Live From Out There
The series of “virtual” concerts that are redefining the music industry.
Ben Baruch owner of 11E1even Group, a full service entertainment group specializing in management, production, marketing and talent buying, was quick to his feet with fellow 11E1even Group Manager Dave Dicianni and came up with a solution that would create income for musicians and bring entertainment to those soughing after a way to participate in live music. Live from Out There: A series of online content streaming to generate a new and meaningful revenue stream for music workers.
“On March 13th, myself and Dave immediately jumped on streaming a few of our acts that were coming off tour to film a few sets so we would have content for a few weeks. Ben tells us. “At the same time we decided to book acts for a virtual festival that would last for a 6-week time period. It was built with a subscription paid model and individual PPV Model for one purpose, raise money for the artists involved along with our non profit partner, Sweet Relief.”
(Sweet Relief has been providing musicians and music workers facing illness, disability or age related problems with financial assistant since 1994).
Viewers/ listeners did not flinch when they were asked to pay the $50 fee and within those first 6 weeks Live from Out there had managed to generate $300,000+ USD that would go entirely to musicians and music workers. Ben attributes the success of the project to the artists involved, the fans, but most importantly, the fact that they were the first ones to really push this new model just when things were starting to get bad.
“A lot of these acts were on tours that were being cancelled and these fans wanted to see music. We created a brand and a community immediately for everyone to feel a part of something special”.
But their initiative goes beyond creating a community where people could “gather” and listen to music. It feels as if they were creating a new mindset around money and resources for the art industry. For so long industries like media, fashion and music have undervalued talent, paying little to no money to their employees in exchange for a little exposure. But as Ben puts it, artists now see something that may not have seen before to this extent; there are new streams of revenue that can be made online for many that were not streaming as frequently pre COVID.
As digital resources have grown exponentially during the past three months, I had to ask Ben if he had discovered any emerging talents online during this period of time. “I think this has caused all artists, big and small to come out of their comfort zones and go to streaming. It’s the only option if you want to play and get your music heard and seen.” He says. “So yes, I’ve found new artists that I may not have ever seen simply because it's everywhere. We have definitely booked artists that are getting new fans on our platform as well.”
So new revenue mediums and emerging talent will definitely have a future in the music industry thanks to Live from Out There. But as regulations start to get lifted we begin to wonder what will change and what our new reality will look like. Face masks and a 2 meters social distance will certainly be present as we settle back into our routine, but... What’s the panorama like for live music and gatherings of that magnitude?
In Ben’s opinion is hard to tell as things change every day. “Obviously it will be a slow start to
get things going again with having people come to venues, there will be new protocols, limited capacity to start and once everyone sees how that goes, everyone will have to adapt. I don't think concerts and festivals as we all knew them, will be back in that fashion for quite sometime.”
Live from Out There has proven to be a great solution to give fans and artist music to look forward to. So does this mean that virtual sessions will become a permanent part of live music going forward? “I don’t think so and I don’t hope so, at least not with the magnitude that we are currently seeing, but yes, streaming will always be a part of the music business and most likely of an actual show that is taking place in front of a live audience. If that isn’t the case, ...we have bigger things to be concerned about.” He says.
On memorial weekend they partnered up with Summer Camp Festival for a special weekend broadcast of their festival that was meant to happen in real life. Due to its success they are currently focusing on partnering with more festivals that got cancelled to bring them to the virtual platform.
Some of their upcoming sessions include Virtual Tours with Pigeons Playing Pink Pong, SunSquabi, Goose, Twiddle, Kitchen Dwellers, Aqueous and many more.
Follow them: https://www.instagram.com/livefromoutthere/