Caption: Taibai Band in School on May 16 Caption: After the LIVEHOUSE Forum in 2023, new venues for dinner parties have become more and more old venues are expanding Caption: Fulang Livehouse Caption: The performance of ByeByeDisco club was decentralized and consumption was downgraded, and the store was closed for more than Monday Note: MAO Livehouse Local bands are still the main force, while overseas bands are the box office growth Caption: Zhao Lei's Foshan Concert Caption: Dongshi OMINI CLUB Performers and fans are more cautious, and the industry has entered the stage of great waves. " Note: Xinjiang Jinjiu OMINI SPACE Manager: Zuo Ye Note: @ MAO livehouse under neon "The number of fixed venues has decreased this year, but I think the venues in Beijing can basically make money" Note: MAO LIVEHOUSE Chief Content Officer: Okawa Note: DDC lit The function of Livehouse has been weakened due to the lack of performance and business. " Note: DDC manager 69
Author | Liu Mengmeng Editor | Dong Lucy
He may be a good musician if he doesn't look ferocious. He bleaches his hair to light yellow. The flying hair is clear under the spotlight, and his lips open to a fixed position. The fingers with blue veins burst out because of all his strength pluck the strings, and his body shows clumsy Katon swinging with the instrument. At the moment when two musicians open their mouths to share the microphone, Shouting out the most vital voice is the simplest expression of rock music. The performance in Livehouse is like this. Senses and awareness are magnified, and the distance between musicians and fans is shortened. This is its charm and vitality.
On May 16, Taibai Band was in School
Enter Wudaoying Hutong from Yonghegong Street, and the most crowded place at the gate is School. The two performances I have seen recently are here. One is the "Super School Overlord" on May 9, and the other is the "Space Celebration" on May 16. The former has five campus bands, and the latter is a combination of four independent bands. Even the people watching the performance at the school on Thursday were so popular. They entered the performance area from the bar area, walked to the second floor and climbed onto the terrace. Everywhere, young people were dancing and talking. This is the moment Live music is booming The best proof.
In May 2022, the Deer Horn Think Tank released the Research Report on the Survival and Development of Livehouse in China. At that time, the Livehouse industry was facing an unprecedented survival crisis in the context of the epidemic. (Review:)
Dinner after LIVEHOUSE Forum in 2023
In May 2023, the first spring after three years of epidemic liberalization, the Little Deer Horn Think Tank held the Livehouse sub forum of Little Deer Horn Expo in Beijing's Future Echo Space, and discussed with practitioners the short-term survival dilemma and long-term development foundation of Livehouse in the context of the outbreak of concerts and music festivals. (Review:)
In the late spring and early summer of the same year, the performance market will cool down in 2024, and the head siphon effect will become more and more obvious. More and more music festivals and concert projects have to be canceled because they cannot sell tickets. Music Finance (ID: musicbusiness) chose to focus on the Livehouse industry again, When large-scale activities cooled down, did the box office of Livehouse improve this year? Has the competition become more intense with more venues?
New venues have changed. Old venues are expanding
In 2023, the permanent population of Beijing will be 21.858 million. Looking at this super city, new performance venues are constantly emerging. In addition to the old venues, there are more than 20 large and small venues.
At present, A site with a scale of 1000 people (More than 1000 people) Youfulang Fufu, EAST LIVE, local trump cards, etc; Medium site (about 300-800 people) More , such as drinking in Xinjiang, happy space MAOLivehouse、DDC、 Fulang - Wave BLUENOTE、Weshow、Metal Box、 Door space, imagination space, etc; Slightly smaller Of the site (30 0 persons or less), as well as the assembly club, charm scene, Dongshi, MASK STAGE, Jianghu bar, mushroom space, UFO, etc; Vertical tone The music scene is also a structure It has become an important part of Beijing's music venues, such as the School of Live Bar, the East Bank focusing on jazz, and the ByeByeDisco of underground Clubs, guest houses, and unwarranted factories.
These two years Newly opened site In China, Fulang Livehouse is in the red. A senior music fan told Music Finance: "Now most of the performances are in Fulang."
