In what Chairman/CEO Bob Pittman calls “a unique opportunity,” and Digital Audio Group CEO Conal Byrne calls “the incredible potential of web3,” iHeartMedia announced its intention to develop “meta” experiences on the Roblox platform. The first initiatives will be music events and experiences for listeners and music fans, according to a company announcement.
Roblox is a platform for creating meta-like virtual experiences with community building and revenue potentials.
iHeart intends to foster tokenized communities — groups of participants identified by a form of crypto currency which bestows exclusive experiences, merchandise, access, or a range of other benefits. (Raoul Pal, former Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager and co-founder of Real Vision Group, evangelizes the business potential of takenized communities like this: “It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen, we all know how big crypto is, but within crypto, community tokens are going to change all business models.” LINK)
“We have already stepped into the metaverse with NFTs and have much more to come,” Conal Byrne noted. “iHeart’s place in this ecosystem — giving fans extraordinary access to the special events and influencers we provide every day of the year — is what we’re focused on building out as we work with key partners and develop an easy-to-use ramp to the metaverse and web3 for the mass market.”