TEN TIPS TO GROW VIRTUAL SHOWS FROM NOVELTY TO MONEY-SPINNER
“The telephone wasn’t invented by the perpetual improvement of the postcard”.
It’s a ‘digital transformation’ quote the music industry may want to ponder. The pandemic has been the catalyst for virtual live shows to become ‘a thing’. But, there’s a danger that by embracing a ‘TV mindset’ from the past, artists risk failing to establish a compelling digital format for the future.
In this article I highlight how artists can build on 2020’s ‘experimentation phase’ and harness technology to develop next generation shows that captivate fans beyond the pandemic. I’ll cover:
- Why virtual live shows need to evolve as the real thing, live gigs, return in 2021
- The problem of creating a digital format using a ‘TV lens’ from yesterday
- 10 principles to embrace to develop more captivating virtual shows
A couple of weekend’s ago I lay back on the sofa and watched Dua Lipa’s triumphant Studio 2054 livestreamed show on my iPhone. A breathless performance where, flanked by an energetic troupe of dancers, she cranked out the hits sashaying through a multitude of sets within a colourful warehouse environment at Printworks. It was an extraordinary show.
I wasn’t alone. Around 300,000 others paid £15 for the privilege. Not a bad night at the office. Coming hot on the heels of Kylie, Billie Eilish and now Bocelli’s (even Bocelli!) recent buzz-worthy streamed shows it delivered more evidence that audiences are becoming comfortable paying for this type of remote live show.
So, should the music industry be popping the champagne corks as a new format is proven? A new revenue stream opens up; a means to extend the capacity of live events, scalable shows that elevate a local event to a global audience, with minimal incremental cost?
Maybe. But I’d keep the champagne on ice.
Why? Market needs will change in 2021
My concern? The market for these shows has been driven by the pandemic. To use basic economics, an artificially inflated demand has been created whilst the supply of gigs is throttled. You simply can’t see acts live right now.
But in 2021, when live shows — fingers crossed — are back, will the same demand exist?
Let’s also remember, supply may also be throttled. Live promoters will want restrictions on virtual shows, inserting exclusivity clauses to ensure streamed gigs don’t cannibalise their highly profitable traditional live business.
And whisper it quietly, bar a few high profile examples such as Dua Lipa’s extravaganza, the majority of these virtual shows have barely washed their faces. Successful as marketing vehicles, but not as profit centres.
Am I saying I don’t believe in the potential of these types of show? Far from it. I’m a believer, baby. This period of experimentation has proved there is an appetite amongst fans. The market is building and fans are ready to pay for streamed events in numbers that just haven’t been witnessed in the past.
The opportunity exists to develop a commercial format with longevity. A new thing, not just a short-term corona substitute for the real thing.
But, to me, few are harnessing technology as part of the creative fabric of the show to create a new type of live experience, a distinctive new format, that can sit alongside live shows once they return next year and increase total revenues for artists.
What’s needed? A new experience, not a transmission of an old product
The fact that we’ve all been desperate to see live music, any music, has disguised how the creative approach has generally been influenced by looking in the rear-view mirror; defined by how live music TV shows were made in the past.
The majority use the internet simply as a means of distribution; a pipe through which to deliver what really is a ‘TV’ show. They fail to embrace the tools technology offers to empower artists to create a new type of live experience; a show that mixes interactivity, audience feedback loops, community, personalisation, around the core live performance.
A show that inspires fans to participate rather than simply spectate.
It’s like Q designing James Bond one of those Omega watches packed with super-power gadgetry, only for 007 to just use it to tell the time
It would be fine if the majority of live artist TV shows ‘worked’ in the past. But, the truth is, they rarely grip audiences beyond the first track. “Look great, don’t rate.” That’s the line repeated many times in my commissioning meetings in the past.
So, if we know this, if this same ‘creative tv formula’ is broadly being followed for these virtual shows, why should we expect the results — for the majority — to be any different now? Let alone in 2021 when live shows are back.
The core problem
It’s been a while I know, but let’s remind ourselves why going to a gig used to be so special….
