Hackathon winners used AR and 5G to let fans digitally interact with bands at the Capitol Royale music tech hackathon, held at the iconic Capitol Studios building in Hollywood Dec 1-2.
Capitol Music Group hosted Capitol Royale, the two-day hackathon with investors, coders, designers. The goal: Create products and services that reimagine music consumption and discovery. The event included industry panels, and a final closing party featuring a performance by Streamy-award wining Fortnite gamer Ninja.
While startup teams worked on their pitches during the hackathon, panels with industry executives discussed music innovation topics. At the 5G panel, music executives discussed how 5G will be as revolutionary as broadband was, by allowing real time rendering of virtual 3D AR objects and live streaming bands and concerts and esports.
At the music investor panel, music VCs discussed what they’re looking for in music startups. Speakers included Suzy Ryoo of Troy Carter’s Smashed Labs that invests in music startups, and a speakers from Beat Games which makes Beat Saber. He said Beat Saber was started by three guys in Croatia who had an idea, and has grown to be one of the top selling VR games.
Most of the startup pitches focused on augmented reality, 5G, and Iive streaming. Verizon, a sponsor of the hackathon, promoted its upcoming 5G which allows real time rendering of augmented reality digital images that can be placed in the real world via your phone. Instead of placing AR Pokemon characters in your room, you can place augmented images of your favorite band performing with dancing and music in your living room with your friends in the background.
AR House Concert, which won the Verizon 5G use award, did just that. The winning team demoed a band singing and dancing shot against a green screen, but digitally placed in the real world through your phone.
Other startups that pitched include the Cyber Code Twins, who won an award.
Our friends at Vamp app, a social network for musicians, also pitched. They previously have pitched at our Digital LA – Music Startup event, and were a Final 5 startup pitch at our Silicon Beach Fest – Startup Showcase in 2016.
USC Lava Lab student teams pitched music tech ideas. Upbeat, which helps artists find fans, won. Other ideas include startups that let fans adjust mix levels of song tracks; Bubble music recording tool to share and develop your project ideas and share, and another tool that uses big data to help artists find likely fans.
Participants in the hackathon had access to approximately 14,000 Universal Music Group and Universal Music Publishing Group pre-cleared audio streaming tracks, as well as never-before-seen original content and mentorship from veteran industry leaders and UMG’s technical partners, including the Capitol360 Innovation Center’s founding partners, Verizon, Twitch, Cloudinary, and ConsenSys’ blockchain music platform Ujo.
Other partners include: Spotify, TiVo, 7digital, Roland, Unity, Qloo, LyricFind, Havas. Representatives from these partner companies announce their platform and any prizes offered for teams using their platforms.
The hackathon was exclusively live streamed on Twitch for 24 hours and broadcasted via Cinedigm digital-first WHAM Network on December 1-2.
In addition to the hackathon, Capitol teamed with startup accelerator gener8tor to host a Startup Garden with curated, one-on-one pitch sessions between selected startups and venture capitalists and innovation executives from participating companies, breakout panels and workshops, partner exhibits, and artist performances.
“With the Capitol Royale event, CMG has a unique opportunity to bring our artists first access to new platforms, products, and apps to connect with fans and share their music in new and innovative ways,” said Capitol Music Group COO Michelle Jubelirer. “We are committed to breaking boundaries and investing in the future by trailblazing new ground in music experiences and discovery.”