The impact of coronavirus on cultural events might seem trivial – and given that people are dying, it is – but it still matters.
Social distancing and bans on mass gatherings will create serious financial issues for venues. Some may go under. Then there are the performers, who aren’t going to get paid, and the ancillary jobs they support, which could be lost.
But perhaps with some willingness, some innovation, and some commercial co-operation, there’s a way of addressing these issues, and of boosting morale in the process. The latter could be of no small importance as the situation develops.
I have a roadmap for how it could be done. It starts with streaming.
Now, I know that watching a performance on a laptop isn’t the same as partaking in the joy of being there to experience it in person. It will also require, say, bands being willing to perform in front of a handful of venue staff who aren’t self-isolating, which may rob an event of some of its energy. But it’s better than nothing, and if you pay for a stream you are still experiencing in a shared cultural experience. Just a virtual one.
If the artist/venue were to throw in an MP3 download of the performance, there’s an added incentive to sign up for the iGig. Or eGig. Call it what you want. That’d be the clincher for me.
In some cases, this might lead to contractual and copyright issues. I’m not an expert in how those might affect my idea.
But here’s the thing: if luxury goods group LVMH can switch from making fancy high margin perfumes to hand sanitiser, then they shouldn’t be insurmountable. It just takes people behaving like grown-ups (I know, I know).
Last year, I went to a Johnny Marr gig at the Roundhouse in Camden, which could be a template. Twenty minutes after its conclusion, there was a live album (on CD) for those who’d ponied up at the merch stand.
You could sell deluxe packages if you were so minded; T-shirts, getting the show on a physical format such as the CD or (even better) vinyl, signed stuff.
If everyone gets a cut, everyone wins and an important part of the economy will be preserved. Not just an important part, but also a joyful one. That shouldn’t be underestimated in the midst of a fairly grim time.
This is potentially a mutually beneficial commercial exercise from which everyone could win. Bands not your thing? Want theatre instead? Cinemas have been screening performances for some time. It should be perfectly possible to fix it up so that people can see them at home. You could even throw in a programme via a PDF if you were minded to.
The same holds true for classical performances, if that’s your poison, and a willing orchestra could be found. Perhaps one of the big tech companies could put its mind to assisting such an operation. It would require their not being greedy about terms and again, yeah, I know, I know. Hey, maybe they can surprise us.
Obviously I’m just spitballing here.
But this sort of thing matters more than some people might think. There’s a thing called psychological health that it could help to address, especially for those of us in high-risk groups who are going to find isolation a strain.
A sense of isolation is one of the hardest parts of working from home, which I’ve been doing for the best part of a decade after a life-threatening road accident. It made commuting something of a horror.
A lot of people are going to be grappling with that sense, and not just high riskers like me.
