If you thought that virtual music festivals and events happening during these Coronavirus quarantine times have boosted streaming, well, you’re right. There’s now proof.
He’s not dance music, but rapper Travis Scott is the documented example. Scott’s Fortnite concert last weekend drew an “all-time record” of more than 12.3 million concurrent players, Fortnite revealed in a tweet.
Since his virtual concert, Scott climbed 163 spots to No. 2 on Pandora’s most-followed artists list. On top of that, his artist station adds shot up 540% week over week, Digital Music News reported on Tuesday.
Scott’s music streams jumped 124% week over week, and he enjoyed a similar boost on Spotify and Apple Music. All that goes to show enormous potential for growth and a new revenue source for virtual shows—which will probably stick around post-pandemic.
In the dance music world, fans have been inundated with livestream options since the COVID-19 lockdowns started. Insomniac’s first virtual rave-a-thon, Beyond Wonderland on March 20 and 21, attracted more than 3.5 million views, the company stated in a press release. Insomniac CEO Pasquale Rotella has capitalized by hosting virtual raves every weekend since then.
He’s taking a break this weekend to prepare for a virtual Electric Daisy Carnival with multiple stages on the festival’s original dates May 15 to 17. That’s likely to draw Insomniac’s biggest virtual rave-a-thon viewership yet.
Streaming Gains
Music streaming services are thriving as fans stay stuck at home. Spotify finished the first quarter of 2020 with 130 million paid subscribers and 286 million monthly active users. That’s a 22% revenue increase compared to the same period the prior year, Billboard reported.
Spotify’s ad revenue was 20% less than predicted, but the streaming company has overall fared wonderfully since reports showed that at the start of the shutdown streaming was down.
Even as cities and countries make plans to slowly reopen, the live music industry is looking at a long road to recovery. And the landscape is going to be different, with streaming appearing to claim a slice of the pie.