Fulang Livehouse
Fulang Officially opened in March 2023, it is located at the core of Beijing Olympic Business District and has two venues, one large and one small, to meet different booking needs. On the coming May 21, Fulang Livehouse will join hands with Zhang Qiang, an icon of Chinese pop culture in the 1980s, to celebrate its first anniversary. Opened in the same period of last year, the site with the same scale is also located in Donglang Film Creative Industrial Park EAST LIVE And the cultural and creative park of Beijing Film Academy Local ace Live The former can accommodate 1200 people, while the latter can accommodate 1500 standing audience and 400 VIP guests.
In May 2023 Metal Box Landing at Ritan International, the venue covers a total area of 380 square meters and can accommodate 500 spectators. It is easy to see the metal properties of Metal Box from its name. The venue launched the "Metal Support Plan", which provides a free stage for the band one day a month, and fans can also watch the performance for free.
In the same period Sparrow Tile House In January this year, the official number stopped updating, and the last piece of performance information stayed at: "I BELIEVE I CAN FLY 'Winter Tour | 2023 Beijing Closed Box Double Session", which was not opened in 2024.
ByeByeDisco club
In August 2023, Pang Kuan ByeByeDisco club Appearing on the riverside of the horse, we are committed to expanding China's independent innovation field and building cross-border content in domestic and foreign brands, institutions, music, art, design and other fields.
Although 2023 is approaching the end of the year, there are still new sites. "Positioning the content of all embracing, inclusive, and committed to letting the audience enter the most formal scene" Door space It is officially open at Qianmen Street. In addition, it was also opened in 2023 Mask Stage At the music scene, its public account activity information will also stop on December 4, 2023.
The opening and closing of business and the flow of people are like the ebb and flow of the sea, but business will not stop. In this year, many sites have taken the pace of expansion.
In terms of horizontal expansion of site operation SCHOOL goes out to sea and heads for Liubenmu Landing in Tokyo, the new venue is expected to officially open this autumn; DDC opened a new store in Anaya DDC lit It is a compound space integrating scene music, youth culture and music parties. Previously, DDC had set up a Livehouse in Anaya and held a live music performance at the end of each week.
The director of DDC 69 said, "Live performances of multiple styles, such as music poetry, folk songs, jazz, folk music, improvisational instrumental music, and atmosphere meditation, will successively land on DDC lit."
stay There is also a lot of vertical expansion outside the site For example, Xinjiang Jinjiu expanded its business upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, entering the field of music brand and music technology services. On May 14, Jiang Jinjiu announced the "XIAN Music Plan College Edition", which opened the "Excelsior XIAN Sound Wins the College Original Band League" to help the development of college bands.
On the issue of expansion, the Left Field said:“ The future of drinking in Xinjiang may be a combination of horizontal and vertical development. The two cities and four museums are our horizontal expansion, while VIBEZWan is a music brand, WeiWan music technology, and the STUDIO LIVE contemporary music archives that are being done recently, recording the portraits of contemporary Chinese musicians in the form of images and music. "
Dachuan, the chief content officer of MAO, told us that MAO also has some expansion ideas, but is still looking at opportunities.
The performance was decentralized and consumption was downgraded, and the store was closed for more than Monday
The emergence of new venues provides more weekend schedules On the premise that people's consumption is downgraded, the band and the sponsor will also prefer to perform on weekends. In the past, when the weekends were not enough, they would be booked out soon in the middle of the week. Now there will be more vacancies in the middle of the week. In addition, the emergence of new venues will also bring about competition, such as the low price promotion strategy for the opening of new stores, more decentralized performances and other issues.
In terms of the low price promotion strategy for the opening of new stores, A performance sponsor told Music Finance and Economics that booking a new venue can enjoy a discount on opening venue rental. For example, the sponsor once got a weekend show at a medium-sized new venue at a price of 4000~5000 yuan. At the same time, the venue will also follow up the success, sign annual frame cooperation with enterprises and sponsors, accumulate long-term customers and fight price war. However, the host was helpless to say that although he got the low price, he incurred other unreasonable expenses later.
