Will Music Livestreams Have Any Staying Power After The Pandemic Subsides?

MNicolai

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Interesting research in here that likely applies to live entertainment in general, though the studies were focused on live music. Here are some of the bullet points from the UTA study cited.

● The survey reveals a strong shift toward a wide array of virtual events while sheltering at home.​
● When asked if they had attended or watched a virtual event while distancing, more than one in four said they'd already attended a livestreamed concert or musical performance, a virtual movie night or watch party, a virtual fitness class, a virtual masterclass or university course, and/or a virtual event or conference. Those numbers surely have grown in the days since the study was fielded.​
● 90% of concert-goers have sought to replace the live music experience during COVID.​
● 55% of deprived live music fans are streaming catalogue content from their favourite artists. 48% say they have watched footage of old performances and concerts.​
● 46% of music fans missing the live experience have tuned in to a livestream. 28% of deprived concert-goers have paid to watch a livestream.​
● 49% of concert goers have watched content on social media to fill the live music void. This option is especially popular among consumers under 25 years old and women.​
● Approximately 7 in 10 concert attendees who participated in a livestream concert while social distancing plan to continue doing so even after they return to live music events.​
● Prior to COVID-19, the appetite for virtual concerts was limited. Now, optimizing the virtual experience may be critical to the future of live music. Music tech companies have quickly begun to legitimize the livestream business through ticketing and offering community-based features that hope to replicate the shared experience of attending a live event.​
● 25% of the general population have already participated in a virtual/livestream concert.​
● 37% of the general population plan to participate in a virtual/livestream concert in the future.​


 
I’ve been doing this for a while. Most of the music I like is more focused on live shows (think Phish, Widespread Panic, bands like that) who will often live-stream big shows like New Years Eve, and randomly other shows as well. It’s kind of nice especially now that I’m an Old with kids, and spending a weekend sharing porta-johns with thousands of other people doesn’t seem like as much fun as it did when I was in my twenties. But the quality is usually great and it’s a good way to stay in touch with bands I like.
 
I hope not, or I'm out of a job and so are many audio techs, stage hands, and production providers.
 
I hope not, or I'm out of a job and so are many audio techs, stage hands, and production providers.

I can’t see live-streams replacing live performance, just augmenting it and providing another access point for the public (and revenue stream for the artists and production companies).
 
MTI is going to make it easier.

 
I’ve been doing this for a while. Most of the music I like is more focused on live shows (think Phish, Widespread Panic, bands like that) who will often live-stream big shows like New Years Eve, and randomly other shows as well. It’s kind of nice especially now that I’m an Old with kids, and spending a weekend sharing porta-johns with thousands of other people doesn’t seem like as much fun as it did when I was in my twenties. But the quality is usually great and it’s a good way to stay in touch with bands I like.

Also helps with those shows that you know where the bathroom is! 4 hrs of Phish is a LONG show. We get Mike Gordon in every so often and every time I'm amazed that the band and his crew don't just fall over halfway through.
 
Thought this was impressive.
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As someone who frequents Disneyland, I've been watching tons of ride throughs. Both to see rides from parks I haven't been to yet and to be reminiscent of those rides that I have ridden.
If anything, real experiences, in my opinion, will boom once people feel safe in the world again.
Having family, friends and co-workers that live alone, they are eager for any interaction since in the current crisis, they have none.
Music lovers, bar lovers, food lovers, speed-dating lovers, experiences I believe will be up at-least 20% over the past averages once people feel safe for the one reason that people are tired of video calls and miss seeing anyone face-to-face.
 
I wish that I could frequent any park, but I have been finding a lot of the ride through videos as well. This not working has eaten away at any chance at a vacation for years to come.
 
I wish that I could frequent any park, but I have been finding a lot of the ride through videos as well. This not working has eaten away at any chance at a vacation for years to come.
Not to minimize your situation but it's totally phucked (thanks, @RonHebbard !) my retirement. My investments took a 30% hit, with a wee bit of yoyoing up and down, but I'll be dead before I get that money back. I'm not working and on Unemployment until it runs out at the end of Sept, and it's unlikely we'll see much in the way of work before then. Plus I'm not making retirement contributions while unemployed, so that's the double whammy on retirement. When the *very likely* 2nd wave of Coronavirus hits in Nov, I'll be out of work again. Not the way I hoped to spend my last few working years. I may have to move in with Hebbard, and he snores!
 
So back to the question @MNicolai posed...

My digital crystal ball sucks. The old analogue unit was much better - fuzzy images instead of freezing pixels. We already have 1.5 generations of entertainment consumers who are not adverse to watching both "big screen" and "small screen" entertainment on mobile devices. For entertainment meant to be delivered on a screen of some kind I guess that makes sense. The bigger question is yours, Mike: will consumers accept "screen delivery" of what used to be live experiences?

Some of them absolutely will, and their numbers will increase as we oldsters that remember mosh pits, crowd surfing, the general vibe of excitement and impression of spectacle begin to die off. Once we lose the ability to put on large scale shows it will be increasingly difficult to "sell the experience" to those who've only known electronic content delivery and never known a festival or arena show in person.

This has similar implications for theatre: without the ability to put enough butts in seats to pay the bills it's gonna be PPV or subscriptions to "arts channels" or the costs will have to come down by better than 50%. Theatre - with a capital T - doesn't work that way, at least as we knew it on Feb 1, 2020... more damn freezing pixels... From a creative perspective, making shows for a proximate audience is still a lot different than making shows for TV or mobile streaming but if the choice is to create for the mobile platform or selling igloos to polar bears, most creative folks will choose to create.

Professional and big time college sports? Without cheering fans in the stands, without the whole 'Game Day Experience" will anyone give a shite? Sure, we can continue to broadcast, stream etc the games but so much of what has gone into telling the 'game story' has been to convey the excitement of the fans in the stands to the viewers at home or in the bar. What will the broadcast directors need from the creative staff to replace those crowd shots, the audio of the fans cheering? Can it be done and how will it be fun? Again it will be the die off of people that remember the good old days that cinches the electronic delivery of whatever live sports morphs into. Note the E-game 'olympics' where viewers are mostly online, and for broadcast, so far the live sports model has been emulated with live audiences present; my prediction is that a virtual cheering section would suffice (it could be this century's version of the 1950's sitcom laugh tracks) for the fans. EDIT PS: fans want sports back on TV even with empty stadiums: https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/29131778/fans-favor-sports-returning-spectators-rather-wait

What will hasten the demise of large audience live events will be any form of Virtual Reality that lets users interact with one another in real time, and for the performers to interact with their audience. Your avatar could mosh with other users, sing along on the choruses, or be invited on stage for the wet T-shirt contest, with real prizes awarded to your account. If that happens I give big live entertainment 10 years to be done because that's the "real experience" that kids will know and we old farts will continue to part this mortal coil.

Tim "I'm an optimist, really I am!" Mc
 
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The interesting thing about sports, being a complete non-sports person, is people like the "game day experience" either at the ballpark or not.
Game days at home is everyone crammed around the big screen, a cooler of "American" beer and a "It's not delivery, its DiGiorno" pizza.
Or if it's a big game, you definitely want to go to your local sports bar because they have more beer and multiple used beer receptacles to use during those unpredictable length commercial breaks.

In any case, all of these activity solutions aren't socially distanced and I assume that even if sporting seasons start again, the crowds at peoples homes and outdoor "capacity-legal" restaurants will be far beyond actual legal safe limits.
PS. First time using Ron's font size trick. Just the right amount of emphasis :)
 

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