Chinese Fans Paid To Watch A Virtual Hologram Singer

On March 3, thousands of excited screaming fans gathered at Mercedes-Benz arena in Shang Hai to watch a performance of Lang Lang, a world-renowned Chinese pianist, and Luo Tianyi, a virtual hologram singer.

Luo is actually really famous in China, with more than three million fans on Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter. The maximum price for the concert tickets is 1,580 yuan (about US$235).

This concert marks the first one ever held between a real-life musician and a holographic singer in China.

Rather than being a digital avatar inputted with a human performer’s voice and movement, like how the holograms of Tupac and Michael Jackson have been on stage for the past ten years. Approximately 200 production staff has worked hard for six months to produce Tianyi’s performance.

Because she is not a real human being, Tianyi is a fascinating vision of the future of the entertainment industry.

With 3D modeling and motion capture technology, her personality, appearance, and voice are created. Tianyi can communicate with Lang Lang in real-time with the help of a backstage motion-capture and voice dubber.

People have been posting on Twitter their fascination over Luo Tianyi.

But Luo is not the only virtual idol. In Japan, where the trend started, idols from Yamaha Vocaloid like Hatsune Miku have transformed the trend into a profitable market worth a billion-dollar.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong high school student said: