Shaping the Future of Music with Augmented Reality: A Systematic Literature Review on Future Trends and Innovations
Main Article Content
Abstract
This study addressed the problem of the increasing number of articles on augmented reality and aimed to isolate only those algorithms and applications dealing with the music sector. A systematic literature review model was employed. This study employed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) model, widely recognised for its comprehensive and standardised approach to conducting systematic reviews. The PRISMA model was chosen due to its emphasis on transparency, replicability, and thorough documentation of each step in the review process. The systematic search strategy involved querying multiple academic databases, targeting journal and conference articles published since 2015 that either directly involve the music sector or engage in inter-sectoral collaborations. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were meticulously defined, ensuring that only relevant studies were considered, with a focus on those that contributed significantly to the field of music augmented reality. Data synthesis was carried out by categorising and analysing the identified studies based on their methodologies, applications, and outcomes. One of the most significant findings is the relatively slow development of augmented reality in the music sector despite the overall growth in augmented reality research. This study highlights the potential of advanced augmented reality techniques to revolutionise music presentation and interaction, fostering new ways for musicians to engage with audiences.
Article Details

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Arena, Fabio, Mario Collotta, Giovanni Pau, and Francesco Termine. 2022. “An Overview of Augmented Reality.” Computers 11(2): 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/computers11020028
Baía Reis, António, and Miark Ashmore. 2022. “From Video Streaming to Virtual Reality Worlds: An Academic, Reflective, and Creative Study on Live Theatre and Performance in the Metaverse.” International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media 18(1): 7–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/14794713.2021.2024398
Banerjee, K. 2023. “Challenges and Opportunities in Mobile Augmented Reality Systems.” Journal of Advances in Management, Engineering and Science (JAMES) 1(1): 101–116.
Behl, Abhishek, Nirma Jayawardena, Amit Shankar, Manish Gupta, and Le Dang Lang. 2024. “Gamification and Neuromarketing: A Unified Approach for Improving User Experience.” Journal of Consumer Behaviour 23(1): 218–228. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.2178
Cao, Jacky, Kit-Yung Lam, Lik-Hang Lee, Xiaoli Liu, Pan Hui, and Xiang Su. 2023. “Mobile Augmented Reality: User Interfaces, Frameworks, and Intelligence.” ACM Computing Surveys 55(9): 189. https://doi.org/10.1145/3557999
Chen, Yiqun. 2023. “Interactive Piano Training Using Augmented Reality and the Internet of Things.” Education and Information Technologies 28: 6373–6389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11443-4
Cui, Kangxu. 2023. “Artificial Intelligence and Creativity: Piano Teaching with Augmented Reality Applications.” Interactive Learning Environments 31(10): 7017–7028. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2022.2059520
d’Errico, Mike. 2022. Push: Software Design and the Cultural Politics of Music Production. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190943301.001.0001
Dash, Ajaya Kumar, Santosh Kumar Behera, and Debi Prosad Dogra. 2024. “PlutoAR: A Scalable Marker-Based Augmented Reality Application for Interactive and Inclusive Education.” Multimedia Tools and Applications 83: 57685–57708. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-023-17756-x
de Souza Cardoso, Luís Fernando, Flávia Cristina Martins Queiroz Mariano, and Ezequiel Roberto Zorzal. 2020. “A Survey of Industrial Augmented Reality.” Computers and Industrial Engineering 139: 106159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2019.106159
Devagiri, Jeevan S., Sidike Paheding, Quamar Niyaz, Xiaoli Yang, and Samantha Smith. 2022. “Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence in Industry: Trends, Tools, and Future Challenges.” Expert Systems with Applications 207: 118002. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2022.118002
