Digital Hollywood CES 2023 Opens Up To The Metaverse and the Future of Video Streaming

Watching a blockbuster movie in a virtual movie theater on Mars, pressing a button to switch between a film's theatrical version and its director cut on the fly, and maintaining the film look on an 8k TVs are some of the things discussed at the Digital Hollywood CES  in Las Vegas on January 4th, which officially kicked off the week-long CES show. But the looming Metaverse takeover dominated the event, with multiple panels about the subject matter. 

Digital CES previously announced its program late last year, and it included the following panels:

• Hollywood, Streaming & the Metaverse
• Web3, XR, Metaverse & the Entertainment Consumer
• Investments in Web3/Hollywood, Apps, Content/Sports Betting
• XR/AR/Metaverse - Revolutionizing Retail - Consumer Experience
• Future of TV & Streaming: Programming & Multi-Platform Strategy
• XR, Sports, NFTs, Hollywood & Metaverse: The Platform for Commerce
• Social Media Power: The All-Demographic Consumer Choice
• Metaverse Media Leadership: XR/AR/VR
• Internet TV, FAST and OTT: Programming Everywhere
• The Immersive At-Home Experience – Streaming-IoT- 5G -TV
• The Disruption: Media, Platforms and Advertising
• Monetizing the TV/Streaming, Programming Platforms: Industry Strategies

In one Metaverse panel, Warner Bros executive Renard Jenkins talked about several high-profile companies jumping into the Metaverse, including Roblox, which has an exclusive deal with APM Music.  

"I think that one of the things that we have to keep in mind is that it's not going to be a single place. It's going to be a multiverse. Because you have so many players in this space right now, and so many different groups are trying to create an experience for their particular customer base," Jenkins said. "If you want to tie someone into your Metaverse and only your Metaverse, you're going to run into some of the problems that we're already seeing when it comes to the VR experience. And people are either gonna have to buy a bunch of stuff or they're just gonna say, 'you know what? I'm not really interested."

While most of the panelists were optimistic about the Metaverse takeover, some were more conservative. 

"We don't really know what that means for entertainment yet. There are a lot of technical hurdles, let alone standards and other things [that need] to come together to create whatever that seamless sort of experience is. We have a ways to go on that," said Sony executive Bill Baggelaar. "You've got to have mass adoption, too. And that's hard."

APM Music recently partnered with TuneGo and entered the Metaverse with a bunch of digital collectibles featuring exclusive tracks from the iconic KPM library. In November, APM Music and TuneGo dropped the KPM Genesis Collection, which sold out quickly. For the holiday season, a collection containing rare holiday tracks sold out in minutes. The Metaverse is fertile ground for production music as users and companies start creating collectibles, environments, and experiences that require music, like Roblox. Soon, apps like Rec Room on meta will have options to decorate rooms with rare vinyl covers, such as the KPM Greensleeves, and even play virtual records for a Metaverse listening party.

CES 2023 Las Vegas starts today and ends Sunday, January 8th.