Spotify will soon offer virtual concerts, starting at $15

In a recent blog post, Spotify revealed that its users would be able to enjoy virtual concerts starting next week. The pre-recorded sessions will be anywhere from 40 to 75 minutes long and will be available only at a specific time and not on demand.

The five artists whose concerts will be available via the music streaming service are Rag’n’Bone Man, Girl in Red, Black Keys, Leon Bridges, and Jack Antonoff. 

Anyone with a Spotify account will be able to get a ticket for $15. That is the price per concert and will be tied only to individual accounts. That means those who can’t attend won’t be able to transfer them to other folks with accounts on Spotify. Furthermore, there won’t be any refunds in case you miss the show.

According to the Spotify blog, the majority of concerts will be aired during June, but the Black Keys concert is scheduled for next Thursday, May 27th. Spotify will air the remaining four concerts every Thursday as well during the next month.

All this seems a bit experimental as the streams won’t be implemented in the Spotify app. Instead, “ticket holders” will need to tune in via their browsers to experience the “live” concerts. The timing of this initiative is also considered somewhat questionable considering that the vaccination efforts in most developed countries are going well, and live events are expected to return soon. 

Artists listing live shows is not entirely new as Spotify allowed this back in 2017 while partnering with Eventbrite. A similar initiative was floated last year in partnership with streaming concert discovery app Songkick. 

The thing is tours and live concerts present a major source of income even for some biggest names in the music industry. That’s because their earnings from streaming royalties and from selling physical albums are minuscule.

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Deep Ballu