Due to the pandemic, concerts are not yet possible in many countries, which generates a shortfall for artists, whose concerts constitute an important part of income since the latter have generally decreased with the advent of music platforms. However, thanks to the magic of the internet, events still take place, but online. Spotify is planning to offer a new feature that will put these online events forward on its platform. Recently, Jane Manchun Wong, posted screenshots of this novelty on Spotify.
Spotify is working on Virtual Events
The virtual event shown here is actually 2020 iHeartRadio Music Festival pic.twitter.com/I6BJDqeAnc
—Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) August 25, 2020
This reverse engineering specialist has repeatedly discovered features on applications like Facebook or Instagram, even before they were launched. And according to his tweet, Spotify could suggest virtual events when the user searches for a concert. In the example provided, the application suggests a concert by BTS, which will participate in the 2020 edition of iHeartRadio Music Festival.
A priori, Spotify will not host the concerts itself, but could simply redirect Internet users to sites that sell tickets for virtual events. Moreover, as noted by the TechCrunch site, the implementation of this novelty would not be complicated for Spotify.
Indeed, before COVID-19, the number one in music streaming already had a concert recommendation engine and had partnerships with ticket resellers. To get started with virtual events, Spotify would only have to modify existing features, as well as its contracts with concert ticket resellers (knowing that these already sell tickets for virtual concerts).
A priori, Spotify could present this new feature as a way to support artists who are affected by the pandemic because of the impossibility of performing concerts physically. Furthermore, the advantage of virtual concerts is that they can be watched by everyone, but not only residents of the country where the concert takes place.
Paid virtual events on Facebook
Recall that recently, Facebook launched a feature that allows pages to use the Facebook Live feature to organize virtual and paid events. The number one social network indicates that it is offering this novelty to support the actors impacted by COVID-19.
” […] we’re launching the ability for businesses, creators, educators, and media publishers to earn money through online events on Facebook. Page owners can now create an online event, set a price, promote the event, collect payment, and host the event, all in one place”, explained Fiji Simo, vice president and head of the Facebook application. For its part, Facebook will not receive any commission from these transactions.