Duan, Di, Yongliang Chen, Weitao Xu, and Tianxing Li. 2024. “EarSE: Bringing Robust Speech Enhancement to COTS Headphones.” Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies 7(4): 158. https://doi.org/10.1145/3631447
Foxlin, Eric. 2005. “Pedestrian Tracking with Shoe-Mounted Inertial Sensors.” IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 25(6): 38–46. https://doi.org/10.1109/MCG.2005.140
Grgurić, Diana, Benedikt Perak, and Leonard Radosavljević. 2024. “Streaming Services: Revolutionizing Music Management.” In Aural Experience and Soundscape Management, edited by Diana Grgurić and Lidija Runko Luttenberger, 153–184. New York: Jenny Stanford Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003475163-5
Guclu, Hatice, Sabri Kocer, and Ozgur Dundar. 2021. “Application of Augmented Reality in Music Education.” The Eurasia Proceedings of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics 14: 45–56. https://doi.org/10.55549/epstem.1050174
Gupta, Rishabh, Jianjun He, Rishabh Ranjan, Woon-Seng Gan, Florian Klein, and Christian Schneiderwind. 2022. “Augmented/Mixed Reality Audio for Hearables: Sensing, Control, and Rendering.” IEEE Signal Processing Magazine 39(3): 63–89. https://doi.org/10.1109/MSP.2021.3110108
Hödl, Oliver, Christoph Bartmann, Fares Kayali, Christian Löw, and Peter Purgathofer. 2020. “Large-Scale Audience Participation in Live Music Using Smartphones.” Journal of New Music Research 49(2): 192–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/09298215.2020.1722181
Hsu, Chia-Lin and Mu-Chen Chen. 2018. “How Does Gamification Improve User Experience? An Empirical Investigation on the Antecedents and Consequences of User Experience and Its Mediating Role.” Technological Forecasting and Social Change 132: 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.01.023
Kanellos, Emmanouil. 2024. “Immersive Visual Music: How Contemporary Visual Music Practices Have Evolved and How Immersive Technologies Can Be Employed to Compose Visual Music Works.” PhD diss., Bath Spa University.
Katona, Jozsef. 2021. “A Review of Human–Computer Interaction and Virtual Reality Research Fields in Cognitive Infocommunications.” Applied Sciences 11(6): 2646. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11062646
Kitchenham, Barbara, Lech Madeyski, and David Budgen. 2022. “SEGRESS: Software Engineering Guidelines for Reporting Secondary Studies.” IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 49(3): 1273–1298. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2022.3174092
Koumpouros, Yiannis. 2024. “Revealing the True Potential and Prospects of Augmented Reality in Education.” Smart Learning Environments 11: 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-023-00288-0
Lee, Ben, Tomasz Rudzki, Jan Skoglund, and Gavin Kearney. 2023. “Context-Based Evaluation of the Opus Audio Codec for Spatial Audio Content in Virtual Reality.” Journal of the Audio Engineering Society 71(4): 145–154. https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2022.0068
Lee, Jong Weon, Suya You, and U. Neumann. 2002. “Tracking with Omni-Directional Vision for Outdoor AR Systems.” In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, 47–56. Darmstadt, Germany. https://doi.org/10.1109/ISMAR.2002.1115069
Liberatore, Matthew J., and William P. Wagner. 2021. “Virtual, Mixed, and Augmented Reality: A Systematic Review for Immersive Systems Research.” Virtual Reality 25: 773–799. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-020-00492-0
Lo, Shih-Yu, and Chih-Yuan Lai. 2023. “Investigating How Immersive Virtual Reality and Active Navigation Mediate the Experience of Virtual Concerts.” Scientific Reports 13: 8507. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35369-0
Makhataeva, Zhanat, Tolegen Akhmetov, and Huseyin Atakan Varol. 2023. “Augmented Reality for Cognitive Impairments.” In Springer Handbook of Augmented Reality, edited by Andrew Yeh Ching Nee and Soh Khim Ong, 765–793. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67822-7_31
Morimoto, Tadatsugu, Takaomi Kobayashi, Hirohito Hirata, et al. 2022. “XR (Extended Reality: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality) Technology in Spine Medicine: Status Quo and Quo Vadis.” Journal of Clinical Medicine 11(2): 470. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11020470
Morrow, Guy. 2020. “Conclusions: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality.” In Designing the Music Business, 177–201. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48114-8_8