As a fan, you immerse yourself into a crowd of like-minded people, sharing that sense of being a part of something, even before your senses are assaulted by the sound and lights. It’s about more than just watching a performance. You feel it.
“I share my music, my words, my life with the people who come to our shows. And they share their voices with me; singing arm in arm at the top of our lungs, hearts racing, bodies moving, souls bursting with life. Without that audience- that screaming, sweating audience — my songs would only be sound.” Dave Grohl
But when you’re at home watching a virtual show, you’re isolated. Lights on, maybe watching your laptop on the sofa listening through tinny speakers, distracted by your phone and your friends.
You are just watching a show. When attention spans are shorter than ever, fans need more to captivate them. To immerse themselves in the show. To feel it.
If you have some tech tricks in your hand that can deliver that, surely it makes sense to play those cards and seek to inspire audiences to engage more, to lean forward, rather than just passively watch. To create a vibrant, and wholly different experience. Not just a diluted experience of the real thing.
Principles for creating virtual shows
OK, so I’ve outlined why I believe artists are missing a beat. Easy to critique, I know. Let me constructively suggest some principles to consider in seeking to break from the old, to create more captivating next generation shows.
The core aim being to elevate audiences from passive voyeurs to active participants, emotionally invested in the show.
- Start Afresh
Forget what’s gone before. Re-imagine what a vibrant live show could be for those at home. A new format. A new way of presenting a show. Not ‘live TV’. Not ‘live concert’. A show that breaks the standard of ‘artist on a stage performing at you’. Liberate the artist from the straight-jacket of the past. Look east and take notes from how Asian acts are the beating heart of this new type of ‘remote’ event, particularly Korea.
2. Fan Participation
Break the convention of shows being a one dimensional, passive viewing experience. Give fans a sense of agency, empowering them to shape aspects of the show (without diluting it with unnecessary gimmicks). From limited track choice voting, to breaking up the set with fan questions, to fan created collaborations inserted within the theme of the show.
Employ producers to act as middlemen curating messages that artists can act on or respond to, to unite that sense of being part of the community, whilst creating a genuine sense of live spontaneity.
3. Co-creation
Take tips from TikTok and encourage fan-generated content that can be inserted into the fabric of the show. Artist can give calls to action in the build up the show asking fans to create e.g dance moves, that can be inserted into the narrative of the show, or background screens.
Take inspiration in inspiring fan creativity from the legendary Feeder ‘Just a Day’ video which, even twenty years on, is still as oddly mesmerising — or The Beastie Boys’ ‘“Awesome: I F — -in’ Shot That” show where fans were given camcorders to film from their own point of view and the best bits edited into the final DVD.
4. Share the show with your community
Shows are better with your mates, aren’t they. So, how can you create a sense of community?
Viewing parties where you can watch a show in real time with your friends, as you can on Netflix, are a start. As are data visualisation tools that use graphics to highlight e.g. what tracks others fans are enjoying most.
Take a look at the clip below. Yes, I know it is about football, but it gives a glimpse of the potential for viewing app’s to offer fans the ability to personalise data that enhances their viewing experience and allows them to share the show with their friends.
5. Format the shows
Looking at minute by minute ratings data, it is often the case that half the audience who watch a live performance on tv disappear after the first track. It can be brutal.
Why? At their heart, ‘performance shows’, unlike a drama or even a chart show lack narrative hooks that inspire curiosity or deeper emotional engagement to encourage you to watch until the end.
For frontline material, rather than just play the tracks blindly, what opportunity is there to give fans insight to the intimate stories behind the music. Let them in to what the music means, how it was created and what they should listen out for. Intersperse video and animation around performance to bring these stories to life, inserting hooks that drive the show to a climax.
For catalogue, let’s say around the anniversary of a legendary album, inspire nostalgia with fans encouraged to reminisce as they submit images and stories of that time for insertion into the show. Take a left out of Tim Burgess’s Listening Parties in how to facilitate an event owned by the fans. A joyful experience of pure nostalgia and celebration.
