Affected by the epidemic, live performance suspended for a long time, "cloud performance" mode usher in an upgrade
How to attract fans from free to paid for live music
Affected by the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, live performances have been suspended for a long time, and the "Cloud Concert", "Cloud Theater", "Cloud Music Festival" and other performance modes came into being: most of the online performances in the early days were free, such as "House Strawberry is not music Festival "," Believe in the Future "charity performance, etc. Now "Cloud Show" is ushering in an upgrade, moving from a free model to a paid model.
On May 19th, the original musical "One Love Millennium" premiered in the form of online payment. Last weekend, musicians such as Jiulian Reality, who became popular in the summer of the band, performed two paid live broadcasts on NetEase Cloud Music "Lighting Up Live Action". The fare for an online paid performance is about 10 yuan, far lower than the offline live performance fare, but the number of people watching online far exceeds the maximum capacity value of a stadium.
Earlier, the "Return to Wangzong Hope for Spring-2019 Performance Industry Insight Report" released by Lighthouse Research Institute predicted that online performance in 2020 is expected to form a new performance outlet. In just a few months, this "cloud" model has evolved from free to paid today, and the upgrade speed is super fast. Is paid live music a good medicine for the performing arts industry in a special period of forced helplessness and temporary self-help, or can it really become the mainstream of the future and have an impact on the offline performance industry?
Free "Cloud Mode"
Popular in the epidemic
In the second half of 2019, industry insiders predicted that 2020 would be the "big year" of the performance, but an epidemic changed everything. Starting from February this year, the National Grand Theater, Beijing Tianqiao Art Center and other art institutions have successively issued notices of performance cancellations and postponements; since the Spring Festival, many large-scale performances by Liu Dehua, Eason Chan, Zhou Huajian, Li Zongsheng, Han Hong, Chen Weiting They have announced the cancellation or postponement due to the epidemic.
Under the epidemic situation, the cloud "model" gradually became popular: "cloud theater", "cloud performance", "cloud art" and other online performing arts came into being, and the free broadcast form was also highly sought after. On April 17, Liu Ruoying held the "Liu Ruoying company" You Online Concert ";" House Strawberry Is Not a Music Festival "hosted by Modern Sky in February, invited more than 70 groups of musicians such as new pants, Xie Tianxiao, Zeng Yike, Huang Xu to perform a five-day live broadcast event on the B station platform After that, the second season of the Watermelon video was launched. The total number of live views over the 7 days exceeded 15.84 million, and the total exposure of the event was 2.98 billion.
After that, NetEase Cloud Music launched "Just In Bedroom Music Festival" and "Cloud Village Bedroom Music Festival". At the same time, there are also many public welfare online concerts with the theme of anti-epidemic. Among them, the "believe in the future" public welfare concerts planned by Gao Xiaosong brought the free online performance at this stage to a climax.
Hundreds of Chinese music singers including Faye Wong, Na Ying, Pu Shu, Zhou Xun, Cai Xukun, etc. were invited to the "Believe in the Future" charity performance. "All commercial elements and full opening to the entire network video playback platform" have made this the largest online charity show in the history of Chinese music. The data shows that the "believed in the future" official announcement has a maximum reading of 7.15 million Weibo posts, and the Weibo topic # 信 未来 义演 # reads more than 3.6 billion.
Paid live music
The fare is mostly around 10 yuan
At a time when people are still not interested in free online performances, the payment model is quietly turned on. On April 27th, NetEase Cloud Music first proposed that it will start paying live broadcasting of music and launch LIVE live support projects to light up the live action. Subsequently, major brands and platforms followed up. On April 28, Modern Sky announced that it will start the "Strawberry Nebula" online paid live broadcast project. At the beginning of May, Alibaba Entertainment ’s Barley and Youku announced that they will jointly launch the "Parallel Wheat Live" program. The first performance will be a special concert by singer Hao Yun that will be held on May 30, with an emphasis on restoring the scene and making it sound. Environment and 4K movie quality. On May 15, iQiyi launched an online live concert in the form of pay-per-view.
On May 16th, NetEase Cloud Music's first "Light Up Live Action" paid live broadcast brought together Sun Xiao, Sun Xu of the old Rapper Longjing rap and rookies Yang and Su, Liu Xuanting and He Meiyan from "China New Rap" ; The second scene is the blockbuster Jiulian live-action special in "Summer of the Band".
