Just earlier today, on September 15, Spotify released a groundbreaking announcement. The music industry giant, the streaming service that has become the champion of the modern music listening experience, especially in the US, has partnered with the Songkick. Songkick is a concert searching app/ service owned by Warner Music Group. Now, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many live events have been cancelled, and the music industry has resorted to virtual concerts and live streams through social media platforms. Even the VMAs resorted to having to become virtual, with many known artists having to tune in on Zoom from their homes. Virtual concerts did boom during quarantine, but unfortunately, the virtual concerts were not as commonplace just yet and would not gain as much traction and awareness as the real in person concerts did. However, having the opportunity still partially makes up for the lost live music experience, and this partnership will help make these virtual concerts more accessible via these major platforms.
As a result of the deal, Spotify will be hosting all of these virtual concerts through its platform. There will be a Concerts section on Spotify and in the profiles of the performing artists themselves, music listeners can find more information about the lineup and other details. All of the concert listings on Spotify will be available on Songkick. Once the concert information has been published on either Spotify or Songkick, the concert will be sponsored by the platforms but the actual event will be performed through a live streaming platform such as Twitch, Instagram Live, or YouTube, both of which are becoming increasingly popular. Some of these events will also automatically be listed on Ticketmaster, on which fans can buy tickets and find out information about these events as well. These concerts are a great opportunity to help keep fans entertained and for these digital platforms as well as the artists themselves to stay connected to and engaged with their audience remotely. These virtual concerts are already preparing to be underway, as already on September 27, The Wallows are scheduled to host this kind of concert. We expect substantial potential as a result of this partnership and are looking forward to seeing more of these concerts happen.
