Groundbreaking technology could soon see super-realistic digital versions of The Beatles and Elvis Presley able to make eye contact with audience members at cutting-edge shows, MPs heard today.
A producer on acclaimed show Abba Voyage - which features avatars of the chart-topping Swedish band as they appeared in 1977 - told a committee she expects others to follow suit.
It means shows for top heritage artists could run around the clock - but does raise profound ethical concerns, Svana Gisla warned.
Meanwhile Ms Gisla, who produced the cutting-edge show, warned that iconic bands like Abba, U2 and Queen would "fail" if they tried to break through now due to lack of support.
Quizzed by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, about how realistic avatars of famous stars could become, she said: "Technology of them reacting to the audience is absolutely round the corner...
"We're pushing our technology to the absolute limit."
Members of the cross-party committee were last night shown around the Abba Arena at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, where the show is being staged.
Ms Gisla said: "The technology itself isn't new but the way we've used it is new. The scale at which we've used it is new and the barriers which we've broken down to push that technology is quite groundbreaking."
And she continued: "I'm sure others will follow."
Asked by Tory MP Julian Knight if the same technology could bring acts such as The Beatles back to life, the producer responded: "Absolutely."
"Posthumously you can put artists back on stage, but ethically people may have a view on that," she said.
Ms Gisla said: "You could absolutely run it round the clock, I'm sure Vegas will very very quickly adapt this and do Elvis and The Beatles."
Mr Knight described some of the close-ups of the Abba members as "videogamish", to which the producer said: "The idea is to keep evolving the show."
Describing Abba Voyage, which all four members of the pop band participated in producing, Ms Gisla said: "You can say that this is an Abba show. Abba did five weeks of movement capture, they chose what to wear, they chose the setlist.
"Abba made this show."
She also said that the cost of putting on such productions is prohibitive - telling MPs it will take three years for the Abba Voyage project to break even.
She said that the cost ran into the "tens of millions", adding: "Until the technology becomes cheaper you'd need a heritage act that has a catalogue and a fanbase and a global appeal that could sell a million tickets a year to break even."
In a depressing indictment of the modern music industry, she said that if Abba were trying to break through now, they would likely "fail".
Historically, she told MPs, artists would be signed to a label on a three album deal and given years to develop.
But in the age of streaming, this is no longer possible, she said.
"I think a band like Abba, if they came out now they would fail. I think most of the big catalogue artists like Queen and U2, they wouldn't have a chance today.
"They wouldn't have the support and I think that's the problem with the music industry."
