Will live performances exist in the future?
by Alec Plowman
To say that Covid-19 has shaken up the music industry would be a huge understatement. The global pandemic has pulled the rug from under many a musician, and the way things operate is now fundamentally different.
Live musicians are all too aware of this. The impact of the pandemic on live music was immediate and devastating. Venue closures and tour cancellations hit hard, cutting off a vital revenue stream for many.
One year ago, a world without live music performances was unthinkable. Now, it’s the norm, and it may stay that way for some time.
So what does that mean for gigs? Well, it means a rethink, and a rearticulating of the way performances work. Some musicians have already found success with new models of virtual gigging, and as they’re beginning to discover, you maybe don’t need to play live… in the traditional sense at least.
Unless you’re an ardent metalhead, you probably haven’t heard of Trivium. But, not only are they modern riffmasters of the highest order, they’re also changing the game when it comes to livestreaming, and the very notion of live performance full stop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkor8d4kT1k&ab_channel=Trivium
Trivium frontman Matt Heafy has been making waves on Twitch for a couple of years now. By streaming his warmups, rehearsals and taking online requests, he’s generated a second income comparable to the money that he makes through the band. As he told Forbes back in March:
“When I’m at home I make significantly more from Twitch streaming than I do with Trivium, and then when I’m out on tour with Trivium then obviously Trivium becomes more and twitch becomes less.”
And, when lockdown kicked in, Heafy and co. took things up a notch. With their “A Light or a Distant Mirror” livestream in July, the band staged an arena-scale 1 hour 45-minute show for the cameras and broadcast it around the world. Following the success of “A Light or a Distant Mirror,” they’re now planning to build a HQ from which they can stream live performances, rehearsals and more on a regular basis.
Trivium are at the forefront of a new model of playing “live”; one where the “live” bit is defined by distant audiences watching a performance at the same time, if not in the same place. It’s uncharted territory, sure, and some might say that playing to an audience that isn’t physically present isn’t playing “live” at all. But, unless we see an end to Covid in the near future, this is the new norm.
Heck, given the implications of touring from a climate change perspective – especially on an international scale – this might end up being the new norm regardless. Environmentally conscious artists have long wrestled with the impact of air miles and long-haul equipment transportation on the environment. As society become more climate conscious, virtual gigs might become a necessity.
Purists can moan all they want about streaming concerts not being real concerts, but the truth is, from the artist’s perspective, they’re potentially lucrative. Many of the expenses of being on the road – travel, accommodation, fuel – are gone. And, there’s not the same cap on ticket sales for a given show. Promote it right and one streaming gig might earn you the same as five or ten traditional gigs. Combine that with merch – Trivium sold a range of exclusive products to “A Light or a Distant Mirror” streamers – and you could be on to a winner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzMVfQ0dfYY&ab_channel=Trivium
There are some caveats here of course. Trivium was an established name in heavy metal long before they got into the streaming game. They had an existing audience to draw from which happened to be savvy with streaming culture. And, they had the budget to put together a streaming show of considerable quality.
But that doesn’t stop up-and-coming musicians from putting on streaming ventures on a smaller scale, nor does it stop them profiting from those ventures. How to exactly to do that will be one of the pressing questions for performers in the coming months and years. Whatever the answer to those questions ends up being, one thing is certain. Streaming live performances isn’t going away any time soon, and it’s something up-and-comers should be looking into.
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