There used to be a time when artificial intelligence in music wasn’t a thing. Way back in the before times of just a couple years ago, the technology simply wasn’t there. Now, we’ve got robots making music, ghost artists flooding Spotify, and Ian Hill of Judas Priest insisting beyond all hope that AI could never really take over in music because AI can’t really perform live. Yet he forgot one key thing — Kiss‘ drive to make boatloads of cash after retirement by touring through the use of digital avatars.
You’ll remember we reported late last year that Kiss would be continuing on as avatars in a show similar to the Abba Voyage show in London (because what metal fan hasn’t already seen that show and fallen in love, am I right?).
At the recent 27th annual Power of Love gala in Vegas, Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer told UK tabloid The Sun that the new avatar show that the band are working on which will create a virtual Kiss experience beyond the band’s retirement was going to need a full theater and the frontrunner for the location of that theater is currently Las Vegas. Here’s what Thayer had to say:
No strangers to the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas, it would make total sense to see a digital Kiss residency where wealthy, old fans of the rock band pony up big money to relive their glory days. And let’s be real about something here — those tickets are going to be stupid expensive just so you can watch PlayStation 2-era Kiss play air guitar on stage.
The only thing that could possibly make this an interesting proposition would be if they held these avatar concerts in the MSG Sphere. That place is wild enough to make the Kiss experience even larger than life. Still, with this project’s first show planned for 2027, we’re a long way away from seeing any of this actually come to fruition.
Months after finally calling it quits for their human forms, legendary rock band Kiss has sold everything to a Pophouse Entertainment. When I say everything, I mean everything. Their music, the brand, logo, likenesses, publishing rights, master recordings… fucking everything.
As it stands, Kiss is planning on having their first avatar-based concert in 2027. Unfortunately, the only people to have really seen the Kiss hologram/avatar/digital bois in person outside of the company developing them was the people at that last show. People involved in the project claim the visuals will be even better over time. To that end, Fortune revealed that the band traveled to Walt Disney Co.’s Industrial Light & Magic to complete some in-depth motion capture for the digital avatars.
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