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  Various signs indicate that the online concert market is bred with vigorous business opportunities.

Online concerts and live concerts have formed a new relationship under the catalysis of the epidemic.

  Taking a long-term perspective, online concerts must not only be upgraded in technology, but also rely on high-tech means such as VR and XR to provide an audio-visual experience that is closer to the scene. It also needs to strive for diversity and richness in content to maintain a sense of freshness and surprise.

  Have you ever set an alarm just to watch replays of two concerts?

  Have you ever sat on the sofa, looking forward to two concerts that open at the same time?

  In the spring of 2022, countless people displayed electronic tickets generated by one-click in the circle of friends; countless people spontaneously performed lyrics solitaire in the comment area; countless people sang along with the melody in front of the computer screen; The video chat room became a karaoke room.

  What triggered this round of collective carnivals was one online concert after another, from Leslie Cheung, Cui Jian, Jay Chou, Luo Dayou and Stefanie Sun.

In 2022, we have an appointment with spring.

Online and live:

  no replacement is possible

  Has the era of online concerts arrived?

Is the era of live concerts coming to an end?

  The answer to the former is yes.

Major platforms have landed on the beach, the top players in the industry have made their voices heard one after another, and the audience's enthusiasm for participation is high. Various signs indicate that the online concert market is bred with vigorous business opportunities.

  The future is here, but that doesn't mean live concerts will be history.

As far as the nature of the performance is concerned, traditional concerts focus on the realism of the simultaneous interaction between fans and stars, the immersion of 10,000 people singing in unison, and the differentiated on-site experience brought by tiered fares.

These core elements are irreplaceable, and of course there is no need to replace them, because online concerts have completely different characteristics: low ticket prices, convenient viewing, exquisite production, and closer interaction between singers and audiences.

Take the "How are you?" online singing and chatting session as an example.

Stefanie Sun sometimes gets up and sings, and sometimes sits on the high stool to reply to messages and accept song requests. This "sing and chat" model goes against the conventions of concerts and moves closer to the live broadcast. Although it does not break the physical barrier between the singer and the audience, it is in another place. Dimensionally narrowed the distance between each other.

  In this sense, online concerts and live concerts have formed a new relationship under the catalysis of the epidemic.

Before the outbreak, online was just an extension of the scene.

At the beginning of the epidemic, online has become an alternative to the scene. The original intention is to empower people through music, which has an inspiring public welfare nature.

After two years of exploration and development, online concerts are now self-contained and return to the essence of entertainment and business.

Because only in this way can it be sustainable.

  To achieve sustainable development, it is necessary to establish a relatively stable business model.

Brand sponsorship and advertising placement are currently popular commercial operations for online concerts.

In addition, individual popular star concerts have tried tiered fares, or exchanged high-priced tickets for VIP-limited benefits such as peripheral products, or based on this, delineated the range of fans, organized offline activities, and used the scene as an online extension.

  Of course, it should also be noted that the above explorations are still limited to the old routine of the rice circle economy, and have not truly opened the door to the performance market and formed a relatively mature format.

On the other hand, despite the sensational effect of many recent online concerts, they have a common premise - free.

Both platforms and singers are just trying to meet the audience with the attitude of testing the water, and earn a wave of "passenger popularity" through the special period of the epidemic.

The heyday of online concerts is far from here.

 The future of the cloud:

  A new way to be explored

  Looking at the many online concerts that have been highly sought after this year, it is not difficult to summarize a key word: nostalgia.

Leslie Cheung, Rene Liu, Cui Jian, Jay Chou, Luo Dayou, Stefanie Sun, Xicheng Boys, these former "kings" and "Queens" have left countless classics in the hearts of generations of music fans.

  Nostalgia is blowing frequently, and it is inextricably linked with the recurrence of the new crown epidemic.

For people who stay at home for a long time and feel tired physically and mentally, music is a good remedy, and when idols who haven't opened their golden voices for a long time sing long-lost golden songs, singers and fans are more like reunion after a long absence. Old friends, tell each other sincerely and cherish each other.

  The pervasive nostalgia also reflects the awkward status quo to some extent.

In recent years, the voices of fans complaining about the "Golden Songs List of the Year" and the sighs of the demise of Chinese pop music have been heard endlessly.

The reasons for this phenomenon include, of course, the aesthetic generation gap caused by intergenerational differences, but it is also an unavoidable reality that the leaders of the pop music industry are not connected, and the popularity of songs is not as good as before.

For this reason, fans can only pin their enthusiasm on the infinite nostalgia for the green years.

  Grasp the timing of the performance and identify the emotional pain points. The keen sense of smell of the platform has contributed to the collective return of middle-aged and elderly idols and the "Ye Qing Hui" of young and middle-aged fans.

However, if long-term audio-visual stimulation is to be formed and realized, then "nostalgia" is obviously not a tried-and-true trump card. The freshness brought by nostalgic style will naturally develop aesthetics with repeated sensory stimulation. fatigue.

  Online is different from live.

In the past, singers toured all over the country and even around the world. Although the content of the concerts was similar, due to the different audiences and the various "easter eggs" in different shows, there would not be a strong sense of repetition.

The online concert is in one step, directly radiating the entire crowd, saving the singer's hard work in transition, but also greatly reducing the "shelf life" of the performance content.

Therefore, from a long-term perspective, online concerts should not only be upgraded in technology, but also rely on high-tech means such as VR and XR to provide an audio-visual experience that is closer to the scene. It is also necessary to strive for diversity and richness in content to maintain a sense of freshness and surprise.

  In addition, although the concert itself has a strong fan economy color, the frequent screen refresh of free performances proves the huge potential to break through the dimensional wall of the fan circle and touch the public's aesthetics.

The audience on the cloud no longer needs to participate in the performance by irrational behaviors such as queuing up all night, going to different places, gathering crowds to support the performance, and only need to like and forward to show support.

The lowering of the viewing threshold is a necessary condition for breaking the circle, but it is not a sufficient condition.

More importantly, in order for online concerts to continue to cause a sensation among the whole crowd, they must be supported by higher-quality and more popular original content, and must get more in-depth participation from creators and singers.

  The new crown epidemic has changed the living habits of many people and reshaped the survival rules of many industries.

Online concerts are just a seed of "Internet +" that unintentionally sprouted on idle land.

Successive rounds of nostalgia, fueled by social media, have blown this seed into people's hearts.

As for what kind of flowers and fruits it will eventually bear, it will still depend on the careful watering and cultivation of practitioners.

  Sun Xinqi