NEW YORK — The nation’s top audio content creation and distribution company has taken what it is calling “an important next step” in extending its presence into “web3” and the metaverse.
It starts with the commencement of plans for the creation of iHeartMedia events and experiences for listeners and music fans on Roblox.
That’s the shared experiences platform launching “tokenized communities” for its users and creators — key to the world of “NFTs.”
The iHeart team plans to use its consumer reach to create the awareness and demand necessary to bring new metaverse and web3 platforms to the mass market.
“Although there are a number of great new products for the metaverse and web3 from a wide array of creators, with our unparalleled audience reach, multiple platforms, and our trusted broadcast and podcast hosts, iHeartMedia is uniquely positioned to build the consumer awareness, understanding and demand necessary for those new products and platforms from both us and others to succeed,” said Bob Pittman, Chairman/CEO at iHeartMedia. “We see this as a unique opportunity to serve our listeners’ needs, provide an important new layer of growth for the company, and help develop the advertising and consumer potential for the metaverse and web3.”
As part of this overall strategy, in 2022 iHeartMedia plans to bring “immersive musical moments” to the more than 47 million daily active users on the Roblox platform and launch its first tokenized community, “building a new token that will incentivize and reward the iHeart creator community in new ways and give iHeart’s fans unique access to offerings across its multiple platforms, and a series of collectible non-fungible tokens (NFTs).”
It builds on “the success” of the previously launched iHeartRadio Music Festival NFTs in partnership with Green NFT platform OneOf in September 2021.
“In the same way in which we believed in and committed to digital radio and podcasting – and became the strong number one in both — we are big believers in the incredible potential of web3,” said Conal Byrne, President of the iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group. “We have already stepped into the metaverse with NFTs and have much more to come. iHeart’s place in this ecosystem — giving fans extraordinary access to the special events and influencers we provide every day of the year — is what we’re focused on building out as we work with key partners and develop an easy-to-use ramp to the metaverse and web3 for the mass market.
