Amidst the COVID-19 quarantine, musicians have been left practically and financially uncertain, losing a substantial portion of their income having lost the ability to play live shows.
Thankfully, new opportunities are popping up, and in a time where the touring industry has been effectively made redundant, the music industry has found a new way to develop their live scene – online.
For the most part we’ve been seeing music festivals, media and artists themselves hosting live streams – alongside special online festivals like Isol-Aid. You might have also caught the Music From the Home Front over the weekend. But so far, we haven’t seen too many major brands get involved to entice – and pay – larger Australian artists to get involved in this new form of “gigging”. Which is why it’s so great to see Boost Mobile doing just that.
Boost Mobile have been adopted a new #Stay initiative, front lined with the “Live at 5ive” show, which has so far seen artists such as Allday and Cub Sport play live sets from their homes. The hope is that the initiative will help the industry and its fans “#stayconnected, #staycreative, #staypositive and #stayentertained”.
Boost Mobile introduced the movement via their Instagram, stating:
“While the gigs of the world have all been cancelled or postponed, we at @boostaus wanted to help you to #stayconnected by bringing some much needed live music to your phone screens while you are all stuck inside and probably going a bit insane. Thus “Live At 5ive” was born with our good buddies at @lifewithoutandy. Our aim is to bring you your fav artists to your feeds to let your hair down a bit and have a good ol boogie in your isolation cave.”
Next up on the “Live at 5ive” roster is Sydney/Melbourne band The Delta Riggs, who are known for their energetic live rock and roll sets. You’ll get to see how this translates to your phone screens, as they’ll be live via Instagram to play a few tunes and have a chat. The set will kick off this Thursday April 29 at 5:00pm AEST.
Time will tell what affect this initiative will have long term on the music industry, but for now, in a decade where touring is thus far a thing of the past, we’ll certainly take having our favourite musos in for a visit via our computers and phones. And we hope that more brands follow the example set by Boost Mobile and create new, unique, paid opportunities for the artists we love and need that support the most right now.
