We’ve seen plenty of VR music videos, but I-Exist wants to take the relationship between audio and virtual reality even deeper with a full VR concept album.
This two-piece band is currently working on Consciousness, a full LP that you’ll experience inside a VR headset. But this isn’t just a series of 360 degree videos; Consciousness aims to be a fully interactive VR experience that takes listeners on a journey, replicating and expanding upon the feeling of owning a physical album. It wants to be the first in a series of LPs that you listen to inside of your VR headset, recapturing the essence of long listening sessions rather than streaming individual songs.
You can get a glimpse of how it might work in the video below. It’s an intriguing idea; a world that reacts to the sounds surrounding you and gives you new ways to interact with it.
To help finish the project, I-Exist has turned to Kickstarter. The band is hoping to raise $20,000 and, at the time of writing, is just under a third of the way there with $5,900 raised and just under a month left to go in the campaign. While you’ll be able to get physical and streaming versions of the album itself, for a $25 pledge or more you’ll get a copy of the VR version, which is currently expected to release in December. If successful you can look for the album to come to most major VR platforms, including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, Windows and Gear VR.
