D’USSÉ Cognac has partnered with Grammy Award-winning producer Hit-Boy to create a special AR experience that can bring the “SICKO MODE” hitmaker to your front room this holiday season.

This augmented reality (AR) experience, called “The Set”, allows anyone who purchases a D’USSÉ VSOP holiday gift box access an exclusive AR DJ performance by Hit-Boy so as to add splendor to the vacation celebrations. This marks D’USSÉ’s first step into technology and its largest investment thus far in technology-enabled experiences.

The D’USSÉ VSOP Holiday Gift Box includes a 750 ml bottle of D’USSÉ VSOP and a QR code that unlocks access to “The Set” AR experience. After scanning the code with a smartphone, recipients can activate Hit-Boy’s realistic AR filter behind the DJ booth, directly in the event space.

From there, users can select a cocktail to match the mood of the party – whether it’s a D’USSÉspresso Martini or a Spicy Sidecar – and Hit-Boy will respond with custom playlists it’s curated for every drink. With a new-age digital experience, “The Set” brings Hit-Boy to the center of this 12 months’s holiday celebrations.

“Music is the universal spirit of the holidays,” Hit-Boy he said in a statement. “You can’t celebrate without it. But just like collaborating with artists, it’s about finding the right energy.”

“D’USSÉ and I wanted to spread the right atmosphere and had a lot of fun playing with AR technology to provide fans with a unique experience,” he added. “After scanning the QR code, the AR filter will allow me to go to your holiday pendants and separate my favorite songs for the celebration. We hope you enjoy “The Set” wherever you and your family members are this holiday season.”

Partygoers can interact with “The Set” by positioning themselves “beside” or “behind” the DJ booth in AR mode. The filter also lets you take photos, so you’ll be able to quickly share the fun together with your family members or on social media. With the added option of connecting speakers, this immersive visual and audio experience makes Hit-Boy the last word headliner for any holiday party this season.

The D’USSÉ VSOP Holiday Gift Box is offered now in stores nationwide and at dusse.com (MSRP $50).

Black public media absorbing The BPMplus program will include two presentations of creative technological productions at “Torrents: New Links to Black Futures” on Saturday, November 16.

Headquartered in Harlem, New York, Black Public Media is a national nonprofit media arts organization supports the event and distribution of black filmtelevision and immersive projects from Black creators who use technology to create content related to the worldwide Black experience.

On Saturday at 12:00, filmmakers and artists will meet at Songbyrd Music House to speak in regards to the art of making artificial intelligence, augmented reality, projections and video projects. The 2024 event’s featured artists, moderated by BPM Emerging Media Director Lisa Osborne, will engage with attendees by sharing their workflow and creative processes, revealing the intentions behind their designs, delving into concept art, and showcasing clips of accomplished work.

Launched in 2018, the BPMplus project offers manufacturers and technologists access to grants, scholarships, workshops, demonstrations and networking opportunities as they create projects using augmented reality, motion capture, artificial intelligence and other technologies.

“As artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies become more embedded in our daily lives, it is important that access to these tools is available to everyone in the liminal or pre-commercial phase,” Osbourne said in a press release.

Creators even have access to artist residency programs and the national PitchBLACK Immersive forum.

CulturalDC once more welcomed BPMplus for its annual presentation on Torrents as an interdisciplinary series celebrates the progressive way forward for visual artstechnology, music, film and performance.

“For decades, technology training, grants and other opportunities have been funneled into the hands of a few, essentially injecting biases that existed in old or traditional media into new storytelling tools long before their mass adoption,” Osbourne said. “Our BPMplus programs strive to counter this larger trend in the worlds of technology, film, art and philanthropy by giving our immersive filmmakers and artists a seat at the table to ensure a future where all communities are represented.”

“Torrents: New Links to Black Futures” will run from November 14 to 17. BPMplus Art & Tech Showcase I starts at noon on the last day; Showcase II will happen at 2:00 PM EST. There will likely be a net mixer with a money bar from 3:30-4:30 p.m

Registration is accessible we recommend collaborating free events.

as influential economy is growing, startups like PassionFroot, Agentio and One Impression, together with social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, are attempting to construct marketplaces to connect brands with creators.

