Live Nation has set up a plan for concert season 2021 that would see artists taking more risk and financial burden, as Billboard reports. Live Nation wants to reduce artist fees by 20 percent from 2020 levels. If a festival is canceled because of poor ticket sales, the giant promoter wants the artist to get 25 percent of the guarantee (now it's a full guarantee). If an artist pulls out of a fest without good reason, Live Nation wants the artist to pay a penalty of double that guarantee (now, artists owe the promoter nothing in that case).

The independent music ecosystem has historically provided an alternative to corporate labels, broadcasting networks and other consolidated organs of power - InsideHook argues in favour of indie music scene in times of no shows. But the future is not dark - while small bands and labels might currently run on the thinnest of margins, it’s possible that it is precisely this thriftiness that will benefit them in the long term.

WiZink Center in the Spanish capital, Madrid, announced they have confirmed several artists for paid livestreamed concerts that will be performed before at least some fans inside the building, Pollstar reports. The performance will be recorded with at least six television cameras, usually intended for sporting events — including stationary cameras, polecams and rail cams — that offer different perspectives of what is happening on stage. Concert industry publication also reports about recovery plans for live music sectors in Australia and New Zealand. Live Performance Australia unveiled June 4 an ambitious A$345 million plan to restart and rebuild the industry. New Zealand’s live sector applauded the government’s new NZ$175 million arts & music COVID-19 recovery package.

The World Health Organisation has issued their latest recommendations on holding mass gatherings during the current coronavirus pandemic advising that governments and local authorities can consider allowing mass gatherings to take place when it is safe to do so, Republic World reports. "Mass gatherings are not merely recreational events; they have important implications on the psychological well-being of large number of individuals (eg religious events), can play an important role in promoting healthy behaviours (eg. sports), provide employment for a great number of people, and could leave a legacy of improved assets or capacities developed as a result of hosting a mass gathering event” - WHO suggests in their latest recommendations. “Since mass gatherings have substantial political, cultural, social, and economic implications, authorities should assess the importance and necessity of an event and consider the option that it may take place, provided all associated public health risks are adequately addressed and mitigated”.

Reading & Leeds Festival managing director Melvin Benn has proposed an increase in coronavirus testing in order to enable the full re-opening of music venues, NME reports. Benn advocates widespread public use of the NHS COVID-19 App, which aims to automate the process of contact tracing and spark an increase in population testing, as the UK’s leisure industries “cannot operate with the measures that are currently in place”.

Dropkick Murphys will a host concert today at Boston's Red Sox Fenway Park with no fans in attendance, which marks the first time a musical performance has ever taken place at an empty major U.S. arena, stadium or ballpark. Bruce Springsteen will virtually accompany the band for a Double Play during the performance that's dubbed Streaming Outta Fenway. They'll be playing for an empty stadium, but "it beats playing at home," Dropkick Murphys' lead singer and bassist Ken Casey said. Fans can tune in to the concert on Springsteen's exclusive SiriusXM radio channel 20 E Street Radio, or watch the livestream show for free until May 31.

Some great thoughts on touring, and lack thereof, by Rosanne Cash in The Atlantic: "The essential attitude adopted by most touring musicians I know - just show up and do it, and don’t whine about the lack of sleep, the equipment problems, the long drives, the missed meals, the airports, the delayed flights, the sometimes-weird audiences, the stalkers, the reviews, the food, or the hotel... I’ve long had a complicated relationship with touring, and the pandemic has made it only more difficult. I always knew what life on the road was costing me. But I didn’t fully appreciate what it gave me until suddenly it was gone".

"It doesn’t seem likely we are going to open in the fall" - Jay Marciano, chairman of AEG Presents, told New York Times about the possibility of major torus this fall. AEG is the parent company of Goldenvoice, which presents Coachella, and the festival's 2020 edition is currently rescheduled for October. Live Nation president Joe Berchtold said they don’t expect a large volume of major tours in the fall. Live Nation previously said that drive-in concerts, reduced capacity shows, broadcasts from empty venues are all under consideration. BBC reports from a performance in Copenhagen by Danish musician Mads Langer; more than 70 similar shows are planned.

A California company Production Club came up with the Micrashell, a protective suit people can wear to music festivals and clubs to prevent the spread of COVID-19, NBC LA reports. There’s a N95 filter, an air ejection system, a “cell link pouch”, and even snap-in canisters for drinking and vaping.

Neil Young has shared his fifth Fireside Session, lockdown shows streamed from his yard, and this week it was a special "Banyard Edition". Young played this time for an audience of chickens, and some other of his and Daryl Hannah's animals, like Laslo the llama. Neil breaks out the ukulele for 'Tumbleweed', plays 'Homegrown', 'Harvest', 'Old Man' and 'Everybody Knows This is Nowhere'. The audience seemed cheerful! Watch the show at Neil Young Archives.

