How You Can Monetize Your Virtual Shows As An Independent Artist
This year, the live music industry took a hit of cancellations and postponements rivaled only by college sports. Though the opportunity to build fan bases by way of in-person shows and festivals is on hold, it shouldn’t cast a cloud of doom and gloom.
Last week, we hosted our second virtual SelectCon 2 conference, featuring a panel with Tariq Cherif (Co-founder, Rolling Loud), Ben Gross (Chief Strategy Officer, Genius), and Brandon Pankey (VP of Business Development, Live Nation Urban). They discussed how independent artists and concert promoters can monetize virtual shows.
Look at digital as a positive
Few moments match the anxiousness of waiting for a performer to come into view on stage at a live show or festival. Though virtual concerts have yet to replicate the same amount of energy as live, virtual performances have increased in popularity and production value.
For example, Genius Live centers its performances around interactivity. Viewers can donate a tip to join the “watch party” (briefly appearing on screen), vote for the next song performed, and even witness the debut of an unreleased song if donation goals are met. Gross notes that this type of interaction represents a night-and-day difference from the standard at-home performance featuring little more than one static camera centered on the artist.
“What’s become really important, and what we’re focused on figuring out, is how do you actually leverage the fact that you are in a digital environment to do something that’s special,” Gross said.
Though Rolling Loud has streamed its festivals online since 2017, Cherif admitted to his previous viewing of digital as an “afterthought.” Prior streams of Loud festivals typically featured little more than a basic capturing of the show. He credits the pandemic-mandated prioritization of virtual concerts for his newfound perspective on streaming and its impact on its long-term benefits.
“I’ve realized in this process what we do as concert producers is provide a venue for energy exchange,” the Rolling Loud co-founder said. “You don’t always want to go to a festival, so sometimes you’ll want to just stay home and catch the raw, intimate performance of one of your favorite artists.”
Explore your options
Independent artists and promoters can’t immediately score an official partnership with a streaming giant like Twitch or YouTube. To find a way around that issue, Gross implored the need for upstart artists to first build their core fanbase by making their virtual performances unique. Simply engaging with fans in a platform’s chatroom or answering audience questions during your performance will do wonders without splurging on fancy features. He advises against starting off with a ticketing model and believes more offers will eventually arrive if your performances stand out.
Pankey highlighted upstart live stream companies as an opportunity for fruitful collaboration. “I put it on that artist or their management team to research what these companies are and broker some type of deal,” he said. “I think it’s [about] trying to partner with some of these newer technologies and newer platforms that really just need to drive viewers. They’ll utilize you along with ‘x’ amount of artists just to make sure they start to get out there a bit more.”
Cherif earmarked a union of independent promoters and venues as mutually beneficial. He acknowledges that ticketing a show would present difficulties at first, so promoters would need to get creative with the booking of artists and radius clauses.
“Maybe with the independent venue you could work some type of agreement where they’re sharing some of the risk with you when you guys go to market together on getting sponsorships,” he said. “If you start [hosting virtual shows] at these venues, you [might have] zero people there at first, but then maybe your market will start allowing gatherings of 50 people and you can partition the venue to start ticketing some of it.”
Find the proper price points
Several models exist for marketing virtual concerts. Cherif partnered with Amazon's Twitch to make the streaming service the exclusive platform for virtual Rolling Loud festivals. The streams are free to watch with the option of purchasing a monthly subscription (price points are $5, $10, and $25) for bonus perks.
Pankey scoffs at the notion of virtual concerts’ value becoming extinct once in-person events return. He views a world where live festivals still sell-out and pay-per-view ticketing of live streams allows for additional revenue streams.
“It’s ancillary revenue, ancillary income, and more opportunities for not only the promoters but for artists to make more money on the back end, so I think it’s going to be a super exciting time once this is all over.”