The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on the music industry. The live performance sector in particular has been severely disrupted thanks to social distancing measures and lockdown restrictions. Tours, concerts and shows left, right and centre have had to be postponed or cancelled outright. Many artists on all levels, from big-name celebrity performers to local up-and-coming acts, have seen their income plummet and are questioning their future prospects.
However, the music industry, like all others, has been learning to adapt to the times. One of the main ways it’s done this is by focusing on live streaming as opposed to touring. With touring, of course, an artist or group travels to all sorts of different places to bring their show to their fans. With travel restrictions in place and things looking uncertain for the near future, putting on a tour isn’t exactly feasible or viable. Some shows have been put on with social distancing measures in place, though for the most part, artists are ditching concerts for now and favouring live streaming instead.
Spotify and Songkick
And that’s where Spotify steps in. The streaming platform has recently signed a deal with Songkick that will enable it to promote live streaming shows by artists. This is part of the platform’s ongoing effort to take a slice of the live streaming market, which has experienced significant growth throughout 2020 as artists use it as a replacement for traditional concerts.
Songkick is a concert discovery and ticketing platform. It enables users to search for upcoming concerts in their area and follow their favourite artists; they receive notifications if a followed artist schedules a concert in their area. Spotify has partnered with Songkick so that it can let music streamers find out about online shows more easily. Artists pages will have upcoming live streaming events visible and the Concerts tab will have online shows listed.
One thing that Spotify isn’t planning on doing at the minute is actually streaming concerts itself. Amazon Music, the third biggest music streaming service following Spotify and Apple, recently started letting users watch live concerts and other music events thanks to its partnership with Twitch. While Twitch is mostly a platform for gamers, it’s become more popular with musical acts in recent months.
Demand for Live Streaming
This move of Spotify’s will no doubt benefit the many artists whose music is available on the platform. However, it remains to be seen whether the demand for online shows will continue to be as high as it is now. In the coming months and throughout next year, hopefully restrictions will ease up, things will get back to normal and artists can start putting on proper shows and tours again.
While many are no doubt itching to resume their touring schedules and travel the world to see their fans, online shows are a lot more convenient. Put on a single show that’s streamed live and you can reach fans around the world in one go without having to travel to lots of different destinations. Streaming performances online is considerably cheaper and much less time-consuming than going on a full-blown tour.
For now, live streaming shows is the way for artists to perform to their fans. It has certainly become a bigger industry thanks to the pandemic’s restrictions, but there’s no telling what its future is. Some artists may prefer to put on shows and live stream them instead of doing tours, whereas others might abandon live streams as soon as they can get back on the road.
Summary
So what is the future? Is it just tours, just live streaming or a mix of both? Spotify has shown by partnering with Songkick that it’s adapting to the current situation. What’s clear is that the pandemic isn’t over yet and until it is, the music industry will have to keep changing and adjust to the current way of doing things.
