DIRECTOR, EMEA, YOUTUBE MUSIC APPEARING ON: LIVESTREAMS BEYOND THE PANDEMIC
DAN CHALMERS
The UK may be inching towards the return of live events, but thanks to a boom during the pandemic, livestreaming is going nowhere.
YouTube Music Director, EMEA, Dan Chalmers looks at the next chapter of a fascinating story...
WORDS: BEN HOMEWOOD
“There is potential for monetised
YOUTUBE MUSIC
How has the money side developed? “At YouTube, we have two engines of monetisation, AVOD [advertising video on demand] and SVOD [streaming video on demand], with direct to fan in-between, which is things like Super Stickers, Super Chat, merchandise enablement and ticketing. As yet, we don’t have a pay-per-view product, but it’s an area we’re investigating and our teams are constantly testing. We’re aware of the activity in the market, we had huge success using our Memberships feature with Blackpink’s The Show, which was phenomenal and shone a light on a potential path to a different kind of monetisation around livestreaming.”
Will we see a pay-per-view product soon, then?
“There are no firm details yet, but we were really buoyed by the results of Blackpink and there’s lots of activity in the paid virtual event space, it’s
physical concerts” DAN CHALMERS
streams alongside
Where is the livestreaming market at now? “Livestreaming has established itself as a new format, it’s the new mainstream. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was urgency in the artist community to connect with fans, there still is. You saw it in the number of bedroom streams and, as the pandemic has progressed, there has been an expectation to up the ante. Production standards have increased, and at YouTube we were heavily involved in a number of spectacular livestreams, from Andrea Bocelli at the Duomo in Milan through to supporting Driift on the Niall Horan show at the Royal Albert Hall. There’s also been a different monetisation opportunity along with the increase in production.”
something we’re incredibly interested in. We’re aware that there’s a demand from the music business and we want to help artists create new revenue streams in difficult times.”
How has the industry responded to the surge in livestreaming behind the scenes? “The industry has pulled together really well. We’ve done things with CAA and the Music Managers Forum’s Accelerator Programme, and we’ve helped keep awards shows alive: the Mercury Prize with the BPI, the MOBO Awards, GRM Daily’s Rated Awards. Along with our festival coverage for Download and Wireless, we’ve really covered the breadth of the industry and dealt with every single part of it, that’s testament to what we can provide as a platform and how much we value partnership with the industry. I came from the music industry, Lyor Cohen came from the music industry, and we’re very aware of the troubles and problems it faces, and that artists face. We want to help.”
Has the livestreaming boom changed the future of live music?
“As soon as people can get back to gigs they will and I’m really excited to get back to shows. We’ve seen in parts of the world where Covid isn’t as severe and people have flocked back to festivals and we expect that to happen here. From my conversations with the industry, I think the livestream will coexist with the physical show. You only have to look at the sports industry to see how a whole additional business has flourished alongside gated receipts, so there is now this potential to have a monetised livestream alongside the physical concert. Livestreaming enables you to connect with fans all across the world and have a relationship with them, and potentially that relationship can be monetised. So there’s a whole global opportunity that sits alongside physical touring, which of course will come back. And I can’t wait to be part of it.”
So livestreams can enhance real-life gigs? “I think they will. It’s established itself as a format, and there’s a huge promotional gain around that. People are now looking to platforms like ours to create global moments and launches, whether it be tours, album or single releases, merchandise or other forms of their business off the back of the livestream. It presents a huge focal point. What better way to reach the world? We see ourselves as the biggest virtual venue on the planet.”
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