Lockwood Publishing Announces Strategic Partnership with DAACI to Bring AI Music Creation to the Metaverse

Creators of Avakin Life team up with London-based DAACI, part of the TMC² group of companies

Leading British metaverse games developer and publisher Lockwood Publishing, creator and guardian of the world’s biggest mobile metaverse, Avakin Life, today announced its intention to bring AI music creation to its players’ experience through a partnership with London-based AI music startup DAACI.

Informed by the core principles of musical composition, DAACI (Definable Aleatoric Artificial Composition Intelligence) is a fully formed and patented AI system that composes, arranges, orchestrates, and produces high-quality, adaptive, original music in real time based on a user’s narrative brief.

Based on more than 30 years of patented research, and supported by an ongoing partnership with the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Artificial Intelligence and Music at Queen Mary University of London, DAACI – part of the portfolio of research and investment firm TMC² – is a ground-breaking system with a revolutionary analytical approach and meta-composition at its core. Unlike other solutions in the AI/generative music market, DAACI does not rely on pre-recorded tracks or edited audio samples, but instead writes musical elements and textures directly through the encoding of musical ideas. 

Lockwood’s community of Avakin Life players – and players of the company’s future metaverse experiences – will be empowered to use simple text prompts to generate original, royalty-free music for their avatars or spaces which they can use, trade, and even sell.

Lockwood Publishing CEO Halli Bjornsson said, “We’ve been quietly at the forefront of exploring ways for users to express their identity and customise their experiences for more than a decade. The next stage of development, which is being built upon the principles of what web3 enablement powers – namely user-generated content, democratisation of development, and digital ownership – demands that music be a core component.

“We hope to explore and implement a way for players with any level of music creation skill – from the absolute beginner to the professional composer – to be able to generate unique, customisable, ownable and even adaptive music through a simple interface. DAACI, with its unrivalled understanding of AI music composition, is the ideal partner for this journey.”

DAACI CEO Rachel Lyske said, “Players seek to be better than the ‘default’—to have something rare, out of the ordinary. What better way to do this than with a bespoke audio skin or any other digital form of someone’s musical identity?

“Our collaboration with Lockwood strengthens our vision of the future of music, empowering composers and content creators with an intelligent tool that provides infinite possibilities for metaverse game production and community engagement.”

Updates on the progress of the Lockwood and DAACI partnership will be revealed in 2023.