Travis McCready performed on Monday in a former Masonic Temple in Arkansas, in a first live concert in America since the pandemic stopped live shows in March. Fans had to have their temperatures taken and wear masks for the show, and they were required to buy seats in clusters, or what promoters call “fan pods”. Dave Poe, a New York-based concert promoter and a co-founder of the Independent Promoter Alliance, called Monday night’s event “a great jump-start to the industry”. Daniel Neathery, 33, had to buy six tickets (at $20 a pop), an entire fan pod, even though he came alone, but - “for me, it was worth it to have some normalcy”. New York Times reports from the Temple.

Jason Isbell and his wife/bandmate Amanda Shires celebrated the release of their new album 'Reunions' with a livestreamed release show from Brooklyn Bowl Nashville. The venue was empty, but the screens above the lanes in Brooklyn Bowl were showing fans watching, and they could be heard in-between songs. Fans were happy and excited to watch the two play, and the pair seemed touched by the warm acceptance by the audience. Everybody was apart, but they really were a collective for that one hour...

Venues have become ill-suited to the COVID-19 age. Instead, future productions will have to find less finely tailored venues, like outdoor public spaces and hangarlike halls, Vulture argues and suggests ideas. Performances scattered across campus - on plazas, lawns, arcades, parks, and venues of various sizes; or - guiding an audience safely through a landscape while performers remain still could be fruitful and sublime...

MLB team the Texas Rangers have announced the largest-scale U.S. drive-in concert series yet, Concert In Your Car. The concerts will take place in the parking lot of Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Not the biggest music stars, but that's not the point right now: Eli Young Band are about to play on 6/4, Whiskey Mykers on 6/5, Pat Green on 6/6, and Josh Abbott Band & Kevin Fowler on 6/7. Strict social distancing rules will be applied. Some trouble with week’s Travis McCready concert scheduled to take place this Friday, May 15, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, KFSM 5News reports. Governor Asa Hutchinson issued cease & desist order, because McCready is to soon - Hutchinson has given the okay for live events to return on the following Monday, the 18th.

In today’s world of fear and unease and social distancing, it's hard to imagine sharing experiences like these ever again. I don’t know when it will be safe to return to singing arm in arm at the top of our lungs, hearts racing, bodies moving, souls bursting with life. But I do know that we will do it again, because we have to. It’s not a choice. We’re human. We need moments that reassure us that we are not alone - Dave Grohl, The Atlantic.

Event Safety Alliance has published a Reopening Guide, based on suggestions by 400 tour promoters, managers, Ticketmaster employees, and caterers. It's a 29-page guidebook. The essential guidelines:

• Hand-washing every hour, as well as after sneezing, mopping, smoking, eating, drinking and other select activities
• 4 square meters necessary per unrelated group of people
• Required masks
• Sanitizing door handles, sink faucets, soap dispensers, elevator buttons, phones, water fountains, vending machines, trash bins and computers
• Stagger lines into venues so patrons don't have to cluster in lines
• Temperature screening for every customer
• Clear protective shields for will-call and box-office windows

There probably aren't gonna be any big concerts in 2020, so the live music industry is thinking about ways to make up the loss. Variety shared some of the ideas for the future of shows - pay-per-view tours that are “geo-blocked” or limited to a specific area; streaming concerts into a separate, socially distanced venue, possibly with food, drinks, merch and the usual concert amenities; virtual merchandise sold during the stream...

Portland, Seattle (King County), New Orleans, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Austin, Albuquerque and Chicago have joined the Music Cities Together pilot program Reopen Every Venue Safely, which aims to “develop and disseminate action plans and budgets rooted in a hyper-pragmatic understanding of the challenges ahead” in the COVID-19 era, Variety reports. REVS hopes to share data and “best practices” tips across the eight cities between city officials and venue owners in an effort to best strategize ways to effectively ensure venues can open safely in a coming era where social distancing may be the new normal, temperature checks at the door might be a potential mandated safety check, and city-imposed reduced capacity numbers might also become a reality.

Live Nation’s CEO Michael Rapino said the company would test crowdless broadcasted shows along with drive-in concerts and reduced capacity festival shows over the summer - “we’re going to dabble in fanless concerts with broadcasts, we’re going to go and do reduced capacity shows because we can make the math work”. Rapino explained to Rolling Stone - “There are a lot of great artists that can sell out an arena, but they’ll do 10 higher end smaller theaters or clubs. We’re seeing lots of artists chomping to get back out once it’s safe”. And fans? - Live Nation says that 90% of ticket buyers are choosing to keep their tickets and wait for a new show rather than get their money back.

The lockdown caused by the coronavirus has left 140,000 UK's performers, agents, promoters and technicians without a steady income since the end of March, BBC reports. The effect of the quarantine on live music is "catastrophic", according to the chief executive of UK Music Tom Kiehl. 554 of Music Venue Trust's 670 member venues are under threat of "imminent closure", before the end of the month. "In a typical year, live music contributes £1bn to the UK economy and supports many jobs. What we are seeing now with the changes and social distancing likely to continue this year - at least £900m could be wiped off the sector" - said Mr Kiehl.

