One thing that's been sort of nice about COVID is I don't have my monthly panic of "oh shit, are there any concerts from the 5 bands I'd be willing to go see in person coming up soon?"
I know a number of bands have tried virtual events with varying degrees of success. The American Football x Minecraft concert was a hot mess. Have there been any virtual/alternate events you've seen or been a part of? How has your experience been?
I know theatre a very different industry, but the business of live performance is absolutely wild right now. The CDC and state aren't going to determine when performance venues reopen, the unions are. At this point, the IATSE stagehands union and AEA is not going to allow contracts until far into 2021 in an effort to protect their union members (while also providing zero resources for how artists and crew are supposed to survive in the meantime, great)
As for online content: there are very specific rules about royalties paid to management and the rightshouses based on the venue capacity, ticket revenue, the number of performances in a show run, etc. So many bizarre restrictions and copyright guidelines. The standard formula as we know it does not account for online performances and no one was really prepared to move to that format so quickly.
The system is antiquated and now everyone is being forced to adapt and invest in digital offerings, which I think is a great thing in the long run. BUT if you're a big enough venue/org, you're completely tied by union laws and contracts right now. It's a great opportunity for independent artists and smaller groups to have that space and grow their platforms, but also can we please have some sort of relief for those artists so that they can pay their bills in the meantime helppppp
God I can't imagine what kind of upheaval is going on in the theatre space right now. It always seemed weird to me that there were no video productions of theatre performances and the only way to view them was in-person. I'm sure companies are now having to adapt to more digital formats or really suffer lol. There was a picture I found on twitter the other day (which of course means I'll never find it again) of theatre performers on stage wearing the plastic face shields while performing some routine from Hamilton or something and it looked WILD.
Sorry this is affecting your work so much 😭 I mean good on the unions for trying to keep people safe but it sucks when there's literally no financial recourse for workers as a result.
Omg I saw a nightmare video of a children's theatre production of "Frozen Jr." with Olaf continuously coughing on the inside of his face shield. The non-union theatres that have reopened in Utah, Texas, etc. now have confirmed cases in their casts. Apparently the act of singing has been labeled a COVID "super spreader", and so is playing woodwind and brass instruments.
To actually answer your original question (lol): Haven't seen much! Looks like there's been some pretty extensive work done to move music festivals and other programming online. I'm really impressed by the infrastructure put in place to make it happen, but I can't speak to the performance experience itself. Would love to hear if other people have tried it