The band’s overall TikTok presence is now more 184,000 followers, and it has 1.6 million overall likes.
“Social media has definitely helped,” Yeatman said. “We started up on TikTok doing covers and making music and showing some of our songs, and it blew up. We got a bunch of views, and it really helped our following even more so than just playing like a local show.”
Melina Aguilar, who manages social media for the Paramount, said social media have encouraged the venue to move forward in unique ways through this difficult transition. The venue uses social media to promote artists from all over the world through their at-home sessions, and also has promoted playlists and posted photo archives.
“It has allowed us to reach out to artists that I feel, if the venue were open, would be harder for us to book because we’ve had artists from Italy or Mexico City, where you don’t need the money to bring or fly them over here, but rather they just sent in that video,” Aguilar said. “That’s one of the few cool things about it, reaching out to people that we probably couldn’t have before.”
The Rebel Lounge, also a member of NIVA, has used social media to promote its recent transition to a coffee shop by day and a lounge and bar by night. Although the transition has succeeded, Chilton, who’s vice president of NIVA, said the public is slow to view the venue in a new light.
Social media has also connected and engaged fans on the venue’s latest updates, merchandise sales and memories, hoping to inject excitement into a moribund music industry.
Fans, who have spent the past months tracking down ticket refunds and agonizing as their favorite venues struggle, remain concerned for the future of the music industry and have tried to pay forward what they can. Mia Andrea, a freshman at Arizona State University, is one of many fans who have tried to do their part by donating to NIVA and attending livestream concerts – but it’s just not the same, she said.
“I think without concerts, it’s been kind of difficult for me because I think that’s a big social part of my daily life. I have friends who live all around Phoenix, and the only time we really get to meet up is at concerts,” Andrea said.
Music lovers have sent more than 500,000 emails to all members of Congress asking for federal assistance to independent venues and promoters, NIVA reported. Fans also have attended livestreams, including the Save Our Stages virtual music festival, which included more than 30 big name artists performing over three days to raise more than $1.8 million for NIVA venues.
Spotify, as apart of its annual Wrapped campaign, has also stepped up, donating $500,000 to NIVA’s #SaveOurStages’ venue aid fund, Variety reported.
More than 600 artists have supported the cause, gaining 250 million social media impressions under the hashtag #SaveOurStages, but until Congress passes the Heroes Small Business Lifeline Act, which would provide $370 billion in relief to small businesses and includes the reemergence of the Save Our Stages Act – many concert venues will be hanging on by a thread.
In 2017, the Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, which measures the economic contributions of a wide range of arts and cultural activities, found that arts and culture contributed $877.8 billion, which is equivalent to 4.5% of the nation’s gross domestic product. In the same year, more than 5 million wage and salary workers were employed in the sector, earning a total of $405 billion, according to the National Endowment for the Arts.
Music photographers, who tour with acts or are employed by venues, are another group that has been affected by the halt of touring. M3F Festival was the last concert Matthew John Benton, a photographer and director in Los Angeles, shot before the lockdowns in March.
Benton, who has worked as a music photographer for about five years, was fortunate to pick up freelance and full-time work producing video and stills, but he longs to return to shooting live music again.
“It has been difficult not being able to work in the music space for the greater part of this year … I truly miss the connection with so many of the bands I’ve worked with and being among people at a show,” Benton told Cronkite News.
Another LA photographer, Lupe Bustos, is widely recognized for his live music photography and was in the middle of a two-month tour with Dashboard Confessional when things shut down.
“I was on a plane home the next day, everything just happened so fast,” Bustos told Cronkite News. “I knew I had to readjust and find work in different avenues. Live streams have quickly taken over my schedule, and it’s been a wild ride. I do miss touring a lot, and I can’t wait till it’s back, but for now I’ll readjust.”
Ticketmaster is currently looking at potential possibilities for safe concerts in the future. “One idea to keep the event entry process as simple and convenient as possible is to find a way for fans to link their digital ticket to their negative test results, vaccine status, health declaration or any other info that is determined to greenlight access. This would allow fans to enter an event with one scan of their ticket, rather than entering and then having to wait in another line to show their health verification,” Ticketmaster listed as a possibility on their website.
Jeff Taylor, a marketer and talent buyer at Psyko Steve Presents and the Rebel Lounge, was at the forefront of rescheduling shows, updating customer refunds and more, when the shutdown began.
Now, Taylor said there are a lot of factors and questions that go into what future shows look like. Personal protective equipment and health guidelines are among many factors Rebel will have to follow, but there are many other questions to consider.
“When concerts come back, will our capacity be the same? Or will we have to operate at 25 or 50% for a while?” he asked. “Will people feel like they can afford a standard ticket price (like) in the past? Or will people not be willing to pay $12 for a show anymore? Or will they be so starved for entertainment that they will want to pay more than that?”
The next few months will be crucial for live music, especially concert venues. Venues have emphasized that fans emailing members of Congress and attending their virtual events are some of the ways the public can help for now as they hope for federal relief.
“It does say a lot to the times,” Chilton said. “We’re all in the same boat, we’re all struggling, all at the risk of bankruptcy, all at the risk of closing permanently … it needs federal action, and it needs government aid for any of us to survive.”