✖ Guide: Vaccination passports & their role in reopening live music
And: Dutch dance scene on a sustainable comeback; Roblox IPO; Livestream from your iPhone; Concert venues 'business winner' US Covid relief package; 70% of DJs have retrained in 2020; Lego vinyl decks
Will vaccine passports herald a return to live music? It’s complicated.
In today’s read, jointly authored by Maarten Walraven and Bas Grasmayer, find out:
👩⚖️ Why vaccine passports are a minefield for ethics & security;
✈ How vaccine passports are already being used in Israel and China;
🏟 What ‘green pass’ schemes mean for a return to live music.
In short: they can give some certainty, but definitely can’t remove it all, as questions about immunity and Covid-19 variants remain. Even with vaccination passports, 2021 is shaping up to be a year with much uncertainty and pioneering.
TECH
🚧 Roblox had its long-awaited IPO yesterday. It’s going well, even though that was to be expected, as the stock shot up 54.4%. Stratechery has a great primer on the game, the metaverse, and its place alongside other platforms and media.
📹 A good livestream requires a quality camera. According to Detail the best camera most people have at hand is the one on their phone. As such, they created software to optimize that camera and connect it to whichever livestreaming platform you use.
⏭️ You may want to follow Jack Spallone if you’re interested in crypto & music.
🕵️ Curious how various creators are making money? Check out Taylor Lorenz’ latest article in the NYT. There’s a lot musicians can learn from this.
🧱 I’m just going to copy the headline from Music Radar here: Finally, someone’s built a set of vinyl DJ decks out of Lego.
CORONA
🙌🏼 An excellent article in Attack Magazine on how the Dutch dance scene plans to come back from the pandemic in a more sustainable way. The article delves into issues surrounding insurances and the like, but also focuses strongly on a recalibration of celebrating together.
✨ Concert venues are among the ‘business winners’ in Biden’s Covid relief package. Go NIVA. Just to remind you that in the US there was no lobby in Washington for the music industry before March 2020.
🏴 While the above is a positive note for US-based venues, NPR tells us that many venues still wait on their relief money from the previous round…
💇 Pirate.com held a survey among DJs and the effect of the pandemic on them.
70% have retrained
26% unlikely to pursue a career in music
54% recorded a loss in revenue (ed. note: this seems low)
13.5% successfully applied for government support (ed. note: this seems low)
💎 Collective society ASCAP grew its revenues in 2020, something I wasn’t expecting. The growth was driven by streaming, obviously, but also in their audio/visual department. Growth there offset the decrease due to business closures.
Music
Got your passport?