Nor Farzana Syaza Jeffri and Dayang Rohaya Awang Rambli. 2021. “A Review of Augmented Reality Systems and Their Effects on Mental Workload and Task Performance.” Heliyon 7(3): e06277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06277
Ntagiantas, Antonis, Markos Konstantakis, John Aliprantis, Dimitris Manousos, Lefteris Koumakis, and George Caridakis. 2022. “An Augmented Reality Children’s Book Edutainment through Participatory Content Creation and Promotion Based on the Pastoral Life of Psiloritis.” Applied Sciences 12(3): 1339. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12031339
Park, Jieun, Youjin Choi, and Kyung Myun Lee. 2024. “Research Trends in Virtual Reality Music Concert Technology: A Systematic Literature Review.” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 30(5): 2195–2205. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2024.3372069
Pavlenko, Oleksii, Ihor Shcherbak, Viktoriia Hura, Valentyn Lihus, Iryna Maidaniuk, and Tamara Skoryk. 2022. “Development of Music Education in Virtual and Extended Reality.” BRAIN: Broad Research in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience 13(3): 308–319. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/13.3/369
Peddie, Jon. 2022. The History of the GPU – New Developments. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14047-1
Peng, Xixian, Xinwei Wang, Yutong Guo, and Hock Hai Teo. 2025. “Do We Think Differently When Tapping the Screen or Clicking the Mouse? Effects of Computer Interfaces on Level of Construal.” Information Systems Research. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.0191
Rasalingam, Rasslenda Rass, Ruziana Mohamad Rasli, and Vaithegy Doraisamy. 2024. “Enhancing Social Skills in Malaysian Children with Autism Through Augmented Reality (AR): A New Frontier in Therapeutic Interventions.” International Journal of Advanced Research in Education and Society 6(2): 537–545
Rasalingam, Rasslenda-Rass, Balakrishnan Muniandy, and Rasslene Rass Rasalingam. 2014. “Exploring the Application of Augmented Reality Technology in Early Childhood Classroom in Malaysia.” IOSR Journal of Research and Method in Education 4(5): 33–40. https://doi.org/10.9790/7388-04543340
Remache-Vinueza, Byron, Andrés Trujillo-León, Mireya Zapata, Fabián Sarmiento-Ortiz, and Fernando Vidal-Verdú. 2021. “Audio-Tactile Rendering: A Review on Technology and Methods to Convey Musical Information through the Sense of Touch.” Sensors 21(19): 6575. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21196575
Rokhsaritalemi, Somaiieh, Abolghasem Sadeghi-Niaraki, and Soo-Mi Choi. 2023. “Exploring Emotion Analysis Using Artificial Intelligence, Geospatial Information Systems, and Extended Reality for Urban Services.” IEEE Access 11: 92478–92495. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3307639
Roquet, Paul. 2021. “Acoustics of the One Person Space: Headphone Listening, Detachable Ambience, and the Binaural Prehistory of VR.” Sound Studies 7(1): 42–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/20551940.2020.1750270
Rose, David. 2021. Supersight: What Augmented Reality Means for Our Lives, Our Work, and the Way We Imagine the Future. Dallas: BenBella Books
Ruziana Mohamad Rasli and Rasslenda Rass Rasalingam. 2024. “Transforming Higher Education with Augmented Reality: A Comprehensive Systematic Review of Current Applications and Future Prospects.” International Journal of Advanced Research in Education and Society 6(3): 478–484
Sidorenko-Bautista, Pavel, Bárbara Castillo-Abdul, José-María Herranz-de-la-Casa, and María Abellán-Hernánde. 2025. “Marketing, Advertising, and Branding in Fortnite: How Do Brands and Companies Connect Today to Audiences through the Metaverse?” Cogent Social Sciences 11(1): 2458058. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2025.2458058
Sutton, Jonathan, Tobias Langlotz, and Alexander Plopski. 2022. “Seeing Colours: Addressing Colour Vision Deficiency with Vision Augmentations Using Computational Glasses.” ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 29(3): 26. https://doi.org/10.1145/3486899
Suzuki, Yuko, Fridolin Wild, and Eileen Scanlon. 2024. “Measuring Cognitive Load in Augmented Reality with Physiological Methods: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 40(2): 375–393. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12882