A startup based in Miami Influencefocuses on two unique features of its platform: quick response from creators and financial tools ensuring timely payment.

The company is developing a set of tools for brands to higher track campaigns. Additionally, it’s considering introducing latest financial products for creators, including loans, debit cards and bank cards.

To support these efforts, Influur has raised $10 million in Series A financing from Point72 Ventures and HTwenty Capital, bringing its total funding to over $15 million. Business angels include Sofia Vergara and Thalia.

Ishan Sinha, partner at Point72, said the platform helps creators change into higher entrepreneurs.

“Creators are good at creating content. However, they may not be business-savvy entrepreneurs. So by having a place for their money to live, they can get paid quickly and their analysis is powerful,” he said.

Influur was founded in 2021 by 4 Latina founders: CEO Alessandra Angelini, who worked as a producer at CNN before founding the corporate; chief influencer Fefi Oliveira, who has worked within the entertainment industry with corporations akin to Nickelodeon and Telemundo and has over 9 million followers on her social media accounts; chief operating officer Paula Coleman, who also worked at CNN as an associate producer; and sales director Valeria Angelini, who worked as a social media analyst at FedEx.

Before founding Influur, Angelini asked Oliveira, whom she met in college, why the creators didn’t respond to CNN’s attempts to contact her. Oliveira explained that influencers receive hundreds of messages on Instagram and email, making it difficult to manage all of them.

To solve this problem, Angelini got here up with an influencer marketing tool, similar to Google AdSense, to manage a brand’s spend on this space.

Market and community

Once joined, creators can connect all their social media accounts, view marketing pricing, and consider a listing of past brand collaborations. The startup’s founders noted that there are currently over 40,000 creators on the platform with various numbers of followers.

Creators can apply for open brand campaigns that meet their criteria. They also can go for a “gated partnership” where they receive the brand’s product in exchange for content. As for brands, they also can contact chosen creators individually for collaborations.

On the platform, creators can get suggestions and suggestions from other experienced creators and learn from them. To keep interactions relevant, the platform limits posts to creators with greater than 2,000 followers.

Angelini said many platforms list influencers based on online data, which frequently leads to low response rates. She mentioned that the influencer normally responds to a brand inquiry on Influur inside 24 hours.

Influur also offers a premium subscription for creators for $30 per thirty days, which provides them access to a one-click media kit with detailed information on pricing rates, past campaigns, social media and engagement metrics. They also get access to experiences where they will create content and exclusive webinars from popular creators.

According to Oliveira – a creator for years – certainly one of the principal problems is the pursuit of brands for a payment after ending work. To solve this problem, Influur asks brands to pay upfront, holds the cash in an escrow account, after which transfers it to the creator’s wallet once they ship all campaign products.

“Influencers often wait 60 to 120 days after publishing their final product to get paid. We solve this problem with our wallet and instant payments feature,” Oliveira said.

Creators can wait 30 days for withdrawal or withdraw the cash immediately with a 15% fee to Influur. Currently, the corporate supports withdrawals in several countries, including: within the USA, Mexico and Brazil. The startup mentioned that 20% of its creators paid this fee to get a fast payout.

In the longer term, the startup plans to launch a set of monetary tools for creators, akin to virtual accounts, short-term loans, credit and debit cards. “Influencers want Influur to become their bank. We are planning to launch a new financial product so that we are not only part of how influencers make money, but also part of how they save and spend money,” Angelini said.

Point72’s Sinha said that in his careful evaluation of the fund, he discovered that the founders care about financial stability and that the startup is constructing the fitting tools to achieve this.

Insights for brands

With the Series A raise, Influur is working to add insights to influencer campaigns together with financial tools. The company can be making a prediction engine that may allow corporations to predict the effectiveness of campaigns for a particular creator.

The company is expanding its team in 4 centers: San Francisco, Miami, Mexico and Argentina.

In addition to charging creators a 15% fast withdrawal fee and premium subscription, Influur also charges a service fee of 20-25% per transaction from brands. While the corporate had several profitable months last 12 months, it’ll take a while for Influur to generate a profit because it goals to change into money flow positive by 2026.

The startup believes it has an edge over other markets thanks to its financial tools, insights engine, and popular creator as co-founder.