Bandsintown has introduced a new streaming service focused on exclusive livestreamed performances. Dubbed Bandsintown Plus, the new program will give subscribers access to over 25 virtual concerts each month. The service costs $9.99 a month and each show will be exclusive to subscribers. In addition to the performances, the platform will host members-only Q&A sessions and interviews with artists. Considering the fact that performances will be live and exclusive to the platform, there will be a monthly schedule of artists taking the virtual stage. The new program features a wide range of genres, so those with diverse musical palates will be excited to hear something new during each broadcast. For example, in the inaugural month, subscribers will be treated to music from Flying...
Over the course of the last three months (July 1-Sept. 30), engagement with IRL events has remained steady (up 4%, comparing engagement from the month of September to that of July) and interactions with free livestreams has declined (down 26%). In the same tracking period, ticket clicks on paid livestreams has risen by 577%. In July, ticket clicks on paid livestreams accounted for 3.3% of all activity on Bandsintown, at just 70,136 clicks, compared to 1.54 million on IRL events and 485,000 on free livestreams. That percentage leapt to 12.6% in August and then to 19.5% in September, stretching July’s 70,000 count to 475,057 ticket clicks. Zooming in on free livestreams vs. paid livestreams (removing IRL events from the equation), ticket clicks on paid events were just 14% of the engagement ...
Sessions founder Tim Westergren estimates the market for virtual concerts is worth $1 billion with the potential to grow to “tens of billions” in just a few years, but can that rate of expansion continue when actual live shows resume? At a 2007 Los Angeles music industry function, Ray Smith was pitching his new company, BE-AT.TV, to a high-ranking Live Nation executive. The business was focused on livestreaming electronic music festivals like Tomorrowland and Ultra Music Festival, and Smith says the executive’s reaction was not as he had hoped: “He was like, ‘Who the hell is going to sit at home and watch a bunch of kids partying on a laptop?'” Thirteen years and a global pandemic later, millions of music fans worldwide are doing just that, and Smith’s newly rebranded BeA...