AKARSH SHEKHAR
How Live Concerts came home during the Lockdown
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented event in our lifetime . Millions of people are quarantined indoors and seeking a way of escape from the fear and worries . On the other hand , musicians and performers have been frustrated because they haven ’ t hit the road and provided the euphoric release to fans in person . To bridge this gap and create some kind of happy middle ground in this hapless situation , platforms like OML , Dice and Skillbox have brought in virtual concerts for the viewers . Taking the virtual stage brings in a new set of challenges . It takes far more than an amazing performance and great content to keep the energy going . How will the performers feed off the crowd ’ s energy if there is no crowd in front of them ? How will the audience feel about dancing , singing along and getting loud in isolation ? Artists and their audiences may struggle at first to find the same raw energy they get from being there in person . When it comes to real-time events , there is no room for mistakes , production glitches or connectivity issues . The audience demands pitch-perfect audio , perfect lighting , and cutting edge special effects . These virtual events need to eclipse ( or at least match ) the expectation of the people . Obviously , the world has changed quite suddenly . Yet it ’ s also the right time for artists , entertainers , musicians , non-profits , and corporations to come together and provide something special for those doing their part and staying inside during the quarantine . This is perhaps the most critical time to entertain people . The ones who manage to do so , will end up creating everlasting memories and experiences . Just like live shows require the right crew to ensure that the shows go on without a hitch , a virtual partner is needed to tackle the challenges with virtual concerts . Here are the best ones .
OML
Manish Chandnani , VP - OML Live says “ The format from previous years had to be revamped completely . Taking the festival from ground to virtual entailed a lot of trial and error . Zoning in on the right decisions in terms of communication lines , the addition of newly relevant features and weighing viability were challenging . Also , of course , initial technical glitches .” This year , people won ’ t have to go to attend the NH7 weekender , the “ happiest festival of the year ” will come to them .
The Score Magazine
38 highonscore . com
DICE
Through their app and dice . fm website , Dice has claimed to be the only Indian service that has offered personalised global event recommendation and ticketing , as well as bringing live streams from cities around the world right into your smartphone screen . “ The live events and entertainment industry is really badly hit due to this COVID-19 pandemic and may not recover for a longer period of time than a lot of people expect ,” said Arnav Banerjee , Dice India Lead . “ We feel the time is right to talk to the music audience in India and the artist community at large and build the live streaming space here . Because thanks to music streaming , India has a lot of globally recognized artists and musical talent , so we want to replicate that success with live streaming and hopefully get these artists to make some money in the process as well .”
Skillbox
Skillbox ’ s StreamBox , an inbuilt live streaming service , kick-started a series of performances in April with a voluntary fee and over fifty artists . In May , SkillBox hosted its first ticketed live streaming event with Parekh & Singh performing live from a studio with proper set-up . Since that virtual concert , SkillBox has grown in strength and has gone on to organize a number of ticketed events with multiple artists . The fifth edition of the Mumbai Piano Day was also streamed on Skillbox .