After a year of canceled concerts, Spotify is serving up a series of virtual events that includes five prerecorded livestreams. The online shows will be ticketed at $15 plus tax, according to a press release.
Spotify is a digital music, podcast and video service that offers free and for-pay versions of its services.
Over the course of a month, Spotify will give fans access to five “intimate” performances in partnership with producer Driift, the company said. Ticket buyers must tune in at the designated date and time.
Spotify said that its plan is to better “integrate concerts into the overall listening experience by making performances easier to find and helping fans track the events and artists they care about.”
The series will start on May 27 with the The Black Keys and will end on June 24 with girl in red. Other performing artists include Rag’n’Bone Man, Bleachers and Leon Bridges. The concerts will run from 40 to 75 minutes.
“We have always been a band that loves to play live in venues of all shapes and sizes,” said the Black Keys in a prepared statement. “The past year has been tough for musicians and fans alike, so we wanted to find a way to share this live performance of songs from our new project, Delta Kream, from a place we love, the Blue Front Café, the oldest active juke joint in America.”
On April 28, Spotify announced that its first-quarter results showed that total “premium subscribers,” who are paying customers, grew 21 percent to 158 million in the first quarter of 2021, ending March 31. That’s compared to the same period the previous year. According to the company’s release, ad-supported revenue outperformed forecasts, led by its podcast and programmatic channels.
Spotify said in a press release on March 30 that it was acquiring Betty Labs, the creator of the sports talk show app Locker Room. The Locker Room app, which was issued in October 2020, is a digital place where sports fans can connect to discuss games. Spotify said it has plans to expand Locker Room beyond sports, offering a mix of music and culture.
