ONEREPUBLIC’S “KIDS” GETS VR TREATMENT

UMG, Interscope and Nokia have teamed up for what’s described as a fully immersive virtual-reality experience for “Kids,” the newest single from OneRepublic, which will premiere 9/27 at Advertising Week in NYC. The song is the lead single off the Ryan Tedder-led group’s fourth studio album, Oh My My, dropping 10/7 on Mosley/Interscope.

The video, directed by Hal Kirkland and produced by Chris Milk’s VR studio, Here Be Dragons, was shot with the Nokia OZO, the first pro VR camera available to purchase for content creators.

The “Kids” VR experience will be introduced during the “VR is ‘Kids’ Play” lunch and panel presented by UMG and the Tribeca Film Festival at the NASDAQ Building. That’s when the VR experience will be made available exclusively on the Within app for download and streaming on smartphones and VR headses. The panel will be moderated by Jane Rosenthal, executive chair of Tribeca Enterprises, and will feature Tedder, Milk, Kirkland, Nokia head of presence capture Guido Voltolina and Bart Saunt, head of new business, Universal Music Group & Brands (UMGB).

“Virtual reality is something that’s incredibly interesting to us, because it gives us the opportunity to engage fans in a new way,” said Tedder in the Friday morning announcement. “We’re excited to be able to give our fans a way to step inside our music and live in our latest single.”

UMG now has a VR library of more than 60 titles, including Shawn Mendes, DNCE and U2.