Forget reanimating dead musicians.
This tech is for living performers who cant stand their bandmates.
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ABBAs music is immortal, Swedishly engineered to flood listeners brains with dopamine until the sun explodes.
The band itself, though, was never built to last.
Money is not a factor, Ulvaeus once said.
We will never appear onstage again.
But then, this past May, they did.
Voyage stars computer-generated clones of the band designed to look and sound like their 1979 selves.
Performances will likely continue through at least 2025.
Once start-up costs have been recouped, profit margins could dwarf that of a typical reunion tour.
Each was decommissioned under a cloud of exploitation.
(Fully synthetic performers like the Japanese software diva Hatsune Miku have fared a little better.)
Fans are cynical about reinventions of their idols, Fuller says.
And ABBA forgetPink Floyd, forgetLed Zeppelin was the holy grail of my vision.
He pitched the band.
Initially, they were like, What is this?
But it was a bloody good idea and they understood it.
(Fuller ended up not being involved in the final version of Voyage.)
ABBA also understood that Voyage would scramble the usual compact between artist and live audience.
So they digitally de-aged themselves to their 70s heyday, which may allow attendees to feel de-aged too.
That wasnt just to be young and good-looking.
It was to validate this exercise, says Fuller.
But these immortalized avatars are a fun fantasy.
That fantasy required some heavy new tech.
The ABBAtars are the most lifelike virtual pop stars ever rendered, and its not a close contest.
There was also the issue of display.
Most so-called holograms (including the ABBAtars) arent really holograms.
We wanted something that would feel immersive for 90 minutes.
Thus Voyage uses three enormous 65 million-pixel LED TVs to maximize clarity and viewing angles.
In some ways, Voyage may be better than an in-person reunion.
Its maximum capacity is just 3,000, which is more intimate than anywhere the real group could ever play.
Not every artist will be able to splash out $175 million on bleeding-edge CGI and a custom stadium.
But now that ABBA have done it, others may not need to.
Sundin says the band and its partners could lease their tech and arenas to other superstars.
ABBA worked out a lot of the issues, and now weve all got more options, says Fuller.
Artists who want to do things the way theyve been done since time began can continue to do so.
But if others want to stray into the virtual world, Voyage is proof of concept.
They may already be planning to replace themselves with virtual doubles.
(His band, the Band, hasnt played together sinceThe Last Waltzin 1976.)
Do you want to see Fleetwood Mac with Lindsey Buckingham?
Or the Beach Boys with Brian Wilson and Mike Love?
In most bands, you eventually have dissension and then nobody will talk to each other.
But this can solve that problem.
Chastan hopes those younger artists will use the tech in more creative ways than their elders.
A band like the 1975 could do an augmented-reality show withStranger Thingsstyle special effects, he says.
So it could be amazing.
Or it could be irritating.
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