Live and streamed: Should gigs turn hybrid in the future?

A cameraman (right) on stage captures Ritviz and Nucleya at the gig, to stream it to other Social outlets

Last year, in October, there's a gig that had taken place in Kolkata that had served as a rare instance of a hybrid concert in India, meaning it was staged live for a physical audience and simultaneously streamed digitally so that people at home could catch it too. We had written back then about how the pandemic had necessitated this model since audience numbers were still restricted. It had seemed at the time that it was a viable approach and, as it happens, a concert in Lower Parel last weekend replicated that same idea on a larger scale. Electronic music powerhouses Nucleya and Ritviz performed live at AntiSocial, and the organisers ensured that the big-ticket event was streamed live at all 28 Social outlets across seven cities.

But here's the question. The pandemic is still not over. So, the necessity for such hybrid gigs remains a reality. Will such hybrid gigs still be feasible when things return to ‘normal', though? Or will the lure of attending a physical gig trump watching a streamed version to such an extent that both organisers and audience members will let out a yawn at the prospect?

There are no clear answers yet, but there are some indications about which way the wind will blow. Firstly, and this is the obvious part, hybrid gigs ensure that music promoters reach more listeners outside of a physical venue. The whole idea behind last weekend's gig for example, says Vivek Dudani, head of programming at Social, was to make the artistes accessible to youngsters from smaller towns.

Money matters

The catch, though, says Naveen Deshpande, founder of music agency Mixtape, is that the entire process has to be financially feasible for organisers in terms of adequate ticket sales. "It's not a cheap process with regards to the technology involved," Deshpande tells us, adding, "You need a really good Internet connection with cables and fibre optics, cameras to capture the performance, and high quality lighting that's camera-friendly. So, organisers need to ask themselves whether the cost variant will balance itself out."

Naveen Deshpande, Vivek Dudani, and Nishit Arora

That's something Nishit Arora, founder of Smoke Inc who put together the hybrid concert in Kolkata last year, agrees with. But unlike Deshpande, he doesn't feel that this model will die a natural death when the pandemic lifts. "It has shown us that we can open up to an audience that we would not have been able to connect to. We were only a Kolkata-centric company earlier, and it's a good thing if the kind of talent we have in the city reaches other states," Arora tells us, echoing Dudani's thoughts.

There is scope

But what about audience members? Which side of the spectrum do they stand on? Priyank Mahajan is a 33-year-old entrepreneur who attended Nucleya and Ritviz's gig at AntiSocial, which followed Covid protocol like double-vaccination checks at the entrance. He tells us about how the entire physical experience was curated like a wedding (the reason being that the album is called Baraat). The guests were welcomed at the entrance with band-baaja and a garland. Inside, the venue was decorated with wedding drapes and flower works. People were even handed boxes with flowers in them that they could throw at the musicians. And at the end of it all, they were given a mithai at the point of leaving.

Priyank Mahajan

Makhija also tells us that he was initially confused about all the cameras floating around. "It's only later that I realised that the event was being live-streamed," he says, adding that he had once attended a similar event where the global music festival Tomorrowland was screened at NSCI in Worli. "They had captured all the right moments and recreated a similar vibe. Something live is of course different, but this experience, too, had good energy," he tells us, explaining that that's why he is all for hybrid gigs being continued in the future. "Why not? It's a cool concept, and had I not been in Lower Parel, I could have gone to the Social outlet in, say, Chembur to get a feel of the real thing," he reasons, making an irrefutable point. But does that mean we will actually keep seeing these gigs post the pandemic?
Well, coming back to the point that Deshpande made, the answer lies in whether enough audience members feel the same way as Mahajan does, so that organisers can maximise ticket sales for it to make financial sense. Meanwhile, let's wait and watch what happens.