands.
The company’s bet on the metaverse is bucking global trends. From Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms Inc to his Tencent Holdings in China, tech giants are now curbing spending on virtual worlds to weather the recession. Kakao has previously said that he invested 12 billion won in his Metaverse Entertainment, a subsidiary of the game company he set up with Netmarble Corp to create MAVE:.
However, the company declined to provide revenue projections from the joint venture. MAVE: is an “ongoing” project to explore new business opportunities and find ways to address technical challenges, said Chu Ji-yeon, head of Metaverse Entertainment.
Four Languages This concept is not new in Korea. In 1998, virtual his singer Adam was born, and 20 years later, his group K/DA also debuted K-Pop Girls, whose video was inspired by League of Legends characters in his game. Neither took off.
However, South Korean technology has made a lot of progress in creating virtual characters since then. Viewers say it looks more natural because of it. With the help of an AI voice generator, members can speak four languages: Korean, English, French, and Bahasa. I have to.
The group’s voices and music video choreography heard on their debut single “Pandora” were created by human performers and processed by motion capture and real-time 3D rendering technology. Experts say the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the growth of such virtual characters as many K-pop companies have moved to online content to keep their fans at home.
Lee Jong-im, a pop culture critic who teaches at Seoul National University, said, “Fans have been accustomed to consuming non-face-to-face content and communicating with idol groups for nearly three years.” It seems that groups have begun to embrace the concept that they can merge.” While virtual groups like MAVE: are making headlines for their novelty, they rival the interactions between traditional hot bands and their legions of fans. The question remains as to whether it is possible.
“Virtual idols move exactly as they are manufactured. It will be close,” he said. Still, the creators of MAVE: and others in the entertainment industry are optimistic about its potential.
“With so many comments coming in from all over the world, we’ve learned that viewers are looking for something new and are quite open-minded,” said local TV station MBC’s weekly music show. Chief Producer Roh Shi-yong said. MAVE: he aired the performance twice. “The Metaverse Era is Coming” ($1 = 1,303.3300 won)
(This article is not edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
