Chao News client reporter Fang Tao Chen Yuhao.
If the past 2023 is the year when entertainment life returns to life in an all-round way, then the passion ignited by the offline ** performance market should definitely not be underestimated.
From the concerts of major popular singers that are hard to find, to the first festivals such as strawberry, midi, and simple life quickly regained popularity. In the past year, the sales of large-scale concerts and festivals have been obvious to all, and they have become a "new force" for box office growth.
According to data from the China Performance Industry Association, the box office revenue of the national performance market in the first eight months of 2023 alone is as high as 270700 million yuan, far exceeding the annual box office of 2019 200400 million yuan. As of November 22, 2023, the number of commercial performances nationwide in 2023 has reached 34240,000 performances, with a box office income of 3154.1 billion yuan, an increase from 2022. 74%。
Live ** performance Source: Visual China.
A series of data shows that after three years of cold winter, the offline ** performance market has finally waited for the long-lost spring. However, this "spring breeze" seems to be the only thing missing the live house, which was once known as the "cradle of the band's debut".
Live House is the abbreviation of "Live Music House", which can usually be translated as "live ** place", which first originated in Kyoto, Japan in 1973, and provides a venue for small concerts for orchestras or independent singers.
The sound, lighting installations and immersive performance atmosphere of professional performances have made this slightly niche ** performance space gain the favor of a group of ** enthusiasts and quickly become popular as soon as it comes out. The basement of the shopping mall, the old alley, the fly shop, ......Nowadays, the performance venues of Live House have sunk to the corners of major cities.
However, in the context of the comprehensive recovery of the ** market, compared with the increasingly loud offline ** performance market, many live houses are facing multiple dilemmas such as a decrease in the number of tours, a decline in the box office, a decline in attention, and a loss of customers. According to the reporter's understanding, in order to survive, from the end of last year to the beginning of this year, many livehouses even rented venues to some large companies for annual meeting activities.
Are the audience of the livehouse sucked away by the big ** show? Who hit the pause button on Livehouse's box office growth? Following the perspective of many front-line practitioners, the Chao News reporter saw an industry that is striving to grow and break through in the tide of market changes.
It is a fact that the box office will decline in 2023
Returning to normal positioning, the outlook for the industry is still optimistic
In the past few years, due to the inability to approve the holding of large-scale concerts, livehouse was once regarded as the "rejuvenation pill" of the performance market, comforting the lonely hearts of literary and artistic youth, and also reserving a small world where people can continue to output live works.
During the epidemic, many ** people with the appeal of 10,000 stadium tickets have chosen to return to the livehouse to perform. And from 2023 onwards, these top ** people are in a hurry to devote themselves to the stadium tour, and there is no possibility of returning to the livehouse for the time being. ”
According to the observation of Jerry, a veteran performer and indie bandIt is precisely because of the scene of full houses and big names in the past few years that some livehouses have not seen the direction of the market in time, and they are still stuck in the old "illusion" regardless of pricing or self-awareness.
It is indeed expected that the livehouse, which is supported by only "waist" artists, is facing a decline in attention and a decline in the box office.
In a sense, the decline in the box office of livehouse is actually a process of gradually returning to normal positioning.
In the second half of 2023, the number of livehouse performances will decrease significantly, and one of the main reasons is the collective recovery of the ** festival in the same period. Relatively speaking, livehouse and **festival have a high degree of overlap between **people and fans, and the box office will naturally be affected. ”
Frog Factory Livehouse in Hangzhou **Courtesy of the interviewee.
Lao Liu, who has been in the industry for more than ten years, has multiple identities in the world, he is not only the manager of the Mountain Frog Festival, but also the manager of Hangzhou Damai 66, Frog Factory and other livehouses.
Lao Liu said that although the livehouse box office has been cold recently, it is not to the level of "box office panic". As more and more young people gradually accept the concept of livehouse, many ** people hope to go to livehouse and then find the feeling of close interaction with fans back then.
The prospect of the industry in the future is definitely good, you see, there are so many livehouses in Hangzhou, the reason is that everyone thinks that there is a good place, a good market, and a good ecology. Hangzhou is an Internet city with a well-developed night economy, a good atmosphere of culture and art, and a strong demand for cultural consumption. I believe that at least in Hangzhou, there should be no problem with the long-term development of livehouse. The sixth told reporters.
**The market also needs "weekend stalls"?
Livehouse and large-scale ** festivals are not zero-sum games
Compared with large-scale concerts, ** festivals are more related to livehouse. I don't think there is a so-called competitive relationship between them, but a state of mutual achievement: without the large area of **festival to **people**, it is difficult to form a fan group that pays for livehouse; But without the incubation of emerging bands on a livehouse tour, it would be difficult for them to directly enter a field performance like the ** festival. The two are mutually reinforcing. ”
In the eyes of industry insiders such as Lao Liu, the market needs a diverse and inclusive ecological environment, and large-scale concerts in livehouses, festivals, and stadiums are oriented to different audiences.