Tanaka, Ema, and Akira Igarashi. 2025. “Why Do Audiences Support Creators Online in the Generative AI Era? Survey Results on the Creator Economies in Japan, the U.S. and China.” In Proceedings of the 33rd European Conference of the International Telecommunications Society (ITS): Digital Innovation and Transformation in Uncertain Times, Edinburgh, UK, June 29–July 1, 2025. Calgary: International Telecommunications Society. https://hdl.handle.net/10419/331309
Tanprasert, Thitaree and Dongwook Yoon. 2022. “AR Music Visualizers: Application Space and Design Guidelines.” In CHI EA ‘22: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts, 1–6. New York: Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3491101.3519705
Taylor, James and Nicoló Dell’Unto. 2021. “Skeuomorphism in Digital Archaeological Practice: A Barrier to Progress, or a Vital Cog in the Wheels of Change?” Open Archaeology 7(1): 482–498. https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2020-0145
Turchet, Luca, Rob Hamilton, and Anil Çamci. 2021. “Music in Extended Realities.” IEEE Access 9: 15810–15832. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3052931
Turchet, Luca, Travis West, and Marcelo M. Wanderley. 2021. “Touching the Audience: Musical Haptic Wearables for Augmented and Participatory Live Music Performances.” Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 25: 749–769. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-020-01395-2
Wang, Fan, Zonghai Zhang, Liangyi Li, and Siyu Long. 2024. “Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in Artistic Expression: A Comprehensive Study of Innovative Technologies.” International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications 15(3): 641–649. https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2024.0150365
Wang, Junyi, and Yue Qi. 2022. “A Multi-User Collaborative AR System for Industrial Applications.” Sensors 22(4): 1319. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22041319
Weerasinghe, Maheshya, Verena Biener, Jens Grubert, Aaron Quigley, Alice Toniolo, and Klen Čopič Pucihar. 2022. “Vocabulary: Learning Vocabulary in AR Supported by Keyword Visualisations.” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 28(11): 3748–3758. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2022.3203116
Willim, Robert. 2024. “Vanishing Points.” In Mundania: How and Where Technologies Are Made Ordinary, 24–40. Bristol: Bristol University Press. https://doi.org/10.46692/9781529221473.003
Xuejing, Zhang, and Wan Ahmad Jaafar Wan Yahaya. 2025. “A Systematic Review of Augmented Reality in Music Education.” In Enhancing Learning Experiences with Digital Tools: AI, ChatGPT, and Virtual and Augmented Reality, edited by Mageswaran Sanmugam, Bosede Edwards, Nurul Maziah Mohd Barkhaya, and Zuheir Khlaif, 1–22. Hershey, PA: IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-9811-1.ch001.
Yang, Jing, Amit Barde, and Mark Billinghurst. 2022. “Audio Augmented Reality: A Systematic Review of Technologies, Applications, and Future Research Directions.” Journal of the Audio Engineering Society 70(10): 788–809. https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2022.0048
Yonia, Dwika Lovitasari, and Sigit Mulyanto. 2023. 3D Traditional Musical Instrument-Based Augmented Reality: Exploring Indonesian Traditional Instruments in Augmented Reality. Jakarta: Asadel Publisher
Young, Gareth W., and Aljoša Smolić. 2022. “Extended Reality: Music in Immersive XR Environments: The Possibilities (and Approaches) for (AI) Music in Immersive XR Environments.” In Artificial Intelligence and Music Ecosystem edited by Martin Clancy, 68–82. New York: Focal Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429356797-8
Zhang, Yidan, Yazhen Wu, Yang Wang, and Zhuying Li. 2026. “NatureCapture: Transforming Real-World Nature into Shared VR Experiences for Deepened Human-Nature Connection.” In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’26), article 1476, 1–22. New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3790465
Zhang, Zixuan, Feng Wen, Zhongda Sun, Xinge Guo, Tianyiyi He, and Chengkuo Lee. 2022. “Artificial Intelligence–Enabled Sensing Technologies in the 5G/Internet of Things Era: From Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality to the Digital Twin.” Advanced Intelligent Systems 4(7): 2100228. https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202100228