The pandemic has affected everyone worldwide. The restaurant and cultural sectors have suffered significantly from the restrictions and some figures are terrifying. For example, in Finland, 93% of cultural operators have reported a reduction in job opportunities and assignments over the past year, and no wonder – with smaller ensembles, gigs may not depend very much on restaurant opening hours, while big stadium concerts of well-known bands and artists could not be held due to constraints and public safety. The situation has called for creative solutions for those who support themselves with music.
Streaming – Concerts from a home sofa
As the population began to realize as early as 2020 that the situation would not improve anyway in the coming weeks – or even months – alternative ways were started to get musicians back on stage and music lovers to enjoy live performances again. Streaming concerts are certainly not a completely new invention, developed exclusively in the midst of a pandemic, but it now had to be relied on much more heavily than before.
59% of cultural operators have reported that their artistic working methods have changed during the constraints. It is quite clearly a completely different thing to perform face to face in front of an audience so that they participate in creating the general atmosphere and the performer is able to follow their reactions during the concert all the time. There have been a wide variety of distance concerts; in some cases, the band has been present at a concert venue, such as an empty bar or music club, and the broadcast has been filmed there. Others have performed, for example, in their own training room or even at home, thus making the performance more intimate.
Remote concerts are often paid, especially as they have become more common and have replaced traditional live concerts. A ticket for a remote event is purchased in the same way as for any other performance and is redeemed by logging in to the selected streaming site with the IDs provided by the event ticketing service. Some artists have also considered small-scale free concerts purely to the delight of their fans, or payment may have been voluntary and of an optional amount. In these cases, viewers have often wanted to support the artist in difficult times and pay according to their abilities.
There is often a chat option next to the event, so you can communicate with other attendees just like at a real gig. Of course, the atmosphere brought by a completely real live concert on remote connections cannot be obtained at all, but it is a well-functioning fallback option.
Auxiliary sales from albums to clothes and accessories
The majority of people today consume music mostly in digital form, so ticket sales are an increasingly significant part of a musician’s livelihood. When ticket sales collapsed, we have had to look for sales elsewhere. For example, although the CD is rather dead, there has been some sort of upward trend in physical copy among music enthusiasts. More and more artists are releasing their music on LPs or in some cases even C-cassettes, as these are in new demand among collectors as the retro becomes a trendy phenomenon. In particular, the audience of smaller but cult-popular indie artists often appreciates physical copy, and records and cassettes are quickly bought out.
Tote bags and t-shirts have been as guaranteed sales success as before, if invested in their print, it is unique and eye-catching. The pandemic has also brought a new small niche in the sale of by-products, face masks. The smarter the accessory, the more guaranteed the sale. In addition to traditional shirts, bags, hats, and fabric brands, artists have designed yoga mats, underwear, and belt bags, for example.
Finally, live – together but safely
In the summer, the situation finally started to look a little better, which is why some live concerts were dared to be organized. Of course, most of the summer festivals were still postponed until next year, as these are such large-scale mass events that it would not have been responsible to organize them yet. Restrictions had not yet been completely lifted, but cultural operators were developing ways around them to organize concerts without endangering human health.
The number of customers at music clubs was limited, personal space was maintained and most of the guests were vaccinated. The precondition for the realization of the concert was often that all members of the audience had a seat, which was better able to take care of the personal space. While this certainly didn’t quite match the concert experience of the past, the return to live gigs was a real salvation for many music lovers at all. People’s desire to come together in a community to experience music will hardly ever disappear, but it remains to be seen whether online concerts have become an established part of the arts and culture sector alongside it.