Hate it or love it, the current state of the industry is a goldmine that overflows with new, interesting ideas. Audius, Corite, Boomy, and Open Pit, are just some of the business that are hoping to revolutionize the life of artists and fans, bringing the intersection of technology and music to new horizons. Of course it’s not that a radical change like social media or streaming platforms is on the horizon, but there has never been an era so full of opportunities for those who have the will to embrace them. SoundStage is one of these businesses and a name that you’d better write down right now. Despite being just in the early stages of its launch, with its “simple” idea, it sets to change how legions of artists and music lovers all over the globe will experience live shows. How? By providing live performances conducted from a remote locations via StageLink, their proprietary videoconferencing software. What does it even means? To explain it clear and simple, we sat down with Ara Kevonian, the mind behind the project who is leading this revolution straight from Barcelona, alongside the ubiquitous Michael from Phuture Collective. In the interview you can find a 360° screening of SoundStage, all about its past, its present and its future but also discussions about the current state of the music business and how it will react to the arrival of this next wave of cutting-edge start ups. Sit comfortable, turn on a nice soundtrack and let’s jump into it!
Let’s start from the basics: what is SoundStage and what is its mission?
SoundStage is a service that makes it easy for electronic music fans to book their favorite artists for private gigs. We are trying to help artists unlock new revenue streams by putting themselves on the market in a way that gives their fans direct access to them by way of “virtual” performances that they can carry out from their own home or studio, for fans anywhere in the world.
You are an independent start up right? Who’s the mind and the team behind Soundstage?
I’ll preface by saying this is a very early stage venture that was born from an idea I had quite a few years ago. I’m the founder, and at present the sole full-time employee at SoundStage, but there are a few others who are involved at a smaller scale and helping in various areas including Michael Cullen (founder of Phuture Collective).
And that’s when it hit me…what if instead of flying the artists in to my party, I could have them connect virtually
Which needs led you to found Soundstage?
In 2013 I went through some big life changes moving from LA (where I’ve lived for over 24 years) to Barcelona, Spain. Although I still visited LA regularly, one of the things I really began to miss after a while was the music scene. Being a lifelong fan of electronic music, and having grown up in a city where dubstep, trap, future bass, and all sorts of experimental music was rampant, one of the things I quickly started to miss was precisely that, the music.
While Barcelona is an artists city in many ways, and has a great music scene of its own, the fact is that my particular flavors were rare if not impossible to come across. Since night clubs and local festivals lacked what I wanted, I contemplated on numerous occasions throwing my own party, where I could finally play music I liked, but of course I wasn’t a DJ. I wondered if I could go bigger and throw a real event that I could monetize, and maybe then afford to fly some of the artists I liked into the city, but quickly realized that was cost prohibitive.
And that’s when it hit me … what if instead of flying the artists in to my party, I could have them connect virtually via webcam, routing their audio out to my own sound system, and installing a two way feed where the artist could see the party and the party could see and interact with the artist. It would be the next best alternative to having him there physically, but by eliminating the logistics, this could happen at a price point I might actually be able to afford; and that right there was the seed for what is now SoundStage.
I’d say we are about to experience a supernova of innovation that is going to skyrocket electronic music to whole new heights.
Under the push of streaming, the current music industry has become a wild but also fertile land where there’s a flourish of ideas and enterprises that are shaping a quite interesting future full of opportunities for everyone in the business. What’s your take on this point in history? Why do you think that this is the right moment to launch SoundStage?
I absolutely agree with your assessment, and especially in the area of electronic music. I mean, we are seeing a plethora of incredible concepts that are delivering a whole new range of entertainment value for fans using the latest that both technology and modern telecom infrastructure have to offer. Everything from 3D concerts like the Fortnite Marshmello event, to spectacular live streams being put out from the likes of Cercle, Techno Live Sets, Tomorrowland’s UNITE parties, etc.
My take on this point in history is that not only are we in the midst of what I think is the greatest electronic music renaissance in history, but the fact that this is converging with advances in technology that may finally make zero-latency high-definition videoconferencing a reality (think 5G), I’d say we are about to experience a supernova of innovation that is going to skyrocket electronic music to whole new heights.
When you ask me why I think this is the right moment to launch SoundStage, well, based on my prior reflections, I’d say the answer is self evident (if this was a video, this is where the “deal with it” glasses slide into view).
the artist connects directly to the event by way of a fully interactive two-way video conferencing system, and after greeting the audience, proceeds to blow their minds away.
Now let’s jump into the tech side of the project. I’ll start very basic again: how does a gig with SoundStage work?
