SEPTEMBER | FEATURE
More than a
revenue stream
Pay-per-view, livestreamed, concerts are generating revenue
at a time when the live music industry has been all but
financially paralysed. Artist manager Brian Message, who
recently co-founded ticketed online concerts specialist Driift,
discusses how this new industry sector is evolving.
Words: Christopher Barrett
With the global live music
industry ground to a halt,
tech-savvy innovators have
demonstrated that serious money can
still be made from live shows even if the
venues are empty.
The bar was set high in June by K-Pop
superstars BTS, whose pay-per-view
‘BANG BANG CON The Live’ online
event generated $20m in ticket sales.
The audience for the live streamed show
peaked at 756,600 people spread across
107 countries.
The following month, more than 1
million dance music fans paid to watch
virtual festival Tomorrowland Around
the World, a digital version of the
60,000-capacity Belgian EDM festival.
Tickets for the live streamed event were
priced €12.50 (£11.22) per day or €20
(£18.20) for weekend access.
Operating at a somewhat smaller
scale but nonetheless a pioneer in the UK
market is ATC Management, which after
organising a series of streamed shows by
acts including Nick Cave, Laura Marling,
Lianne La Havas and Dermot Kennedy
launched Driift in early August. With
founder investors the Beggars Group,
Driift is focused solely on producing and
promoting ticketed streamed concerts.
Since its launch, Driift has worked
on shows by acts including Biffy Clyro,
while forthcoming concerts include
Sleaford Mods at The 100 Club on
September 12th. Driift co-founder Brian
Message says the pipeline of content is
looking “pretty full”.
An experienced industry veteran,
Message is a partner in Courtyard
Management, Radiohead’s management
business, as well as being co-founder of
ATC. Among his artist clients are Johnny
Marr, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and PJ
Harvey.
Message says that it was two
livestreamed shows by Laura Marling
at the Union Chapel in London that
really got the ball rolling. On June 6 the
singer-songwriter took to the stage of
the Islington venue to perform for a UK/
EU geo-blocked online audience. Later
that evening she returned to play a set
for fans in the US.
The 900-capacity Union Chapel was
populated solely by a skeletal production
crew, who were clad in masks, and
were operating under strict social
distancing guidelines. The shows, which
were filmed in Ultra HD and streamed
via YouTube, proved a critical and
commercial success, with around 6,500
people paying the equivalent of £12 a
ticket.
“It was a bit disconcerting walking
into the Union Chapel that first morning,
seeing the entire production crew social
distancing and with masks on. Everyone
was trying to work out how to make it
work but I think production crews and
artist management are all getting more
used to it now - it is becoming a norm,”
says Message.
ATC’s subsequent shows by Dermot
Kennedy at the Natural History Museum
and Nick Cave at Alexandra Palace
sold around 30,000 and 35,000 tickets,
respectively, with tickets for the latter
show priced £16.
Message says Nick Cave’s ‘Idiot Prayer’
show at the North London venue, which
found him preforming alone at a piano
in the vast Victorian venue, was not only
hugely symbolic but a key factor in the
decision to launch Driift.
“The contrast of Nick alone at
the piano in the middle of that
10,000-capacity venue captured where
we were as a society and where we are at
as an industry,” he says
The Nick Cave show was ATC’s most
successful and a decisive step toward the
launch of Driift.
“The contrast of Nick alone at the piano in the middle of
that 10,000-capacity venue captured where we were as a
society and where we are at as an industry” or “You know
you are going to sell 30% to 40% of your tickets within 48
to 72 hours”
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