Abbey Road Red, the music tech incubator at Abbey Road Studios in London, has announced that XONE is the 17th startup to join its music technology incubation programme.
Originating from when its Canadian and German founders met while studying in Valencia, XONE has grown into an exciting tech startup operating at the intersection of music and web3. XONE merges social features, mobile first AR technology, and blockchain mechanics. Its core product, an iOS and Android application, gives users the ability to design and build cutting-edge 3D worlds called XONEs.
Recreating the concept of a bedroom wall, each XONE is a haven of cultural identity; a place where users can showcase posters, 2D or 3D NFTs and their digital goods, together with streamed music and explore it all and more in mobile augmented reality. XONE aims to onboard the next generation of creators, fans, and artists into the metaverse by creating a familiar and accessible social media interface for showcasing and sharing digital identity.
Abbey Road Red sits within foundations which have supported the development and use of cutting-edge audio technology, from the creation of stereo in 1934 to The Beatles pushing the boundaries of early stereo separation and channel overdubs with REDD desks into tape machines in Studio Two, to quadraphonic audio with Pink Floyd. The launch of the Abbey Road Studios Spatial Audio Forum five years ago was a pioneering dive into new areas, including immersive audio and XR formats and Abbey Road Red is now extending this with XONE and the AR metaverse.
Music is at the heart of XONE's roadmap. XONE is currently developing a set of gaming and social features to create hangouts, avatar integrations, and large-scale music experiences. It plans for users to access digital merch drops, host listening parties, and visit live performances from artists in private XONEs or public community spaces. The first listening parties have already been tested and XONE also has ambitions to deploy spatial and interactive audio elements across its music experiences.