Still listening
Photography Sofar Sounds
With live gigs cancelled for the foreseeable, Sofar Sounds is recreating its intimate performances in the digital realm
If anything was going to save us from boredom, loneliness and anxiety, it was going to be music. Italy kicks off with balcony concerts. A pianist in Barcelona plays “My Heart Will Go On” from his window and a sax player in the building nearby joins in.
When Notre Dame was burning, people sang. Music is a soothing balm, a binding agent, a coping mechanism.
To make music more accessible while curbing the spread of coronavirus, live performances have moved into the digital realm. Since the beginning of lockdown, new streaming platforms have emerged to help musicians share their art, promote their albums and connect with their fans.
Connectedness was what Sofar Sound had in mind when they launched their new live streaming platform, Listening Room, in March. “[It’s] a platform that showcases artists from around the world using our network to promote shows across our global social channels,” says London city director Adam Maestro.
Over the past 11 years, Sofar Sounds has built a community that stretches across more than 440 cities around the world. Famous for bringing artists and audiences together in intimate settings, Sofar found its core business halted by the pandemic almost instantly: 1000 shows were cancelled and 3000 artists were affected.
Photography Sofar Sounds
Listening Room is a virtual version of the traditional Sofar shows, only accessible to a larger audience. With one show a night, reliably streamed on YouTube and on their website at 8pm GMT, listeners are invited into the homes of the performers.
It could be Yasmin William’s dimly lit living room in Washington, where she sings and strums on her guitar sat on the beige leather sofa; or Will Dailey’s Boston bathroom.
In Buenos Aires, Mel Muñiz reunited in a band member’s light-filled apartment to play a set together, while YADAM performed from a recording studio in Paris.
So far, the public seems to be embracing the new format. As of June, almost 40,000 had attended Sofar’s online shows, averaging around 600 per performance, according to Maestro.
Artists are paid a $100 fee for their Listening Room performances from Sofar, and are also able to solicit donations from the public, 100% of which go directly to them.
Overall, these donations have exceeded $38,000, with artists earning an average of $500 a show. But especially popular artists can receive much more: New York soul singer Kate Yeager received $500 from a single fan, and Los Angeles-based artist Scarypoolparty was able to make $10,000 off his performance.
“What has been the most humbling is how much the audience wants to support the artists,” says Maestro. “For artists who have performed in the Listening Room, the audience connection and the level of audience support has been incredible.”
This source of revenue can make a massive difference to independent musicians. As of March 23 – before the UK had even begun enforcing lockdown restrictions – UK musicians had already registered an estimated loss of £13.9 million in earnings due to coronavirus, according to a Musicians’ Union survey; and at the beginning of July, a report from music platform Viberate projected the pandemic would cost the festival sector $16.8 billion (£13 billion).
But Sofar’s support doesn’t end at the financial. To help artists optimise their performances without the help of sound engineers and technicians, Sofar Sounds connects each artist with a producer who leads a tech run and sound check, ensuring everyone feels comfortable before going live.
Though he knows it’s impossible to recreate the cozy feeling and sound of their lives within a virtual room, Maestro says the team has worked hard to get “as close as one can” to that experience. And it appears they may be succeeding: “I’ll never be able to emotionally recover from this,” comments a fan during British R&B singer Kyan’s set; “My heart just melted everywhere” adds another. At the same time, people are eager to shout out all the places in the world they’re tuning in from: Vancouver, South Carolina, Mexico, Turkey, the Netherlands… Three minutes into his set, Kyan is so moved by the engagement levels he reads out the comments and thanks each listener by name.
With the success of the Listening Room, is there a chance the Sofar will continue its online offering once the truly live option becomes available once more. As of now, Maestro can’t say.
“After we come through this challenge we'll take a look at the business model but for now, Sofar artists need our support, so that's our mission with the Listening Room,” he says. “Right now, we're only concerned with helping the artists in our community. That's the main goal.”
Until then? Tune in and keep listening.