6. ‘Eventise’ the show
How can you create a shared moment in time? Take a look at the example of the Taiwanese band who staged a show in a kitchen where fans can embrace the event by buying themed food to enjoy during the show. The “ Cook the Vibe” event staged by KAO!INC., one of Taiwan’s biggest hip hop labels, cost fans up to US$78 to stream. The label said they “want to offer fans something humorous and fresh — apart from the food” creating a virtual experience with a package containing quirky food, and an optional t-shirt and apron.
The more artists inspire fans to ‘lean in’, to get involved in the spirit of the creative theme of the show, the more engaged they’ll be.
7. Merchandise
Selling Merch is a ‘no-brainer’. But rather than an interruptive distraction to leave the show (with clicks to an external website where fans need to re-register and bounce out of what they’ve been watching), embed the ability to buy mech into the context of the show. Look at Shopify and how effectively they are moving to effortlessly allow audiences to ‘see it, click it, buy it’ within a video stream.
Find contextual ways to ‘product place’ merchandise into the show, with artists and crew wearing items for sale. Indeed, during costume changes, video content highlighting Merch would be a natural addition.
And, going a stage further, more than just the physical merchandise, there is potential to sell virtual skins and badges that act as souvenirs of fan’s attendance at these events.
8. Create a ‘waterfall release’ distribution strategy
Most of these livestreams are ‘one-time’ events. Just like a traditional gig. You turn up to see the start, watch the show, and that’s that. But, that negates the value of this being a filmed show. Take a leaf out of the movie business and create a ‘waterfall windowing’ strategy, where the content is released to different platforms at different times at different prices, similar to how movies have in the past.
Licensing requires a little more work, yes, but with many managers observing that up to 75% of the audience come for the on-demand version of a streamed artist show, it highlights the potential to amortise value over time across different products.
It requires strategic thought about distribution of the original show, and also, to consider how to create new products, packaging them into formats that appeal to different partners e.g. introducing storytelling elements that can be wrapped around performance material to create a premium show that would appeal to Netflix.
9. Take a breath on the tech
Hands up. I’m a chest-beating evangelist for using tech to inspire a new creative approach.
But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. As producers review how technology can change the notion of the show, there is a need to reflect on which tools are suitable to employ. To make sure any tech genuinely enhances the show for the audience. Not be a gimmick, a distraction.
And obviously, choosing which tools suit the brand of the artist, and the profile of the audience. A BTS fan will likely have a different appetite for ‘bells and whistles’ than a Bruce Springsteen or Bocelli fan….
10. A new world of presentation and immersion
And to finish, let me touch on an ambitious future. Rather than simply stage a show at a traditional live venue equipped for a traditional live show. A Brixton Academy, let’s say. Expect the most ambitious artists to create their shows at production studios equipped for volumetric capture.
These green screen studios, kitted out with tens of cameras that can capture an artists’ persona in 360 can use tools borrowed from the best of games and movie production to bring an artists vision to life in the most stunning visually dramatic manner. Imagination (and of course, budget) will be the only limiting factors. And that’s before one even considers the VR and AR assets and immersive worlds that can be created using these studio capabilities. But let’s come to that another day….
Take a look at this video. Yes, this is an off-the-scale expensive production, but it gives a hint of what the future holds for live presentation.
So, 2020 may have been our ‘annus horribilis’. A devastating one for the live music industry. But it has kick-started a previously unforeseen demand for virtual shows.
The challenge now is to move beyond this experimentation phase. To reflect on the learnings from the much-talked about successes and the less-discussed failures and to consider how to refine the creative formula to establish these events as a commercial format with a future, once live gigs return.
To refer back to Amit Kalantri’s quote in the introduction, that may require producers to stop ‘persistently improving’ what has been made for tv in the past.
To invent a new approach underpinned by technology. One that puts the fan at the centre. A participant who feels the show, rather than a voyeur who simply spectates.
Roll on 2021.
If you enjoyed reading this, try this piece below on how labels can use these virtual shows to build artist subscription platforms….>
