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Tired of noisy music venues where you can barely see the scene? SoFar Sounds organizes concerts in everyone's lounges, where fans pay between $ 15 and $ 30 to sit in silence and listen. Nearly 1 million guests attended more than 20,000 SoFar concerts. After attending half a dozen shows, I can say that they are happy … unless you are a musician who makes a living. In some cases, SoFar only pays $ 100 per group for 25 minutes, which can be $ 8 per musician and less per hour. Guests receive nothing and SoFar keeps the rest, which can range from $ 1,100 to $ 1,600 or more per concert – many times what each artist wins at home. The argument was that the groups had visibility, and that it was a small start-up away from profitability.
SoFar Sounds announced today that it has raised $ 25 million from Battery Ventures and Union Square Ventures, building on the previous $ 6 million of Octopus Ventures and Virgin Group. The goal is extension – to become de facto the means by which emerging artists play outside traditional places. He has already produced 600 concerts a month in 430 cities around the world, and more than 40 of the 25,000 bands that have performed his concerts have been nominated or awarded Grammys. The start-up has enriched the culture by offering an alternative to night club shows, dark and dirty that do not appeal to hard-working professionals or older listeners.
But it's also a long-standing problem: the underpayment of musicians. With streaming replacing more expensive CDs, musicians depend on gigs to make a living. SoFar now institutionalizes the fact that they should be paid less than what gasoline and dinner cost to a group. And if SoFar attracts viewers who might otherwise attend normal halls or independently-hosted house shows, it may be more difficult for artists to get paid enough there. This does not seem fair given the small size of SoFar's overhead.
In comparison, SoFar gives Uber a really generous air. A source who worked with SoFar tells me that the company retains a small team of full-time employees who focus on room booking, artist booking and promotion. Not all volunteers who participated in the shows are paid, nor are the hosts, although SoFar pays at least the insurance. Previously, the startup had refused to pay the first performers on SoFar, instead providing them with a "high quality" video recording of their concert. When it pays $ 100 per act, it often equates to a tiny fraction of total ticket sales.
"SoFar, however, seems to be able to leave out the most essential part: pay the musicians," says musician Joshua McClain. "This is where they happily enter the same scene as companies like Uber or Lyft – sophisticated tech start-ups with powerful marketing power, not intermingling so delicately between the customer and the merchant (viewer and musician). in that case). In this model, everything but the service provider is placed first: growth, profitability, shareholders, marketers, comfort and audience members – all at the expense of the workers who provide the service. "He urged people to #BoycottSoFarSounds
Emma Silvers, a deeply informed KQED commentator, discovered that many groups were disappointed with the payments and did not even know that SoFar was a for-profit company. "I think that they talk a lot about supporting local artists, but what they do, in fact, is to perpetuate the idea that it is acceptable that musicians be paid for shit, "Madison Kenney, singer-songwriter of Oakland, told KQED.
SoFar CEO Jim Lucchese, who previously headed Spotify's Creator division after selling it to Echo Nest, his start-up in the music data business, said that "US $ 100 for a slot showcase are quite right, "but admits that playing SoFar is the right choice for every type of artist. He points out that some SoFar shows, especially in international markets, pay what you want and that artists keep "most of the money". The few externally sponsored sponsored shows, such as Bohemian Rhapsody's first feature film, can see artists earning up to $ 1,500, but this is a tiny fraction of SoFar's concerts.
According to Lucchese, "the ability to convert fans is one of the most magical aspects of SoFar," explains Lucchese, who explains that the artists ask participants to buy their products or tickets for their full shows and follow them. on social media to make money. He says that if you extract what SoFar pays for site insurance, performing rights organizations and its full-time work, "just over half goes to the artists." Unfortunately, this suggests that the few running costs of SoFar are the musicians' concern. As McClain wrote: "First of all, your profitability is not my problem."
Now that he has sufficient funds, I hope SoFar will redouble its efforts to pay artists a fair price for their time and expenses. Lucchese happily says it's part of the financing plan. Beyond creating tools to help local teams stage more shows to meet growing demand, he says, "Am I convinced that this is the only income we are generating for artists right now? ? Absolutely not. We want to invest more on the artists side. This includes better ways for groups to connect with participants and turn them into monetizable fans. Even a better e-mail tracking with Instagram handles and upcoming tour dates could help.
We do not expect most artisans to work to "expose". Intercepting an intermediary like SoFar should not change that. The company has the opportunity to increase live music listening around the world. But it must treat artists as partners, not just as a raw material that they can burn, even if there is always another desperate act. Otherwise, empathic musicians and fans who follow them may leave SoFar's lounges empty.
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