Streaming concerts are back

The last one was Fred Again..: Apple Music, on New Year’s Eve, streamed one of his concerts from Dublin – recorded during the last tour. Last December 3, however, Marco Mengoni was live on Twitch with his show from Paris.
Do you remember them streaming concerts? Those that were done during the pandemic, while the live shows were stoppedand they seemed like a part of the future of musical entertainment. Well, they still happen – although not like in that period anymore, given that “real” concerts, fortunately, are back. Perhaps even more are made, but with different models: more recordings and broadcasts of “real” concerts, fewer specific productions directly for streaming, as was inevitably done during the pandemic. A choice that often transformed these performances into long video clips: perhaps someone will also remember “Studio 2054” by Dua Lipa, which at the end of 2020 was the most successful case, followed (for a fee) by over five million people. But more than a concert it was a cross between a musical and, indeed, a long video clip.

What happened to live streaming platforms

A-Live, Live-Now, Zeye Payperlive: these are the names of the platforms that opened between 2020 and 2021, specifically for this format. They all closed, even Live-Now, which dealt with Dua Lipa and other names such as Gorillaz. The main one still active is Veepswhich has Live Nation as its majority shareholder and offers a fairly rich catalogue, both of original productions (a Brandi Carlile Christmas special, for example) and paid streaming of pre-produced concerts, such as Springsteen’s “Nebraska Live”, originally included only as a blu-ray in the expanded edition released in October. The concert, from yesterday, then landed on the Disney+ offer.

Then there is Nugs.net, historic platform dedicated to live music, audio and video. It streamed concerts well before the pandemic – the historic reunion for the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead in 2015, which attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers – and continues today. Especially in the jam-rock field, with artists like Billy Strings and Goose, but it also streamed video concerts of pop-rock artists of all kinds, from James to Jason Isbell to Wilco. On New Year’s Eve he broadcast – for a fee – the live performances of Phish from Madison Square Garden: $110 for 4 concerts, or $25 each.

Streaming platforms

Last December 3rd Marco Mengoni streamed his concert from Paris on Twitch, part of a project that also included a Christmas song for Amazon Music: some streaming platforms invest heavily in this format, to retain their subscribers by offering exclusive content. Obviously Amazon, which owns Twitch and often also uses Prime Video, for example streaming for several years Spring Festivalor as in the recent concert of Bad Bunny from Puerto Rico last September. Then there is Apple Music, which has a “Live” section with exclusive concerts, from Gracie Abrams to Jennifer Lopez, in video and audio format. Next up is Fred Again..

Twitch is a world apart: it is often used directly by artists. The most obvious case is still that of Fred Again..which in recent months has broadcast about ten performances on the gaming platform, announced with very little notice on social media and in any case followed by thousands of people. They usually took place the day before a “normal” concert, had an informal model (with songs tested and voted by the public in different versions) and served the artist to strengthen his fan base.

Between YouTube and social media

With the livestream platforms defunct, streaming concerts have mainly moved to other, much more consolidated spaces, where they already took place. YouTube, obviously, already active before the pandemic and even after, with live festivals like Coachella, but also used by various artists for premieres and various concerts, like the one from Paris by Nick Cave with the Bad Seeds (which later became a live album, “Live God”), or that of Lady Gaga, dedicated to “Harlequin” and given to fans at Christmas – she was the one who had chosen Coachella for the streaming premiere of the show derived from her latest album, “Mayehm”.
In reality, YouTube is full of streaming concert formats :dto NPR’s classic and wonderful “Tiny Desk Concert.” to those of the French television network Art, to cite just two of the many examples. And if someone objects that these are pre-recorded shows broadcast on time delay – well, it’s the same thing that was done during the pandemic. Most of the “concerts” were not live. Here lies the ambiguity of the word live, which often indicates content recorded live, not broadcast live.

Then there they are TikTok and social mediaanother space that guarantees – like YouTube – a powerful infrastructure and a large potential audience. In 2021 Måneskin launched their official debut on social media with a concert live from Berlin. Last December 14th Mariah Carey streamed a live Christmas show from Las Vegas, simultaneously on TikTok and Apple Music. More classic productions are broadcast and the improvised and impromptu live broadcasts of the pandemic are no longer done (or rather, some artists still do them, but in a decidedly sporadic manner.

In Italy, TV and concert films are preferred

Mengoni aside, in Italy it seems that more traditional formats are preferred: that of the classic live album, which has had a rebirth, which we were talking about here, and of which several other examples have been announced, from Elisa to Alfa. Maybe aalongside a television special granted to a large broadcaster, or a concert film that is shown in theaters for a few days with the format of an event screening, and then lands on the platform. This is the case, for example, of “The guitar in the rock” by Lucio Corsiwhich has been available on RaiPlay since November 22nd after being released in cinemas. It must be said that live cinema distribution is a format that is also widespread among foreign artists, such as the recent case of “M” by Depeche Mode, which spawned a film and live album taken from the concerts in Mexico City. The album is on the platforms, the film was presented in theaters, and then arrived on Netflix these days.

In short: streaming concerts are back, without ever actually going thereto. They have transformed into something different, an important part of an artist’s many activities. A way to strengthen the profile and the fan base, but also to encourage the public to go and see a real concert in person. Luckily, they are back.