đˇ An unprecedented mid-year; BET Awards goes virtual; Streaming pay during a pandemic; A need for new ways to break artists during lockdown; Artists turn to ice cream deals and sponsored livestreams
Daily update for the music business on the coronavirus (June 30)
Without concerts, artists are turning to ice cream deals and sponsored livestreams (Rolling Stone)
But the nature of these shows are changing. Brands are now looking to partner with artists for more substantial concert experiences that take more resources: These include pay-per-view style livestreams, shows from crowd-less venues and gamified VR performances.
Business analysis: An unprecedented mid-year (Pollstar)
In those first-quarter box office tallies, 2020 showed great promise when tours hit the road in the early weeks of the year. As reported in Q1, the year began with a fervor as box office activity showed increases in both gross and ticket sales among the Top 100 Tours compared to 2019âs first quarter. Gross earnings showed a 10.92% jump over the previous year, while ticket counts saw a rise of 4.55% ⌠With 2020âs revenue from the Top 100 Tours totaling 44.3% less than the worldwide gross in 2019, ticket sales from the same 100 tours also show the same percentage difference. Total ticket count at Mid-Year 2020 is 12,476,566, 44% fewer than 2019âs total.
Live music industry experts respond to UK government with alternative five-stage plan for return of live music (DJ Mag)
Step 1: Create the sector support financial package that is immediately required so that any sort of grassroots music venue sector survives to require any more steps at all; Step 2: Check if you have completed step 1. If not, keep checking until you have; Step 3: Get out of the way of one of the most dynamic and innovative creative industries in the world and let them get on with it; Step 4: Continue to receive massive social cultural and economic benefits for decades to come because you got Step 1 right; Step 5: Realise this doesnât need 5 steps, it only needs step 1.
How musicians are fighting for streaming pay during the pandemic (Pitchfork)
The Keep Music Alive campaign broadly presents itself as a critique of the streaming industry, but its specific platform focuses equally on the role of labels. According to Taylor, the 85 percent a major label might take from an artistâs revenue is no longer justified in the streaming era. âA lot of that is a hangup from when they had larger overheads, from when they had to store and ship CDs,â he says. âThere was a cost to all of that, which is now largely being reduced. Weâre basing this new system on outdated models.â
At BET Awards, racial upheaval and COVID-19 add potency and portent to Black music honors (LA Times)
âI must admit â this BET Awards is a little different,â Seales said in her welcoming monologue. âWeâre getting real in touch with being real inside, because outside is on one â itâs got COVID and cops and Karens gone wild.â
Why the music industry needs new ways to break new artists under lockdown (Music Week)
All over the biz, emerging artists are losing momentum, while the launch plans of countless more are on hold, as labels and managers ponder the best plan of attack. With the summer written off, soon it will be Q4 and any fresh faces will be up against that surfeit of major releases that have been pushed back. How many of them can wait until 2021?
Musicians and composers respond to a chaotic moment (New Yorker)
An extensive library of COVID-era sound art has accumulated at AMPLIFY 2020: Quarantine, an online festival headed by Jon Abbey, of Erstwhile Records. Culled from experimental composers around the world, these projects conjure sonic otherness from the constricted, mundane circumstances of lockdown.
La Scala plans 4 July concerts in post-lockdown reopening (Seattle Times)
General manager Dominique Meyer said La Scala was reopening one step at a time as the theater, located in the capital of virus-struck Lombardy, seeks to adhere to Italyâs strict hygiene and social distancing measures for artists and audience alike.
MTV Video Music Awards to be held August 30 at Brooklynâs Barclays Center (Deadline)
While other public events scheduled in the city and the restart of restaurant table service have been focused on outdoor events, the VMAs could be one of the first major indoor events. While he didnât expressly link it to the VMAs, moments after confirming the August 30 Barclays plan, Cuomo noted that indoor spaces like shopping malls are making extensive use of sophisticated air filtration systems. The filters, which he said have been analyzed by NASA scientists, are capable of filtering out COVID-19 virus particles.
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra play to a full concert audience in âworld firstâ after lockdown (Classic FM)
NZSO Chief Executive Peter Biggs said they were the first orchestra to perform in a concert hall without any COVID-19 restrictions. âThis is a magnificent achievement for our national orchestra and testament to the sacrifices and hard work of all New Zealanders,â Biggs said.
1/3 of Italians book tickets for post-corona shows (IQ Mag)
However, of the 30.5% of those who are actively booking tickets, around half of them are booking for events after November 2020, indicating there will likely not be a full-scale recovery until 2021.
BjĂśrk is playing actual concerts with a live audience in Iceland next month (Consequence of Sound)
âI feel we are going through extraordinary times, horrifying but also an opportunity to truly change,â BjĂśrk says in a statement. âIt is demanded of us that we finally confront all racism, that we learn that lives are more important that profit, and look inside us and finecomb out all our hidden prejudices and privileges.â Regarding the concerts, she says theyâll be âunplugged⌠performed without beats and electronics.â
Thoughts
Live music is starting up again, that much is evident from the last couple of articles above. Last week, we read about the gigs without social distancing and other health measures. The ones linked here today represent either places where the virus has run its course - for now at least - or where strict measures are taken into account to safeguard the health of musicians, backstage crew, and audiences. Iâm curious, however, where this will lead. Are restrictions taken on the chin, as seems to be the case with La Scala, and thus first gigs are seen as a stepping stone to returning to what we had as a concert experience before the pandemic? Or, is there innovation involved like we see with the BjĂśrk concerts. Those become a combination of live and online experience: the hybrid model.
Personally, I have one gig planned at the moment. It was supposed to be played on 26 May and has been postponed until 10 September. Iâm not sure if and how itâs going to take place, but itâs on my mind a lot. This single point of live music in my near future.
There was a good panel discussion on innovations in music recently thatâs now available on YouTube. It covered a broad spectrum from the major label experience, to the start-up, measuring data, and - most interestingly I thought - the back-end tech needed to provide solid virtual experiences. Of course, it was all about major success stories such as the BTS livestream and the question remains how smaller, and indie, artists can gain from such innovations.
Music
Composed while listening to the excellent Isolation and Rejection compilation by the Front and Follow label from Manchester, UK. It supports a local charity and is filled with music that didnât make it to records that were previously released. Itâs all a bit glitchy and electronic with some beautiful doses of otherworldly imagination.
MUSIC x CORONA goes out every weekday and is composed by Bas Grasmayer and Maarten Walraven.
â¤ď¸Â musicxtechxfuture.com - musicxgreen.com - linkedin Bas - linkedin Maarten