Back in January, Live Nation acquired a majority stake in Veeps, a ticketed livestreaming platform created by Good Charlotte co-founders Joel and Benji Madden. Now, ahead of crowd-based live music’s return, Veeps has started equipping over 60 Live Nation venues with the tech required for “turnkey livestreaming.”
Live Nation announced its remote-concert plans today, in a formal release that was emailed to Digital Music News. Worth noting at the outset is that Michael Rapino, the Beverly Hills-based concert promoter’s CEO, previously characterized livestreaming as “a great complement to our core business” and said that it “essentially gives any show an unlimited capacity.”
Bearing the statements in mind, the Ticketmaster parent company is officially in the process of setting up “60+ concert venues across the United States” with the tools needed to enable artists “to livestream their event with the flip of a switch to fans across the world,” per the release.
The text doesn’t specify each of these 60 establishments, but notes that “a wide variety of venues will be optimized for livestreaming – from iconic clubs and theaters to amphitheaters.”
The Fillmore (in San Francisco and Philadelphia), the House of Blues (in Chicago and New Orleans), LA’s The Wiltern, “and a number of amphitheaters including Shoreline Amphitheater in California and The Gorge in Washington” will be the first Live Nation venues to livestream crowd-based performances, according to the announcement message.
Moreover, The Wiltern “is already set up” to host a series of 10 livestream shows (tickets to which will cost $15 apiece) on Veeps beginning with a concert from country-trap artist Breland on Friday, May 7th. Other acts including Young Thug, Waterparks, and Freddie Gibbs are also scheduled to deliver Veeps livestreams from The Wiltern, while Chase Atlantic is expected to wrap the series on July 9th.
Addressing the development in a statement, Joel Madden emphasized the career benefits that artists could enjoy by livestreaming their traditional gigs to fans throughout the world.
“Amongst artists, it’s often said that the one side of our careers that truly belongs to us is touring. To help an entirely new touring vertical become readily available to artists is such a huge win for our community and we couldn’t be happier. It’s the exact type of thing that shows what our partnership with Live Nation can really mean for artists,” the 42-year-old said in part.
“Now, with the flip of a switch, every artist playing in these venues can make their show a global event. We’ve already seen how livestream shows drive engagement across every other area of an artist’s business and the added ticket revenue will allow them to re-invest in their art and make what they’re offering their fans even better.”
Evidence suggests that full-scale shows will return sooner rather than later in the United States, as the famed Hollywood Bowl last Friday revealed plans to kick off “14 weeks of concerts featuring a mixture of programming” in July. Multiple music festivals are also slated to take place in 2021, and many entertainment professionals have outlined ambitious performance schedules.