Spotify has announced that it will be the first music streaming brand to have an official presence on Roblox. Spotify Island is positioned as a place where artists and fans will gather to play interactive quests where exclusive content can be unlocked and artists’ merchandise can be purchased.
The new Spotify island in Roblox will actually consist of a central mainland surrounded by a scattering of themed islands that players can explore and “interact with the environment by moving, running, jumping, touching and picking up various objects.”
At the top right of the navigation, there is a music playbox that will feature a soundtrack based on Soundtrap, one of Spotify’s audio creation tools. Music can be played or paused here, and players will be able to skip tracks, Spotify said in a post.
At the same time, the in-game store will feature a range of Spotify merchandise that can be carried over to other parts of Roblox, as well as special artist merchandise that will serve as an additional source of income for creators.
Initially, four free items can be unlocked by completing missions around Spotify Island, doing things like playing sounds in the world’s crystal cave and on a trampoline, and collecting musical notes scattered throughout the island.
There are also little “hearts” around Spotify Island that can be collected to unlock hidden “Easter Eggs”. For example, one such secret could change an island from day mode to night mode for an individual player. Also, users can pick up glow sticks on the ground to leave light footprints behind them as they run around the island. The leaderboard will keep track of the hearts collected by the various visitors to the island.
Spotify’s vision for creating the island is “to turn Roblox players into creators themselves,” the company said in a statement. At game launch, the island encourages players to create sounds on their virtual beat-maker stations powered by Soundtrap and move more actively around the “stage” area. In the virtual concert venue, players can interact with objects such as the confetti cannon and bubbles and become the actual performers of the piece of music. The company also said it “plans to expand on this experience” over time, without going into specific details.
“The stage is not just an opportunity for an artist to broadcast their image to fans in the metaverse. We’re flipping the script and empowering players to be creators and really feel like they’re playing the artist themselves,” said Abby Stewart, director of business development at Spotify.
According to the creators, the launch of Spotify’s island in the metaverse comes at a time when music has become an important competitive advantage for online gaming platforms, as they position themselves “as the future entry point for interacting with the” metaverse “.
