Music distribution giant Universal Music Group and popular music streaming service iHeart Radio announced today at the CES in Las Vegas that the two companies will merge to bring music fans a series of “virtual reality” concerts in 2016.
The companies predict the partnership will make live music-generated “immersive VR experiences” more accessible to large US audiences in an unprecedented strategy. These experiences could happen pre-show, post show or dueing the set of a single artist, but never an entire set of virtual reality. These “VR experiences” will occur with one major Universal Music Group artist during one of iHeart’s signature events such as the iHeartRadio Music Awards, the iHeartRadio Music Festival and the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour.
UMG is still in the middle of booking artists to take part in the concerts, but the first VR music series is already scheduled to take place at the iHeartRadio Music Awards on April 3rd, 2016.