First, nonverbal and verbal communication has an evolutionary timeline that is considered the first-ever recorded means of communication predate back to the primary orality era of communication (Ong, 1982). Primary orality serves as the first means of communication using verbal speech and oral communication before audio sound production and the electronic explosion of literacy and technology emerged(McLuhan, 1960; Ong, 1982). However, this evolutionary timeline and lifecycle of media extended to digital or better known as the new media era and technology innovation of web2.0 where communication becomes more interactive, dynamic, read-write, and collaborative without any geographical restriction.

Communication and technological evolution continues as described by Scolari (2013) as a diachronic and synchronic transformation of media (Emergence, adaptation, survival, and extinction). Audio media has evolved from telephone to phonograph, radio, internet radio, audiobook, podcast, and the audio medium experience known as drop-in audio chatrooms such as clubhouse, Twitter spaces, facebook audio room, and many more.

Subsequently, audio production could be described as a formless, boundless, directionless, and space-oriented form of oral sound using mechanical (analog) and digital technology for recording, encoding, and reproductions of sound for later use. Thus, the sound is the vibration of the waveform within a certain frequency range. As John Watkinson (2001: 32), postulated

“Sound is simply an airborne version of vibration.”

Audio, as it’s now known, is a product of primary orality derived from sound for human hearing mechanism as an interactive form of communication that provides auditory experiences to certain proximity, homophily, and affinity space.

McLuhan (1960), while explaining auditory space, he described auditory space as

“Auditory space has no favored focus. It’s a sphere without fixed boundaries, space made by the thing itself, not space containing the thing. It is not pictorial space, boxed-in, but dynamic, always in flux, creating its dimensions moment by moment. It has no fixed boundaries; it is indifferent to the background. The eye focuses, pinpoints, abstracts, locating each object in physical space, against a background; the ear, however, favors sound from any direction (McLuhan,1960).”

Secondly, as regards, the role of audio production in the emerging web3 and the metaverse,  audio, and sound production has come a long way, adapting, transforming, and surviving every media and technology evolution from transmitting radio frequency to broadcasting, on-demand audio distribution, and the collective intelligence of drop-in audio chatroom. Let's imagine a scenario where web3 and the metaverse is in their full functionality where virtual music concerts can be performed, music and podcasts as NFTs, audio live drop-in audio production on blockchain technology, live virtual podcasting, and audio chatroom

Consequently, after the mass adoption and success of podcasts as a new audio media, there is an ongoing proposal for podcasting 2.0 initiative as part of the evolutionary development of podcasts which will introduce a more decentralized medium, podcasts index, podcasting namespace, podping, inclusiveness, diversity, privacy, and value-for-value as proposed by Adam curry and Dave Jones.

Podcasting 2.0 is described as an umbrella term that embodied the list of additional initiatives that will advance podcasting technology and its total decentralization by taking control of the medium from large technology powerhouses. The development of podcasting 2.0 is an open-source and decentralized initiative that focuses on bringing transparency to the podcast ecosystem. Podcasting in particular has been one of the prevalent audio media mediums and now proposing a podcasting 2.0 initiative that will improve and add more functionality to the use of podcasts in the iteration of internet and the blockchain technology.

Consequently, the emerging paradigm-shifting and disruptive technology evolution of the new iteration of web3 and the metaverse will bring with it increased opportunity to the creative freedom of audio production in a new decentralized ecosystem that is open to everyone, owned by the people, permissionless, trustless, and free from big tech data harvesting and monopolization of user's data for financial benefits.

The read-write and owned open web built on blockchain technology as a distributed ledger will introduce new data privacy to the audio media landscape that is currently controlled by big tech companies and digital platforms. The adoption of audio media and production will increase when the web3 is fully implemented, the integration of sounds in the creation of the metaverse characters or games will also help the distribution and adaptation of audio media. Hence, audio production will play a significant role in the emerging technology ecosystem by providing new audio immersive experiences and new ways of audio production and distribution to a larger audience with zero barriers to entry of new players into the ecosystem. The decentralized technology will help increase audio consumption and participation.

Web3, as an upcoming third iteration and generation of permissionless decentralized internet where web applications will be able to perform cognitive human-like tasks through technologies like machine learning, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. The amplification of digital interoperability, immutability, second life, and a permissionless decentralized protocol where privacy, ubiquity, and democratic governance superseded the centralized data extraction, harvesting, and surveillance capitalism of big tech organizations.

The web3 and the metaverse will introduce new and advanced features to the older generation web tools such as ubiquity, semantic web, artificial intelligence, spatial web, 3D graphics, and many more. Metaverse is the integration and hybridization of digital and physical space into a virtual domain that fuses blockchain technologies, web3, AR, VR, NFT, and play to earn games to create a decentralized shared experience and effective community governance by the member through a transparent decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

Conversely, the metaverse and the web3 are relatively new speculative concepts with a disruptive potential that will revolutionize how social and virtual interactivity and connectivity will be established, this phenomenon promised not only a dynamic, read-write, and owned internet but also data privacy, community-governed, transparency, and permissionless participation in a collaborative environment.