MAO Livehouse Wukesong Store
When talking about the scheduled performance, Dachuan said:“ Compared with the number of performances last year, MAO Wukesong Store has reduced the number of scheduled performances this year, In the past, for bands and organizers, when the weekend schedule was booked, they would ask about the schedule on Wednesday and Thursday. But now that there are more venues, for example, this venue has no weekends. You can also check the weekend schedule of other venues, so Performances are scored more evenly So the overall number of performances will not be as high as last year. In fact, our performance schedule is still very full after the epidemic ended. "
At the beginning of 2023, the performance content rebounded greatly, and the consumption power of music fans was also online. In the first half of the year, the live music industry was booming, but now the consumption power of people is gradually slowing down, showing a sense of restraint, which will naturally affect the operation of venues.
Compared with last year, The number of performances this year has shown a further downward trend. Zuo Ye said, "The site The first half of 2023 will rebound sharply In the second half of the year, it gradually slowed down. In the first half of this year, compared with the second half of last year, it was slower. The main reason was that the overall economic environment was deflationary. At present, there are 15-20 performances in a month. "
Booking of weekend stalls, and most of the mid week stalls are self run 。 69 We were told that there were more performances in the same period last year than this year, but many of the bands were bought to do their own performances, which would give the band a guarantee. "Even if we are willing to pay for the band as a venue, our own performance is basically a loss. The only thing that can make money is Band with box office and private events But there are not many such performances. " We can see that last year, DDC planned many collective activities to enrich the daily content of the venue: such as "Ritan Projection Hall X German Film Exhibition", "Special screening on the premiere day of Slam Dunk", etc.
There are not many businesses in the Livehouse scenario, but even fewer in the context of cost reduction and efficiency increase this year. The DDC manager 69 said, "One of the revenue scenarios of Livehouse is business activities, but there are few businesses. At the end of last year, there was no business, Now doesn't it say that the company will go to Haidilao? Drink and sing with service and joy , everyone's wallet is empty. "
Zuono also confirmed that the non music business of Livehouse is much less than before
Local bands are still the main force, while overseas bands are box office growth
In the three years from 2020 to 2022, In 2024, it will be very popular for overseas bands to resume touring in China.
At present, there are more than ten performances that have been ticketed and have not yet started in late May: Oshiko Taro, an artist of wooden guitar fingerplay New Noise presents the American band Athletic, the Grammy Hall of Fame legend Billy Branch&The SONS OF BLUES, the Swiss pop rock group 77 Bombay Street, the Canadian healing singer Joshua Hyssop, the flashy future band MOTORAMA, and the famous Japanese singer Rie Fu Chuan Yuelihui The Vaccines in the HAZE summer performance season, the Japanese band HITIRI - ESCAPE, the European post metal/post rock band The OCean and A Burial At Sea, the Belarus post friend Nurnberg, the Royal Concept in the HAZE summer performance season, Cornelius Koyamada Kyowo, etc.
In this regard, Zuoyo said, "Before the epidemic, the number of overseas bands drinking in Xinjiang had already Accounting for 40%~50% of the total number of performances Therefore, there is no upsurge of overseas bands coming to China. It is normal for bands to come in and go out. " According to the statistics of Xinjiang Jinjiu's WeChat push, Music Finance calculates the monthly overseas bands from March to May 2024 30%~40% It can be seen that the number of bands coming in to perform is indeed It has not recovered to the level before 2020 。
However, under the upsurge of music fans' consumption concentrating on overseas bands coming to China for tours, and in the general environment of economic downturn, music festivals and concerts, the scarcity, cost performance and experience of live music have been magnified, but people's consumption power and demand have gradually declined, and Livehouse, as the city's current music receiving ring, is also facing new problems.
For example, for Livehouse, local bands are the main force of performances. Under the background that many middle and low rise bands do not tour and do not connect with each other, the band performances that have accumulated a group of music listeners in Livehouse in the past are gradually decreasing, while the box office of the new band's performance is simply unable to support the operating cost of the venue for one night. Do you want to lose money for a performance? And whether the band or the organizer or the venue will bear the cost?
In this regard, Dachuan said that he did not realize the scarcity of bands on a large scale, but only felt that performing in medium-sized venues The number of sponsors is gradually decreasing 。
69 It is believed that overseas bands will not squeeze local musicians, because the band's stage growth needs to step by step, from small venues to medium-sized venues, and then to venues with thousands or thousands of people. "No musicians can directly cross the small venue, they have to take their time, Livehouse's performance can test the band's real box office appeal to some extent 。”
In essence, The contribution of local musicians cannot be ignored They, like venues, are really doing fan training, which is also the cornerstone of industry development.
