😷 New reality for concerts: VR; Future of music: monetized livestreams; Rise of virtual livestreaming 'tour'; Projected €4.5bn loss for French music industry; social distancing in the vinyl racks
Daily update for the music business on the coronavirus (July 2)
Here is the future of music: monetized livestreams (Bandwagon)
In a similar vein, Online Music Festival Top Hits Thailand featured several interactive and AR elements, including a gigantic 360-degree screen showcasing live images of the audience. Artists were able to spotlight certain viewers and even have a conversation with them, something highly unlikely to happen in a regular concert. We had learned from our first interactive online concert that the audience’s experience from their tablet, phone or computer… is totally different from an actual concert. So, this Online Music Festival, we combined and created all technology that we have such as AR effects and a specific application used only to interact while watching the festival,” said Moy.
The rise of the virtual livestreaming "tour" (Water & Music)
While it still requires resources in the form of money and time for production and marketing, a virtual tour has a much lower carbon footprint. Due to the relatively borderless nature of the Internet, artists have the ability to route their virtual tours and make "stops" in markets that they either previously did not prioritize, or could not financially or logistically make happen in person.
The new reality for concerts in COVID: Virtual reality? (Rolling Stone)
The tech still has considerable room to grow. A more heavily VR experience can still be clumsy and glitchy, and VR headsets themselves still aren’t very widely adopted. Wave has softened its focus toward VR partly because the company doesn’t think VR will hit mainstream popularity for a few years. Until then, Wave sees its gamified concerts as a good consumer entry point that could transition when VR gains more traction. And While MelodyVR’s tentpole viewing option is designed for watching with a headset, it knows VR is far from mainstream.
Covid-19 tipped to spark €4.5bn loss for French music industry (Music Ally)
In these calculations, recorded music revenues are expected to come in 20% smaller than expected – a hit of €200m – but it’s the live industry that’s unsurprisingly hardest hit: an 83% drop in forecasted revenues this year, meaning a €2.29bn hit. Collections by society Sacem are predicted to come in at 23% below expectations, a €250m shortfall meanwhile.
Our favourite record shops talk social distancing in the vinyl racks (Clash)
However, as much as record shop owners are prioritising the customer, the customers themselves are putting their favourite local independents first. As shops have reopened, the curve of physical sales is on the rise. During lockdown though, online sales have been booming. For small independents, customers buying directly from record stores has kept businesses ticking along.
‘There’s got to be a way’: Concert venues continue to face hardship, optimism amid COVID (Rolling Stone)
But these are all far from permanent solutions to COVID-related financial woes. “It’s a bit of a ‘Let them eat cake’ argument to say, ‘Well, you can do livestream, you can do alcohol delivery,’” says Chopra of Elsewhere. “Or, ‘The PPP is great because it’s so popular.’ It’s almost like saying the bread lines in Soviet Russia were great because they were so popular.”
Montreux launches virtual summer of music festival (IQ Mag)
Mathieu Jaton, CEO of the Swiss festival, comments: “Since its beginnings in 1967, the Montreux Jazz Festival has been immensely fortunate to have built up, thanks to the visionary spirit of [founder] Claude Nobs, a rich and unique audiovisual archive. This heritage has made the festival famous and continues to make it shine through initiatives such as the 54th Summer of Music, made possible through our collaboration with the Claude Nobs Foundation, Eagle Rock and the NMAAM. This summer, this heritage is more essential than ever.”
[ed. note: Montreux is truly unique in its approach to video content. While every other festival in the world would love to do a similar virtual festival they struggle with rights clearances, something that Claude Nobs figured out five decades ago.]
Chicago’s jazz and classical worlds continue to adjust to COVID-19 with online concerts, more (Chicago Tribune)
Jazz and classical institutions in Chicago have reimagined their summer offerings amid the pandemic. RaviniaTV, the Ryan Opera Center online and summer jazz camps in cyberspace are among several developments.
India’s BookMyShow launches livestreaming platform (IQ Mag)
With BookMyShow Online, the company intends to put all events behind a paywall, with prices varying per shows and platinum options, including post-performance Q&As, available for a greater price.
3 ways artists are returning to live shows amid COVID-19 (CBC)
Though Canadians have turned to music to help them through the pandemic, many feel reluctant about assembling to watch live shows again, even as Canadian provinces and territories begin lifting restrictions … Nonetheless, a host of entertainers are returning to live, in-person performances and demonstrating how with flexibility, a raft of new safety measures, artistic ingenuity and a whole lot of hustle, the show can go on amid the pandemic: drive-in concerts; a salon … on your lawn; livestreamed and in-person.
Ziggo puts on 2,400-cap. shows as Dutch regulations ease (IQ Mag)
However, according to [Ziggo Dome director] Damman, concerts at the Dome are only profitable “at about two thirds of the capacity”, or with over 11,000 tickets sold. “What would be our best year ever is already our worst year ever. The damage can only be made up in the coming years, with the old normal.”
Coronavirus: Czechs hold 'farewell party' for pandemic (BBC)
Largely free of foreign tourists, Charles Bridge was transformed on this gloriously sunny evening into one long dining table - as people gathered to mark what organisers described as the end of a period of crisis, although everyone here freely admitted that such celebrations might well turn out to be premature.
Thoughts
I could have simply put two words in the subject line for this newsletter: virtual concerts. So much is happening in this space right now and we’re finally seeing concerted efforts for all of these initiatives being monetized one way or another. We’ve touched upon it before in this newsletter too, but livestreams - especially when ticketed or paid for in another way - have to be an immersive fan experience. This ranges from fan interaction with the artist through to elements of world-building. Excellent examples now exist for others to follow or change-up as evidenced by the multiple articles quoted above here. One thing I’d like to add to this discussion is to consider, especially when looking at what benchmarks exist, what’s happening around the world. US-based artists, festivals, etc. can learn a lot from the scope of an Online Music Festival and vice versa. If the pandemic has indeed allowed the music industry to further accept the borderless internet as its playground we should embrace it in its full global scale.
Music
Composed while listening to the modern punk classic Joy as an Act of Resistance by Bristol, UK band Idles. I’d like to share some of the lyrics to their awesome song Danny Nedelko with you: “Fear leads to panic, panic leads to pain. Pain leads to anger, anger leads to hate.”
Is it Bandcamp Friday?
MUSIC x CORONA goes out every weekday and is composed by Bas Grasmayer and Maarten Walraven.
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