Apple marks first foray into virtual reality with U2
Apple Music has partnered with U2 for its first swoop on virtual reality.
‘The eXperience Bus’ is pulling up at some U2 concerts in London for fans to take in a 360-degree music video to the band’s track Song for Someone. According to VR Focus, the clip is shot in different locations including inside O2 Arena where U2 are holding a jam session, inside fans’ homes and across the globe featuring other musicians in their homes. The experience has been made available on the Vrse app.
Vrseis the VR production company specialising in360 videos like short documentary Clouds Over Sidra, the trailer for horror film Catatonic and the clip for New York Times magazine’s large-scale street art installation Walking New York.
Naturally, the bus is plastered with the Apple Music logo, while Macs and iPads are placed inside the bus featuring the clip. The clip actually begins with an Apple Music plug, and fans are using Beats Solos along with Oculus Rift headsets to experience the 360-degree VR.
The music video is unsurprisingly for a song on the band’s free Apple iTunes release, Songs of Innocence. The record caused a stir last September when it was added to every iTunes library without consent, irking many of the 26 million users who unknowingly downloaded the album when their iCloud settings were enabled.
Apple has partnered with U2 many times in the past 10 years – the band’s silhouettes featured on early iPod commercials and they even had their own iPod edition – so it’s no surprise the tech giant would enlist U2 for its first foray into VR.
‘The eXperience Bus’ follows Apple’s acquisition of augmented reality company Metaio, in May.