Apple offers free Metallica concert experiences with Vision Pro

Apple’s Vision Pro is one of the greatest recent tech innovations very few have had the pleasure to try, but there’s now another opportunity to give it a go for yourself.

From March 14th you can book in to experience an immersive Metallica concert recording, using a Vision Pro headset, at one of Apple’s Store locations.

The concert footage was shot in late 2024 during the band’s run of gigs in Mexico City, and lets you take in the gigantic concert from the stage (and elsewhere), in spatial video matched with spatial audio.

We’ve not had a chance to see the footage for ourselves yet, but judging by the quality of Apple’s Vision Pro content, it’s likely to be awesome.

The demo features renditions of Enter Sandman, Whiplash and One, and was filmed using 14 Apple Immersive Video cameras positioned throughout the stage and above the audience.

These camera rigs record 180-degree video in 3D, at 8K resolution, to provide the sort of fidelity a Vision Pro headset can relay.

We just tried booking one of the Metallica Vision Pro demos, and found availability listed at loads of Apple London locations, including Covent Garden, Battersea, Regent Street and more.

When you make one of these bookings, it’s a 30-minute slot that will be guided by one of Apple’s reps. They’ll make sure you’re fitted properly — it’s a £3500 headset after all — and hopefully won’t blather on all the way through Metallica’s guitar solos.

“Seeing our concert like that, along with the energy of the Mexico City fans — it’s very immersive, and it’s super fun,” says Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.

“We’ve always been interested in pushing the boundaries, and Metallica on Apple Vision Pro is exactly that.”

Vision Pro sales since its US launch in February 2024 haven’t matched Apple’s original estimates. But Apple is not alone in developing a niche but super-high-end headset — it wipes the floor with the otherwise pretty brilliant Meta Quest 3

Samsung plans to launch an XR (extended reality) headset later this year, in partnership with Google. It’s going to debut Google’e new software platform for these VR headsets, and by all accounts is going to cost a small fortune just like the Vision Pro.

However, this might be a good time to remember how much OLED TVs used to cost. LG’s 55EA9800 55-inch OLED TV once cost $15k. And now you can pick up something better for well under a grand. Let's hope the Vision Pro's tech is on a similar trajectory.

• Apple Vision Pro is the missing link between cinema and theatre — and new short film Submerged proves it