Wave

Wave is a virtual concert company founded by Adam Arrigo, who serves as co-founder and CEO. The company was originally designed as a virtual-reality platform, and in later years shifted its focus to digital concerts, producing animated shows for artists including Lindsey Stirling, Galantis and John Legend. Its stated long-term aim remains delivering highly immersive viewing experiences.

The company became associated with the livestreaming sector, which grew substantially after COVID-19 halted in-person concerts. In 2020 Wave recruited executives from companies such as Netflix and Riot Games as it moved toward scaling operations. Arrigo has also described a goal of opening the platform to lesser-known artists so they can produce their own Wave concerts.

Founding story

Before founding Wave, Adam Arrigo studied English and multimedia at Tufts University and then entered the gaming industry, spending six years as a game designer at Harmonix, the studio behind music games including Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Dance Central. There he concluded that music remained an untapped area to combine with gaming technology, which informed the creation of Wave.

Business model

Wave produces animated virtual concerts for recording artists and distributes them to audiences, including via third-party platforms such as TikTok.

Traction

As of October 2020 Wave had staged animated concerts for artists including Lindsey Stirling, Galantis, John Legend and The Weeknd, the last of which aired on TikTok, and had attracted investment from music-industry figures and athletes.

Latest developments

In 2020 Wave closed a $30 million Series B round with investors including Scooter Braun, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, J Balvin, Superfly co-founder Rick Farman and Alex Rodriguez, and hired executives from Netflix and Riot Games; Braun subsequently brought Bieber and Balvin on as clients.