Concert network Sofar Sounds says artists have generated nearly $650 million in ticket and merchandise sales since the start of the pandemic through the club’s self-service, direct-to-fan concert listings tool. Company.
The company revealed the figure in a recent blog posthighlighting his latest updates on how he is expanding his efforts to support artists.
It follows a recent report by Variety stating that Sofar has made a comeback after facing significant challenges during the pandemic, paying out more than $30 million to artists since the pandemic.
The company confirmed those numbers in its latest blog post, saying, “Sofar has directly paid artists over $30 million to perform at Sofar shows and run fan or VIP rewards drives through Sofar”.
The majority of Sofar’s shows feature three artists, each performing a 20-25 minute set in front of an audience. These unique performances take place in non-traditional spaces, with Sofar taking on the responsibility of filling the rooms. Sofar provides a minimum artist payment of $100 per show, which increases based on audience size.
Looking ahead to 2023, Sofar said it plans to host thousands of shows in 78 countries, with tens of thousands of performances.
“Most of us who work here are musicians and music is what drives us. Our live shows focus on artist discovery, creating a listening room for artists and the community in non-traditional spaces across 78 countries.
Sounds of Sofar
« Sofar exists thanks to artists. Most of us who work here are musicians and music is what drives us. Our live shows are focused on artist discovery, creating a listening room for artists and the community in non-traditional spaces across 78 countries,” the company said.
Sofar said it has strengthened its offers to artists following its acquisition of Seated, an artist services company offering ticketing services to touring artists and tour promotion tools, in February 2021.
The company said it focused on the artist as a customer, noting that one of the main challenges it consistently heard from artists was that they were exhausted from creating video content to “feed the beast,” trying to keep up with the pressure of constantly posting videos on social media that keep them away from creating music.
“Musicians are artists NOT content creators.”
Sounds of Sofar
“Musicians are artists NOT content creators. Musicians are artists,” Sofar said.
Sofar has also embarked on the development of new products and services.
Among its offerings, called Layersis a video creation suite integrated with music recording software.
This allows musicians to produce short videos that can be shared with their audience.
Prior to the pandemic, Sofar in May 2019 said it had raised $25 million to fuel its global expansion.
He then partnered with Signia Creative, a division of private investment firm Signia, and UK charity Help Musicians on a series of shows to raise money to support musicians.
The music industry around the world
