Warner Music makes history as it signs a record deal with the first AI virtual pop star
Technology
Warner Music has signed the first ever record deal with a virtual pop star
(Web Desk) - Warner Music has signed the first ever record deal with a virtual pop star in what is a potentially seismic moment in the industry — but is facing a backlash online for 'sexualising a child-like body' in the avatar's 'creepy' debut music video.
Noonoouri was created in 2018 as an 18-year-old metaverse avatar, before going on to star in fashion campaigns for Dior, Balenciaga and Valentino.
The digital influencer has so far amassed more than 400,000 followers on Instagram and is now set to release her first single Dominoes, which has already had more than 60,000 views on YouTube.
It did not hit the right note with most pop fans, however, as they took to social media to slam Warner's 'disgusting' decision to create 'pedo clickbait' with a music video that features Noonoouri wearing Kim Kardashian's shapewear brand Skims.
One X user wrote 'Why....is it a child?', while another said: 'Just when I thought they couldn't sink lower.'
Others said Noonoouri had the body of a '12 year old' and was 'so disgusting', while X user Lachlan Blackmore added: 'Is this the look Warner want to be associated with?'
It is not the first time parents have expressed concern about metaverse characters being 'hypersexualised', in particular in relation to the game Avakin Life, where virtual pop star Polar regularly performs to crowds of teenagers.
'My daughter has been on this app around three months. She is 15. The app alleges safe to play for over 13s. She has met children younger than that, parading their avakin dolls in skimpy underwear, looking for relationships, mentioning sex,' one parent wrote in a review of the game.
'What is unclear is how many of these kids are actually kids and not adults looking for kids.'