First a fan submits a booking request for their desired artist on SoundStage.fm. After the artist accepts the request, we have the SoundStage concierge (yours truly) contact the fan to learn about their event and help them make (what are relatively simple) preparations to ensure the best possible experience. There are a few recipes for this which can involve different types of screens (TV, projector), webcams, sound and/or lighting systems, but it isn’t rocket science. Once we find a satisfactory formula that passes our test runs, there’s no turning back. On the agreed day and time the artist connects directly to the event by way of a fully interactive two-way video conferencing system, and after greeting the audience, proceeds to blow their minds away.
How do you respond to skeptics who criticize the possible lack of transparency? Since there are “djs” of any size who fake their sets even at festival and clubs where there are a lot of people around them, how can I trust someone who’s alone in the comfort of his/her house?
In almost all cases the camera is pointed at the performing artist in a way that eliminates any doubt, and if you’re booking someone you genuinely like I can’t imagine you’re questioning their integrity. Of course, if after he/she greets you by name, wishing you a happy birthday in front of all your friends, and proceeds to drop your favorite tracks for you in real-time, you still feel like you were somehow cheated or didn’t get your money’s worth, let us know and we’ll find a way to make it up to you.
How do you manage copyright and royalties? Everything works as with “normal” shows?
The SoundStage idea really revolves around fans booking actual artists. When artists perform they are playing almost entirely original music out of their own catalog, thus the risk of copyright infringement becomes a virtual non-issue.
Have you already had interactions with artists’ management? In case, how did they react to your propositions and, above all, were they prepared to deal with something like SoundStage?
Admittedly it has been difficult to shore up support from artists management, instead, we’ve had more success reaching out to artists directly. Although we’ve had some success negotiating with booking managers for smaller independent labels, the bigger ones are outright dismissive, generally ignoring all our outreach attempts. This is unfortunate since we are really trying to bring value to their artists and open new revenue streams which don’t threaten anyone, and would actually include management in part of the deal structures. That said, there are some forward-thinkers out there, and I’d like to take this moment to give a shout out to a few of the labels such as “Above and Below the Surface,” “Night Owl Collective,” “Partica Artist Group”, and “Bonsai Collective” for trusting SoundStage and choosing to form part of our ecosystem.
I think it will be difficult for most booking agencies to deal with this in-house.
How long do you think will pass before it’ll become common for booking agencies to have a department dedicated to virtual events?
I think it will be difficult for most booking agencies to deal with this in-house. As of right now, the technology is still maturing. To make the assumption that this is as simple as a one-way live stream, or a simple Skype call would be a huge mistake, and even beyond the tech there are still preparations that need to be made to ensure events play out right. In some cases these preparations are not so trivial and (depending on the type of event) may even require sending out a specialist with the right expertise to set things up and conduct test runs.
I believe it makes a lot more sense for agencies to work with SoundStage since we are already working to develop the technological expertise and manpower/infrastructure to facilitate this service globally and at scale.
Have you already experienced a virtual festival?
Yes I have, and we actually have some cool videos from a recent event that show what it’s like:
You can find other videos of the night here and here
Do you have other interesting companies on your radar that blend music and technology that we should get familiar with?
This may seem out of left field, and probably not the response you were looking for, but I’m a big fan of what Phillips has done with their Hue lights. For those of you who aren’t familiar with them, these are essentially energy-efficient light bulbs that change colors and can be synced to your music, meaning you can turn your home or office into a discotech (yea, I said discotech). In fact, the lighting we used at our office party was precisely these light bulbs, and the effect was impressive. Take a couple of these and pair them to a SoundStage virtual concert, and you’ve basically just brought Space Ibiza right into your house. I realize I sort of hijacked your question, but this is music-related tech, and I really am a huge fan of these little lightbulbs :)
I know that SoundStage is just in its first phases, but what can we expect from you guys in the short, medium and long term?
The only predictions I can make are short term, and to that end, we expect to be rapidly improving the quality and stability of the virtual gigs and hopefully shoring up support from bigger artists. We also have some interesting ideas that will help boost the visual quality and overall entertainment value of the performances, so if you’re still reading, be on the lookout in the next couple of weeks for a very cool live stream that will give you a sneak peek into the next evolution of the SoundStage vision.
With artists the like of Dabow, LEViT∆TE, chromonicci, Barely Great, Adiidas, bd hbt, Capshun, Blake Skowron, L*o*J, Wiskers already in their repertoire, there’s no reason for you to sleep on SoundStage. Go on and book your favourite artist: bring your guests and a sound system, they’ll do the rest.
