“I wouldn’t have a job right now if it wasn’t for Twitch” - DJ Ardalan says to Vice in a long-read about the transfer of DJs from clubs to Amazon's streaming service. For electronic dance music, Twitch has become a juggernaut. Paid partnerships with individual acts like Soul Clap, Seth Troxler, Justin Martin, and Ardalan show how Twitch is investing to attract more DJs to its platform.
Last weekend's Tomorrowland livestream was a smash hit unlike anything ever done before, revolutionising the digital festival space, the 3D technology along with the DJ performances made for something truly unforgettable, We Rave You writes about the Belgium dance music fest. Over a massive one million people bought tickets, for each DJ to record their set they were placed in a studio behind a green screen and managed to perform just like they would to a real crowd, to get all of the different angles up to 38 cameras were used. The cream at the top was the new formula for compensating artists - based on ticket sales and views of their individual sets. Bigger artists got a flat fee as well, Billboard reports (behind a paywall).
Gay club The Chateau from south-east London recently live-streamed a version of their consistently chaotic club night U OK Hun, making "a massive hot mess party" with "go-go dancers, and rigging, with aerial performances”. Harry Gay, a support worker at the LGBTQ+ homeless support charity The Outside Project, started up Queer House Party with help from his roommates. The premise was simple – they would stream sets from their house-share in exchange for tips. Thousands of people soon joined in, and it’s now a weekly event. Gal Pals, queer dance party for womxn, trans and non-binary people, have hosted three fortnightly parties so far, and the plan is to continue until the end of lockdown and beyond. The people behind Knickerbocker have also gone online with "shonky and anarchic" party. NME reports at lengths about the LGBTQ-streams...
Nightlife is appropriating technologies built for corporate conferencing and gaming to make new party experiences, with stay-at-home clubbers willing to pay the amount they're used to at the physical clubs, Bloomberg reports. At a Zoom party called Club Quarantee guests purchase tickets for $10, or can pay $80 for a private room to party alongside Instagram-famous DJs and burlesque dancers. On a recent weekend, the party is full of European models and bearded men in fedoras, dancing along to 'Macarena'.
"I think I end up virtually seeing more friends from across the country than I’ve seen on any one night out for a long time. I’m having enough fun that it’s gone 5am when I realise I’ve been on this internet session for the best part of 12 hours and call it time to log off. No Uber fare and in bed within seconds" - Mix Mag's editor wrote after a weekned of virtual raving in online clubs such as Club Quarantäne, The Temple of Lost Future, and Isolation Station. “This is such medicine everyone, we are lucky to have this time alive together” - another raver said.