Zhao Lei's Foshan Concert
On April 27, Zhao Lei announced at a concert in Foshan that "this may be his last tour (on this scale)". Later, he hoped to see more music festivals and Livehouse meetings, and communicate with everyone at a lower ticket price, instead of sitting down. It is believed that Zhao Lei's return to the Livehouse must be hard to find a ticket, and the return of such a famous musician to the Livehouse is also regarded as Feedback to the site 。
Overseas bands coming to China is an increase in box office performance, and also a carnival between musicians and fans. They bring the long-distance sound heard in earphones to China, just like what Dachuan said: "Now overseas bands can come in and perform Enriched our schedule ”The overseas band's tour in China is an increase in the performance content, which will also promote people to enter the Livehouse scene. "
Summary
Judging from the music venues in Beijing, a super city At present, it covers various types from large to small, from professional to non professional, which provides a broad stage for different types of musicians and bands. Both well-known musicians and emerging bands can find suitable venues to perform in Beijing, which makes Beijing's music ecology more diversified and rich.
For performance resources, the music scene in Beijing also presents a more intense competition than in previous years. There are more venues to choose, but the band and musicians with box office appeal have not grown rapidly in the short term. This competition will objectively promote the overall service quality and performance level of the venue. At the same time, it also poses a higher challenge to the operation capacity of the host.
Box office and consumption power decline: In 2024, the performance days of Livehouse will decline, the performance frequency will decrease, and the business will disappear. This is related to the empty pockets of the audience, and the decline of ticket consumption and beverage consumption. This is also related to various factors such as external economic pressure, audience interest transfer or the rise of other entertainment methods.
Competition intensification and imbalance: Despite the decline in box office and consumption power, new Livehouses are still being opened, which brings competition as well as market adjustment and changes. New venues will certainly emerge, bringing both competition and challenges. However, we should respect the industry's demand for music content and performance quality. Therefore, for new venues, it is important to build a sound field, do a good job in sound, light, and technology services.
Artists performed well on tour and theme performances: Attractive artist tours, theme performances and planned platter shows can all achieve good box office results. This shows that although the overall market is facing challenges, excellent performance content and artists can still attract the attention and consumption of the audience.
The trend of band going to sea and venue going to sea: Mourning, Wanqing and Wutiao have all performed overseas. In March this year, Ma Yuan poets completed their tour in six cities of the United States. Recently, Haipensen Band announced the news of the Asian tour, and was disappointed to start the European tour again. At present, the landing of SCHOOL in Roppongi is also the overseas expansion of the Livehouse brand, and Mushroom Space has already landed a site in Tokyo. The phenomenon of band going to sea and venue going to sea shows that the Livehouse market is seeking new growth points and development space in the international market, and this trend may promote the internationalization of the Livehouse market.
According to the interview content, the following is arranged as a self description:
Dongshi OMINI CLUB
——Xinjiang Jinjiu OMINI SPACE Manager: Zuoye
The first half of 2023 will rebound sharply, and the second half will gradually slow down. By the first half of this year, it will be slower than the second half of last year, mainly because the overall economic environment is deflationary.
Everyone has spending anxiety or is more cautious about spending now. This caution is mutual. Performers are cautious and ticket buyers are also cautious; The more cautious people who buy tickets, the more cautious people who perform, deflation and stagflation. Everyone is unwilling to spend money, and the economy stagnates. Without economic development, everyone is short of money, but some things are still rising in price.
At present, there are 15~20 performances a month in Xinjiang Jinjiu, and the non music business is much less than before. In the past, there was a shooting activity every month, and occasionally there was a business activity. Now it is basically a performance.
Xinjiang Jinjiu OMINI SPACE Manager: Zuoye
The craze for overseas bands to come to China cannot be talked about. It is normal for bands to come in and go out. Before the epidemic, people in Xinjiang drank The number of overseas bands has accounted for 40%~50% of the total number of performances 。 The composition of performance bands has not changed much. Most of them are rock, independent and alternative bands, accounting for 70-80%, and then 20-30% are popular.
