Live Music Events in 2021 may go Small, Intimate and Hybrid.

There is so much uncertainty in the live music events industry for 2021. Nobody knows for sure when a coronavirus vaccine will be available, how it will be rolled out and how effective it may be. Combine this with unknown levels of restrictions placed on holding events by government organisations and the future is far from clear. 

Whilst larger music festival organisers are mostly ploughing ahead with their events for 2021 they are doing so with an element of caution and incorporating multiple contingency plans for dates, venues and possible audience restrictions. Many of these festivals are well financed and as a result they can put together relatively sophisticated planning in place now, something they have to do as the planning process can take 12 to 18 months. But what of the smaller live music events and touring musicians utilising smaller venues, how can they plan for events in 2021?

Musicians and artists without huge financial backing are having to be more creative about putting on events. There are trends emerging now for smaller live music events in more intimate settings. Utilising smaller and cheaper venues the audience may be constrained by current social distancing regulations and so could typically be limited to just 30 or 40 people, however, given the intimate atmosphere the audience is more likely to accept paying a higher entrance fee.

To make up the shortfall in audience numbers and to provide the live music experience to those unable to travel many up-and-coming artists and musicians are making more use of live streaming services. Recent research suggests that a virtual audience is reasonably happy to pay about $5 for a live streamed event. This has seen the emergence of the hybrid live music show with the live sets being conducted in front of a small live audience yet streamed to a larger virtual online audience at the same time. If such hybrid events are well executed the artists get to perform live and the audience (both real and streamed) get to experience a live event. The artist may not make as much money as they would touring or performing in a large venue but they do get to showcase their material to existing and potentially new fans helping to build their fanbase for the future. 

Artists and musicians that can adapt well to current circumstances will surely benefit as the live music industry tries to recover in 2021. Live music events will start to get bigger as time goes on and they will have opened up their material and performance to a new audience through the streaming service.

Using an events software management platform like FestivalPro live music event organisers get all the functionality they need to manage artist and venue planning and ticketing. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The FestivalPro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features for managing the entire live music event including specific artist and ticketing modules. Organisers can create and manage venues along with artist advancing confirmations and the tiered ticketing required for live audience attendance and streamed services. 

Photo by Roy Reyna from Pexels

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