Concerts and festivals will not go ahead in the UK until at least next year - Cambridge University lecturer dr Chris Smith tells BBC about the prospect of music events by the end of this year. Smith believes it is "too optimistic" to think such social gatherings will take place - "we won't even have got a vaccine into people by then". Dr. Smith is confident we will ultimately return to enjoying such collective experiences - as they "appeal to the human nature" - but only after most people in the country have either been infected with the disease (herd immunity) or inoculated (vaccines or combinations of drugs) in some way. "I think this year is basically a write-off, if I'm honest with you," he adds.

Electronic musician Marc Rebillet has announced the first drive-in concert tour in the US, Pollstar reports. Rebillet, also known as YouTuber "Loop Daddy", will embark on the seven-date drive-in tour beginning in June, with socially distant concerts scheduled in North Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. In lieu of opening acts, each show will screen short films. Additionally, attendees will be able to purchase merchandise, food, and more. It comes after promoters in Denmark invented the drive-in concert, and German concert-engineers innovated drive-in rave, or the Autodisco.

In what will likely be one of the first live in-person shows in the US since the country shut down in mid-March, Travis McCready, frontman of the country-rock band Bishop Gunn, will give “an intimate solo acoustic performance” at TempleLive in Fort Smith, AR on 5/15, Billboard reports. Tickets can only be purchased in “fan pods” of 2-12 assigned seats, each of which will be six feet apart from the next seating group, and the venue’s capacity has been reduced 80% from 1100 to 229. Face masks, which will be available for purchase at the event, are required for all attendees and employees. The venue will be sanitized before and after the event. Concertgoers will have their temperatures taken upon arrival. All beverages at the event will be prepackaged or have lids. Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson announced on Monday that indoor venues could resume live shows as of 5/18, with fewer than 50 people in attendance and strict social distancing guidelines.

Missouri Governor Mike Parsons has declared that concerts and other public events like movies and amusement parks can start happening in the state starting Monday, May 4. According to Billboard, Governer also noted that the seating shall be spaced out according to social distancing requirements. Most major Missouri cities, however, will not see concerts reinstated so quickly - St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said in a statement “We will continue to be guided by data, not dates”.

Sweden has allowed for gigs with up to a capacity of 40 people to take place with appropriate social distancing measures in place, and Spain is looking to phase in live music events from May in a number of stages with gradually increasing capacities, NME reports about the future of live shows. There are several ideas on how to organize future shows, obeying the rules of social distancing - a combination of physical and digital tickets so that some fans can pay to watch online. Some venues may insist on tracking apps or temperature checks, so they're sure none of the attendees is coronavirus-positive. Shows will be smaller, with several dozen people in the audience, so it's expected that certain genres will become bigger, specifically acoustic gigs.

Danish singer-songwriter Mads Langer performed at a drive-in concert last week at a stage that was erected on the outskirts of Aarhus, Denmark. As Forbes reports, Langer played to an audience of cars, with his performance being transmitted via FM radio to those in attendance. It’s apparently the first of a series of live events planned for the space.

Only 40% of Americans who regularly attend concerts and other similar events say they would return to shows before a coronavirus vaccine exists, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll suggests. Based on interviews with 4,429 American adults, another 40% say they’d remain home pending a vaccine, while the remaining 20% said they either don’t know what they’ll do or may never attend such events again.

NME reports from Plan B, a Malmö venue - the only one in Europe, legally at least, that continues to put on shows. In a room that can hold 350, capacity is restricted to 40 punters – plus a sound engineer, two members of staff and the band, bringing the number up to the guidelines of 50 people in total. Punters are not allowed to walk up to the bar; card machine-wielding staff operate a table service of sorts by milling around the crowd taking orders. Shoegaze trio Spunsugar played - "everyone starts off a little shy, hanging near the back and the sides before slowly being drawn forward. Heads nod and feet tap enthusiastically; there’s even a little dancing. What began with an air of uncertainty ends in triumph, joy, and chants for 'One! More! song!' Everyone orders more drinks".

Ticketmaster has quietly changed its refund policy, making it harder now to get your funds back, Digital Music News reports. Ticketmaster’s previous policy indicated that “refunds are available if your event is postponed, rescheduled or canceled". However, the page was recently updated with new language which says only canceled events are eligible for refunds, and not “postponed or rescheduled” ones. Fans are allowed to resell their Ticketmaster resale marketplace.

Billboard sees grim future for the indie live music business when concerts start happening again: After the big shutdown, billions of dollars in ticket revenue and artist payments were frozen in accounts controlled by, respectively, Live Nation and AEG, and the four major talent agencies: WME, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Paradigm and UTA. Everyone else in the business — indie promoters, staging companies and food/merchandise vendors — continued to receive bills but not the money they were counting on to pay them. When concerts do start happening again, the industry behind them will have changed significantly. Venue contracts will be renegotiated to account for months of inactivity, and the brands that sponsor tours and festivals will almost certainly slash their budgets. Most importantly, at least some indie promoters (and promoters that lack the resources of their larger competitors) may shutter, unable to weather the storm or get the credit they need to endure it — leaving their giant rivals with even more power.