Although the revenue of last year basically recovered to the pre epidemic level, it is difficult to talk about stability of the site because of the unstable economic environment. The opening of more and more venues will also bring about competition and enter a state of great turmoil.
There is no industry standard to be a Livehouse. The state of free competition is good, but the professionalism of a performance space needs to be valued.
If we divide our industry into two categories: One is to make hot money, the other is to love to make contributions.
It is easy for the former not to pay attention to professionalism, find an empty house to set up equipment, not to do acoustics, and not to pay attention to technology. However, this kind of music does not contribute to the music community itself, and it is unlikely to be recognized by the industry. The latter must be people who like music, rock music, independent music, original music, and want to really do things and contribute to the industry.
If we want to have more far-reaching influence, we need to incubate content to provide more solutions. Many things we are doing now are incubating and supporting music from different levels.
Dongshi has entered a slow recovery process I personally like this venue, which can really break the distance between the band and fans, and is more interactive and intimate. In the second half of this year, some relatively good content will be delivered to Dongshi. It is probably the kind of band that can sell two or three drinks in Xinjiang. It will make a special session in Dongshi and make close contact with music fans. This is the link power of Dongshi.
This year, the Guangzhou store is also gradually on the right track, with two venues, one large and one small. Now, the number of large and small museums adds up to 20 in a month. For the operation of the Guangzhou store, we have built some basic norms, and then everyone will play in this scope. We don't care too much about details, because this is not about fast food restaurants. What clothes, hair styles, and appearance must be worn. The person in charge in Guangzhou also has his own attitude, and we are more of a spirit of communication and management cooperation.
The future of drinking in Xinjiang may be a combination of horizontal and vertical development. The two cities and four museums are our horizontal expansion, while VIBEZWan is a music brand, WeiWan music technology, and the STUDIO LIVE contemporary music archives that we are currently working on, recording the portraits of contemporary Chinese musicians in the form of images and music.
Under the neon @ MAO livehouse
——MAO LIVEHOUSE Chief Content Officer: Okawa
Compared with the number of performances last year, MAO Wukesong Store has reduced the number of scheduled performances this year, As we all know, there are more than ten venues in Beijing at present? From the point of view of the band, the first choice is the weekend. In the past, there were many venues scheduled. An important factor is that there were many mid week stalls.
In the past, for bands and organizers, when the weekend schedule was booked, they would ask about Wednesday and Thursday schedules. But now that there are more venues, for example, this venue has no weekends. You can also check the weekend schedule of other venues, so Performances were given more evenly , so round The number of sports performances will not be as high as last year In fact, our performance schedule was very full just after the epidemic ended.
I'm satisfied with the overall performance in the past year. I made money last year. I understand The venues in Beijing can basically earn money , more or less, there will be profits.
But for Beijing MAO, Beverage sales are quite average. The first thing in liquor sales is definitely related to the performance content. When a rock and roll band plays, the sales will be slightly better; If it is quiet or younger, including rapping, the demand for drinks is very low, and there is almost no wine income. In the past, people thought it would be more interesting to have a drink at the performance, but now they just buy a bottle of drink and milk tea.
There are not many non music businesses, and as far as I know, the rental rate of places specializing in exhibitions is not as high as before. In the past, business was mainly about shooting, publicity, film and television, print magazines and so on. Livehouse was generally not selected for annual meetings and conferences. At best, it was a small release related to music or this culture. Our kind of venue Business advantage is hardware There is a technical team, a sound mixer and a lighting technician. It is not an empty shell, so it is unnecessary to build this part.
Now overseas bands can come in and perform, and this part also Enriched our schedule Although it seems that they are chasing overseas bands at the moment, because overseas bands have not come in recent years, it is certain that everyone has a sense of novelty.
The music fans of Livehouse are always young. As Yang Haisong said, "People on the stage cannot always be 20 years old, but people off the stage will always be 20 years old." This is also one of the attributes of the cultural scene of Livehouse.
Fans iterate one by one. Some people go to other cities, but others don't have the same strength. For example, you can see that in the live music scene, young people in their 20s are jumping there, but there are also some older people standing behind or beside them. Different age groups choose different viewing methods Maybe one day they won't come to the live performance, but he will buy some black glue and CDs to listen at home, which doesn't mean they no longer like music.
