A BEGGARS VR BANQUET

British-based independent company Beggars Group is the latest licensee to allow growing virtual reality company MelodyVR access to its artists and content. The deal will see performances and videos from artists signed to several of its labels available to users of the MelodyVR app.

MelodyVR will have the right to create and distribute live and recorded VR content created with artists signed to 4AD,Matador, Rough Trade, XL Recordings and Young Turks. Artists signed to those labels include The National, FKA Twigs, Jungle, Queens of the Stone Age, The xx, King Krule, Grimes and Interpol.

Beggars is the second independent company to get on board following Roc Nation; the company also has agreements signed with the major labels, and publishers and venues.

“I will be fascinated to see what creativity we can cook up together and create exciting new music experiences,” Simon Wheeler, Director of Commercial Strategy Beggars, said.

Performances can be viewed in VR through a headset or the mobile app, which is monetized with one-off fees. There’s talk of a subscription tier in future.

Earlier this year, MelodyVR live streamed London's Wireless Festival in VR, attracting around 250k viewers, which is close to double the audience who attended the event physically.