Metaverse News #6 - we read all the metaverse stories so you don't have to 💡

Welcome! Who's got time to read the avalanche of content about the metaverse? Not you, we bet!
Let us take the strain and sort the best of what brands are doing and can do in Web3 and the metaverse for you into concise, regular roundups. It's free!
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Spotify has become the first music streamer on Roblox with the launch of Spotify Island

At the time of writing (two days after launch) 1.2MM people had visited
The destination will add themed islands linked to different music genres or partners - the first will be K-Park, featuring interaction with K-Pop stars
There's a big digital merch play, with Spotify promising a revenue stream for creators (merch sales from the Lil Nas X Roblox gig 18 months ago approached eight figures)
Spotify's vision is to turn Roblox players into creators, enabling them to create sounds with "beat-maker" stations and effectively become virtual performers themselves

Meanwhile:

Unilever deodorant brand Degree hosted a marathon in Decentraland, a Metathon, to advocate for disability inclusion in the metaverse
Startup Americana (backed by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian) has created a chip that turns physical objects (e.g., a painting) into NFTs - very interesting tech
Yuga Yay and Yikes - Bored Ape Yacht Club creators Yuga Labs launched a sale of NFT virtual land deeds for its upcoming game - on one hand this was a smash hit with $785MM in sales so far, on the other, the demand drove up gas (transaction) fees to a staggering $180MM overall
Related: someone paid a $3,300 gas fee for a $25 NFT
In other Roblox news, fashion brands are using 'obbys' (obstacle courses that receive millions of visits) to get in front of players
Asics has launched an NFT sneaker collection with move-to-earn running app, STEPN
Very cool (1) interoperable avatar test using Unity x ARKit
Very cool (2) experiment with Snap's City Landmark feature

The Brandtech Group founder and CEO David Jones gave a keynote presentation, Unpacking the metahype, at the recent WFA Global Marketer Week in Athens.

"I personally think it will be the biggest technological revolution I see in my career - no one knows - but I think it has the potential to be that big, and because it has that potential, as marketers we have a responsibility to know about it and have a strategy,” he says.

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