By Kira Grunenberg
Any serious music fan would agree that there is nothing more disappointing than being shut out of a live show from a lack of tickets and venue space. The inextinguishable activity of scalpers, enthusiasm of pre-sale fanatics, and other special offers ?all these conditions make getting access to any concert like a race with a ?survival of the fittest? type mentality.
This being said, the thought of such almost makes the internet and digital streaming the perfect solution, as they offer ?infinite? audience space! A concept not likely to stay untapped for very long, creatives in the entertainment and music industries began taking to this idea and forming companies focused on broadcasting shows, either for free or for reasonable prices, for which consumers can pay online.
EVNTLIVE, a standalone concert streaming service, is another newcomer to the live streaming market and although it is far from the first of its kind, its co-founders, David Carrico, Alex Beckman, and Jonathan Beckman, along with an experienced team of high profile investors, (Troy Carter (CEO of Atom Factory), Yogen Dalai (Mayfield Fund partner) amid many others), believe there are still plenty of angles either unused or under utilized by existing players that will bring EVNTLIVE to the forefront of the digital concert and social music experience. The company has been in planning and development for over a year and is presently in beta launch, due to officially launch in the next few months.
David Carrico and business veteran Judy Estrin, the latter who is the Executive Chair of EVNTLIVE, chatted with me about their vision for the company and some of their thoughts on the general landscape of the music industry.?
SoundCtrl: First off, I would like to say congratulations on everything you have managed to put together for the imminent launch of EVNTLIVE. It is clearly difficult to penetrate most facets of the music business in general and you two have prepared a solid staff and strong business objective in a relatively fresh entertainment segment ?and there aren?t as many of those left these days!
Given that one of the major, and immediately noticeable, benefits to home streaming is ?infinite seating,? I am curious as to whether there is a personal experience for either of you, that prompted pursuing this business model. Are you currently, or were you previously, frustrated by the physical limitations of live music ? or was this an idea born simply out of wanting to expand the industry for the sake of creative change?
David: I spent several years running a boutique music management firm, and my experience on the road showed me both how tiring and costly touring can be for artists and how many fans in different parts of the world deeply desire to see an act but are unable to gain access to that experience for any number of reasons. With artist?s revenue streams dwindling in other categories we saw a real opportunity to create a newfound source of capital infusion from the monetization of streaming live concerts on the web. My co-founders and I are all passionate about live music and as our lives have gotten busier we have realized that we can?t attend as many shows as we would like ? EVNTLIVE is the service we wanted to exist.
SoundCtrl: Clearly, as is evident by EVNTLIVE?s wide offering objective of live music, archived content, real time social interaction and show background information, you have confidence EVNTLIVE will not plateau for users at simply, ?watch concert and leave site.? Still, as broad as this list of offerings is, do you feel maybe there is some potential for a double edged sword to form in expanding the live music segment through a concept that takes the very idea of ?live and in-person? out of the picture ?much like the continuous appeal of services like Instagram, that promote digital sharing and widening connections but, when appreciated in excess, almost disconnect people from being in the real present?
David: At EVNTLIVE we believe that there is no replacement for going to a live concert. Attending a live music performance for me personally is a social, communal, and sometimes spiritual experience. We have no intention of replacing that experience. Instead we we?re creating an online concert venue that offers the best user interface possible for individuals who can?t access the show in person. By creating a virtual social conversation, merch booth, and giving the user access to the story behind the show, we?re creating content that provides a unique look into an intimate performance experience but, we don?t believe it will ever replace the feeling of being in the front row with your friends around you feeling the vibrations of the music.
SoundCtrl: The both of you have quite the track records and impressive business ?resumes.? What are some, if any, of the specific facets to your previous business experiences that you have applied to the creation and fine tuning of EVNTLIVE?
Judy: Being involved in the creation of EVNTLIVE has leveraged many facets of my career.? Recruiting top engineers, developing large scalable systems, video streaming, building new companies, evangelizing new technologies; building business models to create new markets all draw from my entrepreneurial experience in starting seven companies. My board seats, especially, being a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company has given me an understanding of the entertainment industry, digital media, copyright licensing issues and consumer marketing that are all critical to the success of EVNTLIVE.
SoundCtrl: Let?s say EVNTLIVE catches on with vigor in post-launch. As I stated earlier, limitless seating is a big part of live streaming appeal. High profile artists like Lady Gaga for example, sell out even the biggest of arenas with no hard effort needed, so being able to ?expand the arena? would be perfect for die hard fans that get left out of the ticket line. This being the hypothetical case, can you talk at all about how EVNTLIVE plans to deal with the topic of technical overload, which can be a common problem with any digital stream?
David: A key asset of the company is the depth of our technical team that has years of experience developing large scale systems and infrastructure. We have not taken the approach of rushing a system to market with the notion that we can fix it later? we have invested the time and resources in building a service that can scale to meet the demands of the most popular artists.
SoundCtrl: Simply put, after launch, what kind of a music consuming world do you see EVNTLIVE existing in, even just five years down the line, and what will its place in that world be like?
David: Looking out five years, we hope to see the worlds of physical and online concerts coexisting as a standard way of doing business in the music industry.? The fan experience online will become increasingly interactive as we leverage new technologies. We see promise in 3D and 360 degree interactive filming as well as new ways of viewing from large screens to wearable devices. All of these advances add new connectivity for fans to interact with each-other and the artists they love. We would love to be the premier destination site leading the market in providing ever improving fan experiences and ever growing revenue streams for artists.
SoundCtrl: As a last creative question, I am wondering if you would ever consider partnering with an audio hardware company ? more specifically, the speaker market. If someone loves music overall and they know they cannot get to every single concert they want to see in person, although still not ?the real thing,?? the experience could be further emulated with a combined high quality audio and visual experience. Any thoughts?
Judy: We?re very interested in forming relationships with a variety of partners. Whether that be audio hardware or perhaps device makers, we think EVNTLIVE has the potential to find synergies with many existing brands that make up the backbone of the music world.
SoundCtrl: Thanks for the chat. We?ll be excited to see how everything turns out for your launch!
Details are still to come for EVNTLIVE but you can keep in-the-know by signing up to receive news announcements on their website here.
Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music?s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet?@shadowmelody1
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