By Alan Baez
Photography Julian Lucas
Published 02/16/2022 7:49Am PST
Digital concerts have grown (exponentially!) at this point of the pandemic. With so many of these concerts showing great success and promise, there’s reason to believe they will continue in the post-Corona era even after in-person concerts return.
Online concerts have diminished (or flat out eliminated) the paywall between consumers and concerts, making them vastly more accessible while also lending direct support to artists. They have also cultivated an environment where it’s easier to establish a bond between fans and the artist, therefore creating a deeper experience.
The Covid-19 pandemic devastated many infrastructures throughout the world, with the music entertainment industry taking a very heavy hit. As 2020 came and went, festivals were postponed and tours came to a screeching halt. As a result, artists’ income took a hit and fans lost access.
Though 2021 saw a return of these platforms - they were considerably scaled back. Now, as the pandemic rages on with no comparable end in sight, artists are taking ownership of their art, and digital performances are benefiting artists and consumers alike.
In the last couple of years, after so many tours were postponed and or canceled, many artists, seeking some kind of stable platform, have moved onto the digital venue. Nearly ten months into quarantine, we saw multiple approaches to replacing in-person crowded shows (shame shame on you City Girls and Smash Mouth). Drive-in concerts and Instagram live shows have emerged - but one medium - digital hybrid streaming - has been a major success which may indicate that this is a possible alternative that may be here to stay.
Although online concerts cannot be a full substitute for the future of concerts as consumers need to support venues and the workers that operate them, they should be taken into consideration in the future when planning an accessible event or tour. Digital concerts are vastly more affordable with more of the revenue generated going straight to the artist. Online concert tickets - for smaller musicians and even larger ‘superstars’ could conceivably cost only 30 dollars.
Touring is the essential source of income for artists, label or no label. With music-streaming services providing as little as .003 cents per stream, an artist's revenue really only comes from selling merch and live performances and the coronavirus pandemic has changed one of those streams of income completely. But one issue that can be found with concerts is the paywall. Supporting a local musician and attending something as small as a backyard show can cost you as little as 10 to 15 dollars, but the larger the venue, the more expensive the ticket. According to a 2019 study by the Statista Research Department, the cost for a concert ticket globally averaged out to 96.17 dollars in U.S currency. While the 9 billion dollar industry expands more and more every year, the musicians themselves only see about 35% of the profits. It’s the managers and show promoters that make most of the revenue while most venues take 10% from each ticket.
Recently, popular New York based underground rap duo Armand Hammer performed their 2020 album Shrines on the Noonchorus platform. Fans were able to purchase a digital link to the stream for only 15 dollars but the link also gave fans exclusive access to merch through Bandcamp and a chat log where they can intermingle and talk with other fans during the set. The set was even released on the groups Youtube page after a few weeks so fans could enjoy it for free.
On a larger scale, popstar Dua Lipa hosted her Studio 2054 concert extravaganza featuring a performance of dancers and guests such as Elton John and Kylie Minogue and the performance only cost fans 20 dollars to enter the stream! With admission costing 20 dollars, the set saw massive success pulling in an audience of 284,000 fans. Acts big to small yield different levels of income to the artist but tickets can be affordable to consumers. Not to mention that without the presence of physical tickets, there were no issues with ticket scalpers.
Popular hip hop producer Kenny Beats moved to Twitch to connect with fans in late 2020 with a monthly music stream. These streams include live beat-making, in-studio guests/ friends of Kenny’s, and even beat competitions where fans in his audience can submit their own music to win prizes. This sort of interaction is daunting but incredibly exciting. This sort of interaction just isn’t possible in a live concert setting.
There is a slew of benefits to streaming digital concerts. I spoke with two Bay Area based creatives - DJ Llama and Isaac Indio - have felt the impacts of the pandemic, but see a better future where digital and live performance can go hand in hand. Both agree that concerts and performances need to be artist-centered with creatives holding more autonomy over their craft.
