Thanks to all of the artists that have given us guidance and input on how we can continue to better support independent touring musicians during the pandemic. We’ve made a lot of progress in serving artists in the Sofar community over the last two years. By March 2020, we had introduced higher tiers of payments for shows as well as in-person meetups, created an artist advisory group, and launched a new artist dashboard. We had a clear vision on how we wanted to improve our services for touring artists. And then, everything changed.
When the pandemic threw live music (and the world) into crisis, we knew that many of you relied on playing shows to connect with fans and make a living and we wanted to do whatever we could to support you through this. We learned through a survey that 71% of you lost more than half of your music income during the pandemic, so our first step was to pay all 3,000 artists for their canceled Sofar show, ultimately not recouping this advance once our shows came back. We also launched the Sofar Sounds Global Artist Fund to provide grants to artists that relied on Sofar and other local gigs to make a living, as well as a country-specific resource directory to recommend other grants and resources while the live music industry remained closed.
“Artists have been struggling with basic needs during the course of this pandemic. The Global Artist Fund Grant is keeping my lights on and my fridge full. I could not be more grateful.” –
We started the Listening Room, a livestream performance series where artists keep 100% of the donations—around $450 on average. It still premieres music performances each week and has become a way for over 250 artists across 50 cities in six continents to reach music fans around the world (if you’re interested, we’re always accepting submissions here).
Last summer, we created a free webinar series, In Session, to help you work on your craft and learn more about the art and science of growing a music career.
In February 2021, we acquired artist services company Seated. Seated is truly artist-first, with the only promotional tool for touring that gives you direct access to your fans by helping you capture their phone numbers and emails. Together with Seated, we paid out over $2MM to artists during the last 18 months.
“When we created Seated, we set out to build the future of what artists’ relationship with fans should be. Our bet was that in the near future, artists would want more control of their data and a more direct connection with their fans.
Joining the Sofar Sounds team is a huge step in our goal to help empower artists to take control of their fan data and ticketing experience. Together, we’re going to be able to do even more for artists.”
– David McKay, CEO of Seated
Working closely with Seated to develop new artist services, we now have a wider range of ways to support independent touring musicians. Sofar “Discovery” shows (our traditional concerts with 3 unannounced artists, where we fill the room and you just show up to play) can help you find new fans in your hometown, or even in new markets by routing a tour. For those of you who want to start building an audience digitally, we support and promote virtual performances in the Listening Room. And now, we’re piloting ways for artists to use Sofar’s global concert infrastructure to easily create your own intimate performances in unique venues for your fans, where and when you choose.
With over 1,000 shows booked across a dozen countries already this year, we’re grateful to be able to continue to create spaces where music matters and to connect you with live music fans—new and old, live and virtually.
Header image is of The Balvenie performing at Sofar Austin. Photo by Melat.
