Musical Metaverse made in Europe: an innovation lab for musicians and audiences of the future.

The grand challenge of this project is to create the basis for a paradigm shift in the way music is performed and experienced, by leveraging the new creative possibilities offered by the emerging Musical Metaverse. The consortium aims to achieve this ambitious challenge by means of i) a socio-cognitive breakthrough, by gaining a deep understanding of the emerging needs and concerns of contemporary musicians and audiences via collaborative design activities and neuro-physiological measurements; ii) a technological breakthrough, by developing radically novel concert platforms and devices that can exchange information among each other via ultra-reliable low-latency wireless networks, with privacy and security constraints; iii) a musical breakthrough, by creating novel concert formats that exploit the technological and socio-cognitive breakthroughs. This project uses an interdisciplinary methodology that combines Human-Computer Interaction, Engineering, Cognition, and Music, drawing from the scientific excellence of the partners. Industrial partners will provide know-how for proof of concept prototypes. Through this disruptive approach, the project will provide a pipeline to the technological development of a new class of musical interfaces and Musical Metaverse ecosystems, whose features will go substantially beyond current systems. The proposed approach aspires to effect a step-change in the design of musical interfaces and systems to musically interact online, resulting in a potentially high economic impact on the music industry. The envisioned technological advancements for the musical domain will provide key solutions for true real-time collaborative activities in the Metaverse in general. The project involves theoretical and experimental aspects, and is a high-impact endeavour from which basic science, EU industry and society can benefit.