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Comment by AlanYx | Hacker News Reader

I'm having trouble understanding how concerts are a "great use case for VR"... at a concert you sit/stand and look at the stage and listen to the music. Seems like that could be replicated with just a regular display and sound system, but that kind of remote viewing of concerts has never become mainstream. What about VR would change this?

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It depends what you think the important differences between a broadcast concert and an in-person concert are.

Is it the limitless resolution, and great venue acoustics and sound system?

Is it about the fact you're meeting up with your friends?

Is it about the atmosphere and energy of the crowd? The dancing, the fighting, the mingling?

Is it about the fact that if the performer tells you to make some noise, doing that at home to a video stream would be absurd?

Is it about the fact you might meet an attractive stranger, and go home with them?

Is it the fact you can buy drinks?

Is it about the intrinsic authenticity of a performance by a human, not a recording played by a machine or a copy of a copy of a copy?

Is it about being a singular moment, having experiences that can't be paused or replayed and are all the more real for it?

Is it about getting out of the house, and not being a shut-in?

Is it the cultural cachet and the fact you can post pictures on social media so other people will know you're cool?

Some of these a metaverse concert might be able to provide - you could produce a very high quality video stream with good sound, and an ability to talk with your friends.

Others the metaverse will never provide.

Watching a concert on a display isn't immersive imo. You are still acutely aware that you're in your living room.

I guess I struggle to understand how being surrounded by hundreds of cartoonish avatars would improve the experience. It would be immersive in a sense, but also pretty clear that I was still not really at a concert.

I think the lack of avatars is part of what makes it compelling. Sure some people will do the "communal" experience, but others will have a set up that makes it feel like the band is performing for only them and their friends. Real concerts are sweaty and smelly and hot and other people can be distracting.

You can see it from any angle, with an infinite number of added effects possible.

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