A century ago, or perhaps even less, any travelling performer could set up a makeshift stage by the side of the road and sing or play something to draw in passers-by. Nowadays, at the top end of the industry, this could involve planning half a year in advance, using an army of people working behind the scenes.
A Global Audience
The world has become a smaller place and it has changed the face of all performances. To start with, performers now have to take into account the diversity of their audiences and the customs of the location, particularly with bigger names who are on international tours. Even with remote events that we’ll discuss in more detail later, things like time zones can come into play.
Other industries have found other ways to maintain an international player base almost around the clock. Online casinos, for example, operate all kinds of live table games and game shows at all hours of the day, and need to schedule their real money live casino games so that they can offer the best experiences to different audiences that may be on different sides of the planet. This could also include scheduling the right hosts at the right times as well as fitting in downtime and time for maintenance.
Home and Away
Speaking of fans around the world, the form of a live show has also dramatically changed in the last decade. In most cases, performances are now live and in person. The scale and type can vary a lot, from personal recordings of amateur gigs to professionally organized recordings for pro events.
The biggest difference, however, has to be in livestreams and virtual events. For the former, these usually work as broadcasts of live events that take place onstage, meaning those who can’t attend in person still have an outlet to see the event. Virtual events are the natural evolution of this, where the stage is removed entirely and the audience is viewing remotely.
A Million Critics
For both the performers and event organizers, the online world has brought one last major shift that has forced a lot of different approaches. In the past, performances and events may have generated a word-of-mouth reputation, but actual reviews were publicly given only by a handful of dedicated critics. For many, putting on a show and getting praise meant catering more to those critics over regular attendees.
Anyone and everyone can post reviews online. It means that performers cannot simply focus on pleasing a handful of experts but must invest planning time into making sure everyone walks away happy, or at least as many people as possible.
Whether live events in the future will look anything like those we have now is uncertain. More and more artists have been moving into fully remote virtual events, although many others are sticking to in-person. With things like 3D and holograms on the horizon, there’s no telling where it will shift next.