"Light up the action" rap special ticket is 1 yuan, Jiulian live special ticket is 12 yuan. Netease said that if the platform does not divide the account and does not make a profit, 100% of the paid live income (tickets + virtual gifts) will be given to the musicians, and the sound and photoelectric performance venues are subsidized by NetEase Cloud Music. According to statistics, the total number of people in the two-day performance live room exceeded 410,000, far exceeding the number of participants in a LiveHouse performance or even a large concert. Excluding the value of virtual gifts, the highest number of viewers in the Jiulian live-action special event exceeds 120,000, and the ticket income is millions.
Help musicians earn multiple incomes
NetEase plans to launch 100 games this year
In terms of the viewing experience, compared to the previous live performances of live singing and singing, or non-interactive online performances, the paid performances are more designed and planned: in the live broadcast of the Jiulian live-action live show, musicians and fans pass through The empty dialogue makes the performance atmosphere hot again and again. When Jiulian real people expressed their nostalgia for the response from the stage, the barrage was instantly screened by "My heart is with you". When the performance was nearing its end, the host called on music fans to "brush the cloud" to unlock the Jiulian live-action new song. Eventually the "brush the cloud" task was over-fulfilled, and the mystery of the band's new work was unveiled.
After the rap session and the Jiulian live-action session, Su Zixu & The Paramecia band session, Yinxu + Life Awaits music sci-fi scene, Chen Jialin ’s sunset floating sea virtual live broadcast, neon garden mixed reality live show, Xie Chunhua & friends and C-BLOCK special Friends and other friends planning series are coming soon. Netease Cloud Music has revealed that more than 2,000 musicians and more than 200 partners have signed up. It plans to hold 100 games this year and pay all income to the musicians to help the musicians earn more yuan. Help them to resume production.
Industry observation
Kill two birds with one stone but prevent aesthetic fatigue
The paid live broadcast of music did not originate during the epidemic. Since 2014, Wang Feng, Li Yuchun, Yu Quan and other singers have performed online paid live broadcasts at live concerts. At that time, the audience was mainly music fans who could not reach the scene, and the live broadcast was simply copied offline.
Not only China, but South Korean SM Entertainment also launched Beyond LIVE, an online paid concert. With regard to the resurgence of music live streaming during the epidemic, some in the industry believe that it may bring new changes to the entire music industry, bring new driving forces to the continuous output of high-quality music content and the virtuous cycle of the music industry, and online and offline in the future Parallel development will become mainstream.
But no matter how hard the online performance is, it is still difficult to compare with the live performance. Well-known music critic Guo Zhikai believes that the “cloud performance” launched by major platforms is actually a helpless move in a special period: for the platform, survival must be filled with content; for artists, it can maintain a certain amount of exposure , And can get a certain amount of income, can be described as two benefits. On the other hand, we must also be alert to the phenomenon of online paid live broadcast blowouts: First, it is easy to cause audience fatigue. After a large wave of paid live broadcasts, it is still unknown whether the audience will continue to pay the bill; second, some musicians are not suitable. Live broadcast, if live broadcast for live broadcast, it will affect the live broadcast effect. "In a special period, it is also necessary to consider the economic situation of the audience. When the wallet is not surplus, it will be more cautious to choose artists and paid content."
Beijing Huale Extraordinary Culture originally planned to launch concerts by Liu Ruoying, Liang Jingru, Cai Yilin, Zhou Huajian, Li Zongsheng, Ren Xianqi and other singers in 2020, but the reasons for the epidemic have been cancelled or postponed. The company's general manager and senior performance planner Zhang Yiming said in an interview with a Beijing Youth Daily reporter that during this time he also paid attention to many online performances, including "One World, Together House" where former American pop singer Lady Gaga served as the planner Charity concert, and "Believe in the Future" charity show curated by Gao Xiaosong. But he always believes that no matter how wonderful the online performance is planned and implemented, it will never compare to the feeling of being offline and being on the spot. "The characteristics of the scene are unreproducible and unique. Everyone comes together for a common love, common purpose, common ideals, and common beliefs. The charm of true gathering can never be replaced."
Zhang Yiming believes that the paid live broadcast is only a special product rushed in a special period. "After the epidemic, the offline performance will restart, and the market will come back soon."
Text / Reporter Shou Penghuan
Coordinator / Liu Jianghua