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Universal Music Group (UMG) and K-pop giant YG Entertainment have invested an undisclosed sum in a booming global digital live streaming platform established by BTS backing Big Hit Entertainment and the tech company Kiswe cloud video, the companies said on Tuesday.
The main K-pop firm and its YG rival, Big Hit, first partnered with New Jersey-based Kiswe in a memorandum of understanding last May. In September, they formed a joint venture called KBYK Live and together launched a live content platform called VenewLive within the month.
Now, YG and UMG have teamed up with an undisclosed-sized equity investment, seeking to work with the couple to further expand the platform’s reach, enhance the applications of its unique multi-view technology, and showcase their own artists. . The move builds on the success of Big Hit’s virtual concerts via Kiswe technology in 2020 and will help agencies find new ways to attract paid viewers as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, preventing broadcasts in no one.
“The past year has shown that the need for reliable and innovative live streaming has never been greater,” said Boyd Muir, executive vice president, chief financial officer and president of operations at UMG. “We are delighted to join Big Hit, YG and Kiswe as partners of KBYK as we seek to help further evolve the live streaming opportunities and experiences for UMG artists and their fans today and in the world. future.”
YG Entertainment chief executive Sung Jun Choi said he was “excited about this investment … [which] has secured a high-quality platform with cutting-edge technologies ”for the company’s artists. The move will help YG in its quest to “deliver more interactive experiences and new services to fans around the world,” he added.
The KBYK Live platform stands out for its use of Kiswe technology, which allows fans to choose between multiple views on an ongoing live event, previously used by the company more widely in the live sports arena. For musical performances, the technology allows fans to customize their view of stage productions with a selection of different possible camera positions and angles available to switch between the two in real time. It also offers premium features that can increase the price of virtual tickets, such as 4K resolution, live chat features, and programs that simulate the synchronized movement of fan light sticks at the heart of the show experience. of the K-pop stadium.
“VenewLive provides today’s artists with some of the most creative and memorable opportunities to globalize their art and performance, designed to enhance the community and the fan experience,” Muir explained.
These possibilities were showcased by last year’s record-breaking concerts using Kiswe technology put on by Big Hit’s main supporting super-group, the seven-member sensation BTS. June’s “BANG BANG CON: The Live” set a Guinness World Record for “most viewers for a live music concert” by drawing together some 756,000 paid viewers from 107 countries. In October, the group then broke their own record with their two-day online concert “Map of the Soul ON: E” (pictured above) which drew 993,000 viewers from 191 countries and territories.
“VenewLive has already streamed several large-scale performances live over the past year and provided unique, immersive fan concert experiences that can be delivered through our cutting-edge technologies, including six-angle multiple views, 4K resolution and various interactive features, ”explained KBYK Live CEO John Lee. “Our technology will be the basis for making fans feel closer to artists and helping artists to express their energy on a digital stage.”
UMG and YG’s willingness to get involved with the platform marks a vote of confidence for Big Hit’s forward-thinking approach to entertainment.
“Big Hit’s attempts to maximize the fan experience are not limited to entertainment, but also [extend to the implementation] various technologies, ”said the company’s global CEO Lenzo Yoon, explaining that VenewLive is part of this effort. “Our dream and our goal is to provide the most advanced technology currently available so that fans can experience the artist’s content in the best possible way under all circumstances.”
He added: “We will continue to study how new technologies … can have a positive impact on strengthening our fan experience and actively introduce them.”
Late last month, Big Hit announced that it would invest around $ 63 million in YG subsidiary YG PLUS and improve its online fan community platform WeVerse by partnering with the Google equivalent of South Korea, the Naver search engine. The latter is investing $ 320 million in Big Hit’s subsidiary beNX, which developed the proprietary application WeVerse.
Cloud video company Kiswe has offices in New York, London, Hasselt, Seoul and Singapore. It was founded by its current chairman Jeong Kim – a director of the board of Samsung, co-owner of Monumental Sports and Entertainment and former chairman of Bell Labs – and its chief architect Wim Sweldens, former chairman of French telecommunications Alcatel-Lucent. Wireless and founder. Alcatel-Lucent Ventures. Current Kiswe CEO and Chairman Mike Schabel is also from Alcatel-Lucent, where he was previously Managing Director of Small Cells.
“We have been developing video streaming and fan engagement technology since 2013 and are excited to use [it] at [help artists] exceed the limits of a stadium [and] to perform to their fans around the world, and to make those fans feel like they are a part of the concert, ”said Schabel.
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