The Rhapsody music-streaming service has entered virtual reality with help from a Minneapolis-based tech startup called Visual that specializes in 360-degree video content.
Seattle-based Rhapsody, which competes with streaming services Spotify and Pandora, has rolled out smartphone apps for viewing 360-degree videos of music performances.
Visual created the Rhapsody VR apps, along with a back-end publishing system for managing the online posting of 360-degree footage.
Rhapsody’s 360-degree videos consist of recent performances at the South by Southwest music festival.
Also added to its VR mix: Rapper Dem Atlas’ cover of Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” outside Minneapolis’ First Avenue nightclub after the Minnesota music legend’s death last month.
Rhapsody is initially rolling out nine of the videos — all but two shot by Visual — and plans to augment the library over time.
Users of the Rhapsody VR apps download the videos to their Apple or Android handsets. They then watch the videos with add-on VR goggles — such as Google Cardboard variants — that provide realistic concert simulations with in-all-directions views.
Rhapsody announced its new VR offerings at Google I/O, the developers conference under way on the Google campus this week.
Visual’s relationship with Rhapsody is a coup for the tiny Twin Cities startup, which is just getting started as a tech partner to content creators that want to dabble with virtual-reality video.
“We’ve been waiting to have something in the marketplace that we can point to,” Visual co-founder Chuck Olsen said. “We had not even created marketing materials. Step one is working with a couple of customers and learning a lot from them as we prepare to scale.”
Visual has been active in the St. Paul. It recently teamed up with downtown-based Minnesota Public Radio to record a series of music performances in 360 degrees.
Last January, Visual recorded a 360-degree video of the St. Paul Winter Carnival’s Torchlight Parade.
Virtual reality is all the rage in the tech, entertainment and media worlds, with content creators such as the New York Times publishing VR-formatted news content.
Technology companies like HTC and Facebook-owned Oculus recently released souped-up VR goggles that connect to computers.
Virtual reality is even bigger in the mobile space. Samsung and Speck have fashioned sophisticated VR goggles for, respectively, Android and Apple smartphones. VR apps for Android and iPhone are proliferating.
Google at Google I/O announced major VR-related enhancements to its Android operating system. It also released specifications for a new generation of phone-based VR goggles to be made by third parties, as well by as Google itself.
