We are not closer to knowing when or how our social lives will be normalized as we approach the second anniversary of global COVID-19. It has been a devastating effect on nightclubs, musicians and music venues. With crowded in-person events either made impossible — or far more difficult and laborious — at many points over the last two years, changes to the industry that were already set in motion have been accelerated. Namely, the music industry’s adoption of digital instruments, among others and, increasingly, the Metaverse.

Neal Stephenson, a science-fiction writer and cyberpunk author in 1992 was the one who first coined this phrase Snow CrashThe Metaverse can be described as a virtual realm where people could communicate with one another in avatars using a successor version of the internet to escape the dystopian world (see diseases-ridden world). Are you familiar with this concept?