Streaming platform TheClub reinvents virtual gigs for EDM industry in lockdown by putting fans at the heart of an AR-driven, immersive experience

16 February 2021 - Press release

Self-serve streaming platform revives gigging options for EDM industry in lockdown; puts music fans - the “missing 25%” - at the heart of virtual gig experience
 
 
Emerging and established EDM artists can use a simple model for restarting virtual gigging during lockdown and giving music fans a new level of fully-immersive and intimate gig experiences, with the launch of a new AR-driven virtual streaming platform called TheClub.  
 
TheClub’s platform gives artists a simple way to self-stream highly immersive gigs – an alternative to using streaming services such as YouTube or buying in high-end event streaming. The platform promises to revive virtual gigging for the EDM industry and open up new and longer-term commercial opportunities for EDM artists, management and labels.
 
Based on the robust, highly-adaptable HLS streaming standard, TheClub’s streaming platform lets artists add their own customised AR effects to their gig’s video stream, with users receiving the video feed at low latency, creating a fully-immersive and much more intimate experience for fans.
 
And in contrast to the usual ‘one-to-many’ streaming options, TheClub’s platform puts music fans front and centre of EDM gig experience, letting them see and party with the rest of the crowd, video chat with other fans and the DJ and break off with their friends into private rooms. AR capabilities are proven in advertising but have never been offered commercially to the music industry before.
 
TheClub is already hosting a series of gigs by top 100 DJs on its platform, beginning with Burak Yeter on March 5, MATTN on March 26, and top DJ and producer Nicky Romero on April 3.
 
TheClub’s platform offers artists simple event management options: artists use it to set up their gig playlists, add track-by-track AR effects as well as set up ticketing & merchandising, and private room bookings for superfans, in return for a service fee in the region of 15% of the ticket price. The artist is free to manage event promotion and merchandising in the way they want.
 
TheClub’s platform is also simple for music fans to use - they book their ticket through the artist’s online presence, can watch either on their desktop or laptop or screen mirror/plug into tv for enhanced experience ─ no separate event app download or expensive VR headphones are needed.
 
Market data shows rising long-term commercial opportunities for artists if they can resume virtual gigs: the global music industry is reckoned to have lost $9 billion in revenues alone last year while EventBrite data says that 67% of live video watchers are more likely to buy a ticket for an event, having seen a virtual one first.¹  Bloomberg research found that live gig ticket prices are likely to price out younger age groups, having quadrupled over the last 25 years.²
 
Udaya Sharma, chief executive of TheClub, said: “Live music is broken, with DJs and music fans shut out of gigging. We’re giving EDM artists a simple and cost-effective way to keep gigging and offering Millennials better virtual live music experiences. With our AR-driven effects, we’re putting Millennials back at the heart of EDM gigs ─ they’ve been the “missing 25%” of lockdown’s vanilla music streaming experience.”
 
A London-based music streaming startup, TheClub was set up in 2020 by Udaya Sharma, an entrepreneur who was formerly at Deutsche Bank, with a founding team including Jaiten Gill, founder of the Vanish startup, and Thevindu Edirisinghe, founder of technology startup Flick. As dance music fans themselves, they wanted to give EDM DJs and Millennials new ways to enjoy virtual gigs ─ in successive lockdowns and beyond.
 
The company believes its streaming service offers a simple, practical model for kick-starting EDM gigs, with scope for ‘try before you buy’ options with tickets set 3-4 times lower than physical events or high-end live streamed ones. Research suggests that 760 million music fans globally cannot go to gigs, either because they couldn’t afford it or couldn’t spare the time.³  
 
Udaya Sharma of TheClub explained: “Our streaming platform is a game-changer for EDM music fans and artists in the lockdown era. Millennials have long been priced out of physical gigs and they are increasingly trying out an artist’s music before downloading it, or seeing them at a physical or virtual gig in the future. “This is not only a short-term fix to a short-term problem. We are looking to rectify the issues of price, location, time effort being faced by this huge hidden Millennial market beyond the pandemic to the future where hybrid concerts, whether online alongside physical, will prevail.”