Isabelle Balderas, Fremont based DJ ‘Dj Llama”
DJ Llama, like many artists, was forced to switch to a digital platform to promote her art. Now, Llama is no stranger to the platform following acts such as Kenny Beats and Flying Lotus. She recognizes that the change to a digital platform was difficult, but necessary:
Alan: So the point of this piece is to highlight the change artists had to adjust to during the global pandemic. Many artists found themselves having to change their medium or adapt to new ways of broadcasting their art. In what ways did this pandemic change your performance?
I: Hmmm . . . I would say the pandemic kinda just forced me to get used to being on camera. I was already out of my comfort zone by getting on a stage but only being able to DJ by doing an IG live or Zoom set I feel like people can see and hear the details closer and way different so it just makes me even more self conscious of sharing my art lol but on the flip side of that it also caused me to be even more intentional with how I want my art to represent myself.
A: Do you feel like you were forced to adapt to things or you were naturally going in a more digital direction?
I: I feel like I was pressured to adapt to things. Like, when 2020 started, I had barely just DJed at my first venue and I was so excited to finally start that journey. Then, when the pandemic hit, there were DJs that I looked up to/followed that were doing Twitch streams/IG lives with no hesitation. I was like - ugh I don't like the idea of that - I don't wanna do what everyone's doing, but also I don't have the visuals/creative team behind me for production like that - but it was always on my mind like, damn, how am I gonna keep DJing. It wasn't until someone offered to pay me for DJing online I was like - ohhh, okay, say less - I guess I'll start doing something like that now, but on my own terms.
It's crazy because there was an event that I DJed for like a month before the lockdown that was streamed on Twitch and was invite-only to come see it in-person and I feel like we were ahead of the game with that - so the digital transition wasn't necessarily new to me
A: What do you think of the future of digital venues? Obviously live shows are going to come back but do you think artists will continue streaming or doing digital shows as well as live ones?
I: I think people are going to start utilizing both - to be honest - because shows would be a little more accessible that way. I don't think artists would turn down that digital show bag if the right opportunity presented itself. I could see artists getting even more creative with the digital shows ,too - like I wouldn't be surprised if someone would put on a full-blown festival successfully online one day.
Isaac Indio, Bay Area based rapper
Isaac Indio and his collective Barefoot Gen were adversely affected by the pandemic, but the rapper understands that tribulations force art and the artist's curation of digital venues means a lot for the future of ownership:
“My way of creating and presenting art has changed heavily throughout the pandemic/ SIP because of how heavily collaborative the collective I’m involved with used to be before the pandemic. I remember we used to have artists/friends/patrons/crowds come through to this dirty. beat-up house we used as the studio. At the dawn of the pandemic, almost all of us moved out of that unhygienic place and found safer living spaces to occupy in quarantine - but that limited our interactions to strictly online.”
“I can say it now takes me a while to start/work on any creative projects because of the decrease in “life” I used to interact with.”
“I don’t know if I can say our group grew as a collective, we might have done a two steps forward one step back type of thing. Individually however I feel like we have all definitely matured and begun a new experimental journey - especially since it’s been officially 2 years since we’ve released a collaborative project as a whole. We have released our own projects (with help from each other and outside influencers), explored different mediums of art besides music, and relocated to different parts of the Bay/California”
“I think artists should capitalize on what they can through these virtual times and I love how musicians are finding ways to get their art out there in their own way without being locked into all those contracts and stuff while keeping their hard-earned earnings ya know.”
“It’s like what’s gonna be the new sound cloud - what will define this generation of music performances/releases? Will we shift away from the pay per stream model? It’s all so exciting, yet incredibly frustrating being in the trenches and promoting your art on whatever platform and seeing which platform will hit.”
“I hope so, I mean I feel like once everything feels relatively safer there will be a huge influx of in person performances and venues trying to regain revenue they lost by just throwing a shit ton of shows as much as they can because we’ve been craved for a year but there are times where we can’t be there or somebody can’t be there and I think hybrid performances will become more integrated..”
“I hope performances can become more inclusive and affordable virtually and in person.”
Alan Baez is a creative writer with experience in journalism and video production.
