News May 24, 2021

Australian artist WILSONN to debut an interactive music video AR filter for Instagram – set to auction as an NFT

Billboard charting and award-winning Soul Modern/Universal Music Australian artist, WILSONN is set to make history, bringing us the very first Australian interactive music video using an AR Filter for Instagram stories.

Not familiar with an alternate reality (AR) filter on social media? Essentially it allows you to superimpose computer-generated video in your instagram stories. So yes, things are about to get a whole lot more interactive around here.

To bring this cutting-edge technology into existence, WILSONN, who is also the CEO of Playlist Pump PR Agency, worked with digital creative, AR Filter designer, Laurent Marcus.

WILSONN said “I am so grateful to be able to work with an amazing digital creative Laurent Marcus who I was introduced to by a good friend of mine. We wanted to think outside the box and do something that hasn’t really been done before in this country. Laurent had the idea and concept and I had the song and vision for it, and we made it work!”

He continued, “And then to be able to partner up and collaborate with Monegraph who is a blockchain technology platform for media rights that showed invested interest in this project and concept and wanted to create the first NFT for it was just mind-boggling to me, but it showed me that we are ready and the timing is now!”

“Monegraph is the only platform in the space that has the technology built for you to control your media’s rights with multiple counter-parties to provide exclusive distribution. Basically like your very own copyright lawyer embedded right within the platform itself. So, when I found that out, I was in!”

Laurent Marcus said that the main goal was to give fans an immersive interaction with WILSONN’s universe, being a “new way to experience his music.” Marcus added, “Using Spark AR, Instagram Augmented Reality platform, we created 2 experiences in one, bringing WILSONN and his track to life for fans using the AR filter.”

So how does it work and what can you do with the filter? Marcus says that your back camera allows WILSONN into your world by letting him float around you on your screen, surrounded by his musical inspiration, rooted in classic vinyl records from his early years.

Then your front camera takes you into WILSONN’s world and lets you follow the artist overcoming setbacks in his life as his track, groovy pop track, ‘Standing Floor’ plays in the background.

To top it all off, a compiled user experience of the ‘Standing Floors’ album is also set to be released as an exclusive NFT, alongside a social media competition where the submission for the most creative video made using the new AR filter will receive $500 USD.

WILSONN said, “The idea to make an NFT for Standing Floors was first imagined late last year when seeing the rising popularity of the CryptoPunks. So, we began experimenting with the idea of what if we could make an animated GIF of myself, but make it actually do something, interact with my fans while they listened to our new EP. The result was an immersive Augmented Reality app on Instagram which we will drop simultaneously with the NFT which is an exclusive personalised use of the app by WILSONN and other musicians around the world.”

The NFT for Standing Floors auction has kicked off today and you can check it out here. To check out the Instagram story filter, click here.

For more on this topic, follow the Industry Observer.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.