Auggy, a tech startup, plans to let creators build their own brand-focused metaverse worlds. Many established companies are diving into the metaverse, like Samsung with its new virtual store. However, Auggy is the first company to offer users a world where they can display photos or artwork in virtual galleries or gamify songs and other creative products. Essentially, Auggy is creating a platform where both brands and regular users can create their own personal metaverse.
One of the main goals of the company is to make the metaverse accessible to older generations. Sidney Swift, founder of Auggy, told Yahoo Finance: “We’re trying to create a metaverse that your grandmother can understand.”
Swift believes that everyone already has their own virtual world. However, these worlds are currently distributed on multiple platforms on the Internet. With Auggy, users can integrate their entire online existence on a single platform.
Auggy and the music industry
Swift, a Grammy-winning music producer, came up with the idea for personal metaverses in 2017 while trying to better reach fans. “I saw so many missed opportunities for fan conversion in the music world, especially when Spotify and streaming started to appear where it was more of a passive listening experience rather than an active listening experience,” Yahoo Finance reported.
Swift anticipates fans buying NFTs that give them the ability to weigh in on an artist’s upcoming songs. The former Grammy winner even holds a patent to create music videos that can trigger an AR game on smartphones. As he told Yahoo Finance, “We found that secondary experiences were five times the number of streams and that people kept playing over and over again.” While game design companies like Square Enix have made their interest in the metaverse known, Auggy will be the first to integrate the music and game genres in that way.
Personal metaverses will be sold as NFTs to allow users to own their world. Additionally, users will be able to sell NFTs within their metaverses. In addition, users will be able to create video games within their metaverse and license them for Sony PlayStation.
Currently, the platform is by invitation only. However, once out of beta, Auggy will be free to anyone who wants to sign up. The company will earn a small royalty from all NFTs made with Auggy’s metaverse creator. However, creators can choose their royalty rate. “We’re offering artists the ability to make it a very special, curated experience for people at the tipping point of their attention span,” Swift said in her interview.