The biggest advantage of listening to a livehouse is the sense of relaxation, the audience can communicate at will, and the distance with the singer and band is also closer, and maybe a single lyric can ignite the scene. However, large-scale concerts are very systematic, and even accurate to what is done every minute and second, and the operating cost will also increase significantly. It can be said that the two are not in the same order of magnitude at all. ”
Singers interacting with the audience on the spot Source: Visual China.
Lao Liu told reporters that at present, domestic livehouses are mainly concentrated in first- and second-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Chengdu. But as far as he knows, Hefei, Taiyuan, Guiyang and other provincial capitals are also gradually forming a scale.
Recently, I also heard a few friends who love ** discussing that Ningbo finally has a decent livehouse. In fact, this is very happy for young people. **The atmosphere of the performance is not all driven by big stars and big bands, and now some children born in the 90s and 00s prefer to find their own niche and unique**. I don't know the singer who performs in our store, but it doesn't affect his box office, and the atmosphere is very good now. In the future, this kind of lightweight performance will slowly sink, and I am more happy to see such a performance in every prefecture-level city. ”
At the same time, the reporter also paid attention to the fact that in order to better meet the diverse needs of the audienceSince 2023, it has become a new normal for "small heat" to drive "big demand" in the cultural market.
For example, the film industry has focused on creating the concept of "weekend files", encouraging filmmakers to put more high-quality films on evenly distributed "small schedules", which has effectively stimulated the consumption of the film market and driven the popularity of traditional "holiday files". Zhejiang has also put forward the "Monthly Film Festival" plan, which will launch a number of classic art films from a country or region every month and screen them in designated cinemas to further attract consumers to the cinema.
Livehouse Venue Source: Visual China.
The performance market is also facing the same situation, and livehouse, as an indispensable part of the entire industry ecology, can still play a strong role.
Jerry told reporters that many years ago he went to the UK for an inspection and found that the local livehouse already has the prototype of a "weekend file", which is the same as a theater and theater.
On weekends, every livehouse in London and Liverpool will arrange a band performance every day from afternoon to evening, and the band and venue will split the box office proportionally, and the audience is free to choose the number of performances according to their preferences.
In fact, domestic livehouses can also be used for reference. Jerry said that on the one hand, through box office account sharing, rent reduction, etc., the venue can be fully operational every month and every weekend, and more independent ** people can also have daily appearances, forming a virtuous circle.
On the other hand, it can also gradually develop the habit of watching livehouse fans, forming a benign "companionship growth", "through a large number of livehouse daily performances, you can more accurately find your favorite **and**person, and accompany them all the way from livehouse to larger venues, which is also a very meaningful thing." ”
Be wary of becoming a "chicken rib" that you can't afford to eat
Finding the right market positioning is the way for livehouse to survive
In 2023, Lao Qi, the manager of a "five-line" band in Nanjing, will take the band to do 5 tours one after another. One of them was in a serious livehouse, and the other four were in bars, bookstores, exhibition spaces and other places where "coaxing and deception" were replaced.
Despite this, the band did not make any money.
The only one in the livehouse, the unit price of 88 yuan of tickets, 70 were sold, excluding the platform ticket share, got 5,544 yuan, "but (livehouse) paid 15,000 yuan for the rent, this is still the friendship price of the relationship." ”
This also made the old machine fall into deep confusion:The band wanted to go to the livehouse to make a name for themselvesAfter accumulating popularity, you can make money to feed the bandThe rent of the livehouse is too expensive, and the performance will lose money - if you can't support the band, you need to go to the livehouse to perform and make a name for yourself ......
This seemingly insoluble "Mobius ring" has made many ** brokers, including the old weapon, feel congested.
Live band singers Source: Visual China.
Lao Qi told reporters that the most mainstream livehouses in Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and other cities now have a single-day rent of 40,000-50,000 yuan, and the average ticket price is 120 yuan, and about 400 tickets must be sold in order to barely keep the capital. ”
Jerry agrees. Bands at the waist and tail can't afford to tour due to cost and box office problems, or can only tour at a loss out of their own pockets. The one-size-fits-all rent standard has invisibly closed the door to more indie bands and ** people.
Now, we see the other side of the story: more big-name ** people prefer to choose to tour in a large venue with thousands of people, and cannot feed back to small and medium-sized live house venues; And the independent ** people who work hard to grow suddenly find that the livehouse is a "palace" that they can't reach on tiptoe.
This two-end "fault" is objectively one of the important reasons for the decline in the revenue performance of livehouse in the country in 2023 compared with the previous two years. It can be said that the healthy growth and routine operation of livehouse need to find its own positioning in the performance market.
In Lao Qi's view, livehouse was originally an "incubator" for independent people to go to marketization, no matter when, its temperament should be down-to-earth and popular, "In other words, it is" let all ** people afford to act, and all audiences can afford it', this is the correct solution. ”
Due to the request of the interviewee, the article is old.
Sixth, the old weapons are pseudonyms).
*Please indicate the source".