In the past year, the development of the industry has basically returned to normal. The market environment is actually quite good. The industry has completed the basic graphic construction, but there is still a long way to go to make the plate bigger. Livehouse is also a place for practicing band performance and cultivating basic music fans. In fact, it is not only overseas bands that come in. This year, large and small bands are also going abroad. In terms of channels, there are many musicians from Japan, Europe and the United States.
MAO LIVEHOUSE Chief Content Guan Dachuan
The way I think about things has changed since my work changed to national operation this year.
In terms of single store, it mainly considers the administrative problems such as operation and personnel management, which are quite complicated and complicated. Now we will mainly consider how to set the schedule, and the work content will become more vertical, because MAO is a chain enterprise and can Provide one-stop booking service for the band , can help the band go to more cities.
In fact, this is also an advantage of chain operation. You can complete multi station site reservation through one person docking. It is very time saving for the organizers and the band, so they don't have to ask 10 people to connect with one thing.
DDC lit
DDC Manager: 69
After deducting the rent, salary and other costs from the store revenue, the Beijing store will not make money in 2023. The only project that made money last year was Anaya DDC. Relying on Anaya's mature, perfect and inclusive community culture, it helped us balance, so last year as a whole was not a loss. In addition, in May this year, we launched DDC lit, a seaside venue. At present, it is mainly used for DJ shows and bars every weekend. Later, we will plan more cross-border activities.
In the past few years, DDC has been formed in Anaya Mature and professional operation team A complete system has been formed for artists reservation, venue operation, bar management, and cross city performance and travel planning. Therefore, when such a site with certain infrastructure appears, we only spent half a month preparing for the DDC lit and then successfully opened. Anaya's DDC is dominated by band performances, while DDC lit is a club scene. The two do not conflict. The emergence of DDC lit is a supplement to the community's nightlife. Everyone can drink in the seaside disco, or even watch the band performance in the garage before coming back.
Last year's operating costs did not fall but did not rise. Our labor cost is quite high. The rent increases in two or three years. The rent plus the labor cost is more than 200000 yuan, and the monthly electricity charge is also tens of thousands of yuan. Other expenditures are like the ebb and flow of the sea. More water is spent more, and less water is spent less; More points at the box office, more points; less points at the box office, less points.
Last year we had more performances in the same period than this year, but many of them were The purchased band performs by itself , will give the band a minimum guarantee. Even if we are willing to pay to buy the band as a venue, the self run performance is basically a loss. The only thing that can earn money is the band with box office and private events.
Another revenue scenario of Live house is business activities, but Few businesses At the end of last year, there was no business at all. Now, isn't it said that the company's group construction capital went to the sea to salvage? You can drink and sing with service and joy.
Last year's performance day was about 100 days, which was basically a weekend. This year is not as good as last year. Weekends will be booked out. Most of the midweek activities are planned by the venue itself, and many even have nothing to do with music.
Before the epidemic, DDC's brand, DDL, also did a lot of domestic tours for overseas artists. However, the whole market is in recession at the moment. At this time, the threshold, risk and cost of doing independent band tours have become higher, so I also refused several invitations from overseas bands.
In the past, in addition to the operation of venues, the old store also provided some external services, such as sending qualified musicians to weddings, music festivals and offline activities to earn a little commission, but now there is no such service.
DDC Manager 69
As a venue, we sometimes have the same price as the band. Many bands said that they would not go on tour or take part in the assorted performance. It is not necessary to sell tickets when they go on tour. Sometimes they can get hundreds of yuan for the assorted performance. As a market place, I can't lower its own value. Because the site has its own operating costs, I don't want to sell the site at a low price, just like the capitalists who poured milk at that time. But at present, many venues are engaged in price war. I'm also trying to persuade myself to change my mind, sir.
In July this year, DDC will celebrate its 10th anniversary. From Shanlaohutong to Ritan to Qinhuangdao, exploration and cross-border has always been our focus. Our team is also thinking about new content forms and a more perfect operation model. We should stick to this path.
Typesetting: Heqing/Reviewed by: Rongrong
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