The Artificial Intelligence and Data Economy section of The UK’s Industrial Strategy outlined the UK government’s aim to produce 10% of the world’s augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality output. To support this aim UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Audience of the Future Programme funded research that investigated innovative technologies in the creative arts sector and approaches to audience engagement. The Immersive Audience Journey report, which was part of this work, resulted in a customer journey map that defines five phases of the journey for immersive productions: awareness, consideration, decision, immersion, satisfaction and loyalty. This end-to-end journey is supported by a framework and two templates. The framework provides guidance for developers from both a producer and audience point of view, outlining the strategies or key activities for each phase.

This thesis examines self-releasing independent musicians’ perceived usefulness of the Immersive Audience Journey as a tool for the development and deployment of an immersive music product, a prototype for a type of music single called a Metaverse Music Single. It considers musicians in the metaverse, set within the context of a burgeoning field it examines how customer journey mapping tools like the Immersive Audience Journey templates can assist musicians with developing and deploying immersive products such as Metaverse Music Singles or Metaverse Music Albums.

An example implementation was developed and used to facilitate discussion during semi-structured interviews with musicians. Analysis was undertaken using the Immersive Technology Acceptance Model, developed during this study to consider the factors that influence both audience and musician take-up of immersive technologies. Musicians that were more technically adept reported that the framework and two templates provided a useful guide for developing and deploying Metaverse Music Singles. Those who were not, described preferring to outsource much of the process, allowing more technically experienced individuals to engage with the templates and its framework. The example implementation proved to be important in helping musicians to understand the Immersive Audience Journey templates and framework. Finally, the research found that the development of example personas that relate to immersive audiences could help musicians to navigate the templates.