How Smart Glasses Can Impact The Music Industry

In the digital age, wearable gadgets like smart glasses have become more and more common. In October, eyewear giant Ray-Ban and the Zuckerberg-led Meta released a new commercialpromoting their Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. The new commercial starred musicians Anderson.Paak, Tinashe, and James Blake.

Led by Black-owned creative agency Translation, the campaign includes the main hero film and a series of social media content featuring the three artists. Anderson .Paak’s content showed a POV unboxing, offering audiences a look at the new smart glasses product, while Tinashe and James Blake showed off the sunglasses’ stylish design in a photo shoot.

Aside from combining the worlds of music and technology together, the smart glasses campaign emphasizes the casual nature of using Ray-Ban Meta, showcasing the gadget’s relatable use case. Of course, this isn’t the first time smart glasses and the music industry have clashed. In this post, we’ll look at some of the many use cases for smart glasses in music:

Video capture and recording

As one of the more popular types of smart glasses available on the market today, we’ll start with the Ray-Ban Meta. Featuring a built-in ultrawide camera and mic, wearers can capture images and videos hands-free, and even stream video content straight to Meta platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Using these smart glasses, wearers can easily record concerts and music shows without being disruptive with bulky cameras and lenses, or even film their own music videos.

The Ray-Ban Meta is quickly relatable to the general public, thanks to its use of familiar prescription sunglasses silhouettes from Ray-Ban. This includes, of course, the timeless Wayfarer

model, the Headliner, and, most recently, the Skyler. With so many more iconic Ray-Ban silhouettes available, from the Balorama to the Erika, it’ll be interesting to see what designs future Ray-Ban Meta updates will take on. Aside from video capture and recording, the Ray-Ban Meta glasses recently introduced AI capabilities, allowing wearers to access the built-in Meta AI.

Mixed reality concerts

Of course, while the Ray-Ban smart glasses are certainly popular, they aren’t the only ones available for consumers. Using augmented reality (AR) technology, smart glasses can be used to improve live music experiences. Tech giant Google partnered AR glasses company Magic Leap in 2024 to potentially compete with tech rivals like Meta and Apple. Magic Leap confirmed the company would collaborate with Google, sharing its expertise in optics and device
manufacturing.

If the brand name Magic Leap sounds familiar, the AR company collaborated with Icelandic band Sigur Rós in 2018 to create an immersive audio-visual experience called “Tonandi”. The collaboration allowed users to interact with music and visuals in real-time during live performances. As augmented and mixed realities continue to improve and become accessible, we’ll be able to see more dynamic and immersive live music experiences.

Virtual reality music videos

Finally, the proliferation of smart glasses can also revolutionize the music video industry. Over the years, filmmakers and videographers have innovated the video format using new technologies like drone cameras. Some films and music videos have even been filmed on smartphones and GoPros. As such, music videos filmed on smart glasses may not be so farfetched.

Aside from innovating the medium’s format, smart glasses can also add an extra layer to the music video viewing experience. Björk’s music video for “Stonemilker”, for example, was adapted for the Microsoft HoloLens, allowing viewers to feel like they were inside the video, interacting with the singer and her surroundings. While you can drag your mouse around Björk’s video when viewed on YouTube, wearing VR-capable smart glasses can provide a more seamless viewing experience.

If you found this post interesting, you can check out more posts on the Ear to the Ground website. Recently, we shared track recommendations from the rock genre, featuring pop punk band Up From Here and indie rock group Creature Canyon.

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