I'm hoping a few people can contribute to this and make it a meaningful conversation that can maybe even go outside tFB into the wider social media world.
With gigging looking unlikely for the foreseeable, what are you thinking the year ahead might hold for you and your music? Is it all doom and gloom? I confess to not being a massive fan of the unflattering iphone sofa performances, shot against the plain magnolia wall, invariably with too much comedy headroom above the artist's head (you know, like when they've framed it all weird), or the 'here's-me-in-my-terribly-lit-home-studio' thing that looks nothing at all like the sort of gigs they've probably played several hundred times so why do you think it works on YouTube. (Come on, SORT OUT THE ***ING LIGHTING - IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. TRY HARDER! TRY ANYTHING!!)
Anyway, the paying public aren't going to suck that **** up indefinitely, so what to do? Outdoor concerts, I suppose that would be great if feasible. But, the UK weather? And what about after September? Or should we release more recordings but with no gigging to back them up? Will this hiatus affect bigger bands more severely, providing an unexpected opportunity for the little guys? Where do you find your socially isolating audience? Instagram for the kids, Facebook for us oldies seems to be how it goes. If the industry contracts, does that mean more attention for those that persevere from the music media and broadcasters?
I don't know. I want to make a plan. What do you guys think.
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Beyond that, I don't know. I do hope that folks will start to increase production value on "home video" concerts as they'll have more time and good musicians are typically perfectionist types who won't ever be happy with a half-arsed video.
Can it only be the tech-savvy wunderkids? Can older artists stay in the race? It’s so not my thing, but Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp have shown some chutzpah in creating their own idiosyncratic response to the problem, so age needn’t be a total barrier to doing this.
https://youtu.be/zAWfhc2VPzQ
Any mileage ?
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https://www.economist.com/business/2020/06/27/live-streaming-will-change-rock-n-roll-for-the-better?utm_campaign=the-economist-this-week&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=2020-06-25&utm_content=article6_flytitle
(I don't think that's paywalled?)
[edit] - turns out it *is* paywalled, so, summary;
The response may prove the biggest jolt to live music in decades. From home quarantine or empty concert halls, artists—including classical musicians—are videostreaming live performances straight to fans. What they started off doing for charity, some are now doing for profit. Rolling Stone magazine reported that bts, a k-pop band, earned around $20m from a virtual show for 750,000 fans on June 14th—more than Ed Sheeran gets for a gig. An avatar of Travis Scott, an American rapper, reached an audience of 27m via “Fortnite”, a video game. Laura Marling, a British singer-songwriter, streamed a paid concert from an empty chapel in north London. She sold many times more seats online than exist at the venue.
As I said earlier - bands don't have to stream themselves from a living room. There are plenty of other options ...
@TTony, the challenge for bands now is being able to find somewhere big/safe to rehearse properly to prepare for any live performance. We haven't played together since Feb, I think and I'd want to know we were well rehearsed before putting up an online performance. I think that might be for the months ahead. Although I bet a few rehearsal rooms might have closed up, so that will make it even harder to find decent rehearsal facilities and fighting other bands to get the more accessible times and spaces. Oh joy.
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There is usually some interaction and collaboration to get the finish line, Ive been doing this via file sharing with other people online, but its not easy....you need to find the right people !.....
Have you tried any colabs on here ?
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(I looked at one of my comments above and it looks like I was drunk... I don’t think I was. Just slack. Apologies.)
Being a cheapskate, I bought a £6 piece of green cloth on eBay and have devised a way to hang it up in a well-lit corner of the living room. Because you can knock out all the green areas, shooting against this cloth allows me to substitute any background image that’s appropriate.
Now there is a learning curve here, but it’s not really rocket science, and although my early efforts do look a bit half-arsed (all right, a lot H-A) it’s great fun doing it and i’m learning lots of new skills.