Flymachine Launches Virtual Venue for Live Entertainment

First-of-its-kind platform offers unprecedented social interaction; brings the feeling of a live show to virtual events


SAN FRANCISCO, May 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today marks the reveal of a transformative arts and entertainment platform that will change the way we experience events online.

Flymachine, the new virtual venue for live entertainment, harnesses interactive technologies to deliver a social and serendipitous experience. For the first time, virtual events can become truly immersive and communal, shared with friends and other fans around the world. Flymachine gives fans a front row seat to some of the world's most iconic venues from the comfort of home with the freedom to move around, interact, and have their own experience, rather than passively watch a broadcast.

“Flymachine has been built from such a deep understanding of music fans and how they might want to interact with live streaming moving forward,” said Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons. “The independent music community that I am so proud to be a part of has embraced it wholeheartedly and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for Andrew and the team on this latest adventure.”

Flymachine offers fans an unprecedented level of agency, social connectivity, and personalization. Newcomers, old friends, and superfans alike can share interactive digital rooms and use proximity-based video-chatting to see and speak to each other throughout a show, comfortably. Similar to an IRL venue experience, there's a real sense of place in Flymachine. Fans enjoy a view akin to a front row seat and can move between various rooms and spaces for chance encounters and shared moments with both new and familiar faces.

Likewise, artists relish a level of creative control of their performances that traditional livestreaming cannot provide. Performers can tap into arena-quality visual effects to design unique online experiences, receive feedback in real-time, and interact with fans - they control the entire canvas and are no longer relegated to a video box. The agency to choose one’s own adventure through the experience of live entertainment - on either side of the lens, for both artists and viewers - is a feature only possible through the virtual events created on Flymachine.

“In the early days of the pandemic, I found the explosion of virtual events fascinating - yet while there was something special about these events, the shared communal experience of going to a show was missing,” said Andrew Dreskin, Co-founder and CEO. “In that moment, I realized the world wanted a new way to watch live events, pandemic or not, and that we could build a new kind of digital performance space - one with depth, that is immersive and interactive, where artists can make art, and fans can experience events with friends around the world.”

The brainchild of industry veterans and digital gamechangers, Flymachine’s leadership includes Dreskin, the tech visionary who co-founded Ticketfly and TicketWeb, the first company to sell event tickets online, and dubbed “the father of online ticketing” by WIRED; Co-founder and Chief Experience Officer Rick Farman, a culture sculptor at Superfly who co-founded Bonnaroo and Outside Lands; and Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Matthew Davis, the Grammy-nominated music technology trailblazer from [namethemachine]. ATC Management, a fourth founding partner, has been at the forefront of innovative artist management for over two decades, representing a roster of over 500 artists who garnered 19 Grammy nominations in 2021 - clients include Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, The Lumineers, Cuco, Santigold, and Johnny Marr. The founding team has created, innovated, and refreshed new forms and components of entertainment for over 25 years, and will continue to evolve Flymachine and implement user feedback through its beta period and beyond.

“The magic, and success, of other experiences I've created comes from creating community around the actual experience of the art,” Farman said. “We've built an online analogue to match that. We're offering the ability to simultaneously captivate audiences, transcend physical location to bring together communities, and enjoy each other's presence.”

Flymachine has entered into exclusive agreements with a multitude of iconic and beloved venues in North America to stream events in real-time, including Bowery Ballroom in New York City, Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco, The Casbah in San Diego, The Crocodile in Seattle, Marathon Music Works in Nashville, the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver, and Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles.

“What strikes me most is that the platform isn't a knee-jerk reaction to the pandemic. It's one built for the future that integrates seamlessly into the live aspects of performance and is well thought out, with an ease of function focused on the fan and venue alike,” said Michael Swier, owner of the Bowery Ballroom and Teragram Ballroom. “A platform of this caliber could only come from this team.”

Flymachine will launch with a focus on live music, with other types of live entertainment including theater, dance, comedy and more to follow. Remi Wolf, the genre-bending LA-based artist quickly on the rise, will be debuting Flymachine for the public on Thursday, June 3 at 7pm Pacific / 10pm Eastern, performing live from the Moroccan Lounge, a Flymachine partner venue. Passes are on sale as of this morning at www.flymachine.com. Other upcoming acts include Yaeji, Snakehips, Liz Cooper, Ben Folds, Aaron Frazer, K.Flay, and The Black Angels.

About Flymachine

Flymachine is pioneering the digital future of live events. A virtual venue for live entertainment, Flymachine creates a new, customizable experience in a digital world offering the thrill fans enjoy at live events. For the first time, fans have the agency to choose how they experience live entertainment socially - from the comfort of home, with friends and fellow fans from around the world. Flymachine was conceived by the founders of Ticketfly, Superfly, [namethemachine], and ATC Management. The company is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, follow us on Instagram, watch our launch video, or visit www.flymachine.com.

Press Contacts

press@flymachine.com

Photos accompanying this announcement is available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8edb3afe-e23d-49c5-b2b2-c0d7ff14fc8b

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/30575e0c-f4c3-4bec-a11e-3ba5af324da2


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