Economic Observer Network reporter Xie Chuchu After more than 20 years of development, Chinese LiveHouse practitioners have reached a consensus: “We must help each other and gain the right to speak.” They spontaneously organized the “2022 First LiveHouse Industry Forum”, trying to shift from fragmented individual development in the past to collective efforts to jointly clarify and solve the problems of survival and development accumulated over the years, so as to influence the future trend of the industry.
Hearing that the forum was held, Xiao Ke did not hesitate to book a flight from Lhasa to Hefei, Anhui, even if he paid tens of thousands of yuan at his own expense. In June 2020, Xiaoke invested and opened a bar called “Tibet Time” in Lhasa. But due to his previous experience as a musician, he wanted to open the first LiveHouse in Lhasa. Currently his bar is transforming into a LiveHouse format. As a young new entrant, he is eager to learn from the experience of his predecessors in opening a store, especially to solve the problem of lack of performance bands. Like Xiaoke, with their respective concerns for survival and development, more than 80 LiveHouse operators across the country gathered together for the first time from all directions.
Originating in Japan, LiveHouse is a small to medium-sized live performance space for original musicians and bands. Such performance spaces are equipped with professional musical instruments and tuning equipment. The venues are usually small in scale, which is convenient for the audience and the performers to get closer, allowing them to experience a more immersive music effect than music festivals and stadiums. Because of the characteristics of original music and professional equipment, LiveHouse is also different from the form of resident singers in bars and Qing bars.
At the “2022 First LiveHouse Industry Forum” held from February 21 to 23, many practitioners said that the growth of Chinese original music and bands is inseparable from the soil of LiveHouse. That’s because LiveHouse is a must-have performance scene for every original musician and band when they first reach out to audiences. LiveHouse’s music performance is an important form of providing a bridge for musicians to grow in terms of space, atmosphere and resource integration.
The band is the fundamental content of LiveHouse, and the two present an interdependent relationship. There are three types of cooperation models: first, LiveHouse as a venue and the band divide the box office according to the proportion of 37; All income goes to the band; third, the venue hosts the performance.
There are currently more than 100 LiveHouses in China. Most of them are self-employed self-employed. LiveHouse in each city has its own independent brand culture. At present, there are about one or two brands in the chain. Although there are more than 20 years of development foundation, the industry has not yet established a standard specification.
One of the forum’s initiators, VOX director Zhu Ning told reporters that for a long time, LiveHouse’s right to speak is not really in his own hands. As a service provider of venues, LiveHouse’s revenue pricing mostly depends on the performers. Chen Honshi, the manager of Shanqiu, worries that if he does not start to focus on solving industry problems, about half of the LiveHouses in third- and fourth-tier cities may face bankruptcy.
Faced with the reality of the ever-increasing consumer demand for live performances, LiveHouse has to cross the gap of performance as a single income to survive better. Although local policies, venue environments and brand concepts are different, the profit model between LiveHouse cannot be replicated, but practitioners have unified the direction of change: establish standard industry norms, and treat LiveHouse as a business.
Can’t keep up with the market
Xiaoke’s store opened in 2020 when the epidemic had just stabilized. He and his partners invested 60% of the funds, and the remaining 40% of the funds were crowdfunded by friends. The store is only 170 square meters in the early stage, and the form is a bar with singers singing. However, due to the limitations of equipment, venues, funds, etc., his wish to do LiveHouse has not been realized. “Later, the first band’s performance of ‘Scar Physique’ was performed, and I was very excited to see the scene.” So after opening the store for a year and recovering the cost, Xiaoke expanded the store to 350 square meters and updated all the performance equipment. Started to consider the development of LiveHouse. However, a remote city like Lhasa is difficult to be considered for the band’s tour.
Meng Jinhui, co-founder of the “BIE Other” brand, said: “If a city does not have LiveHouse, its cultural meaning and cultural scene will be completely different.” The lack of LiveHouse performances will not only hinder the development of music culture in the city where it is located, but may even be affected by LiveHouse’s survival issues disappear. Small and medium-sized cities like Lhasa generally face the problem of lack of performances.
“There are not many people doing LiveHouse in the country, but LiveHouse has a great significance in promoting the development of music and art in each city, so the first time I held a forum, I held the mentality of learning and getting to know my peers, mainly because I wanted to meet more The venues are linked so that more musicians and bands can bring their live to the plateau, because there are still a lot of people in Tibet who like the live.” Xiaoke said.
The explosion of the music variety show “Summer of the Band” has brought a number of domestic bands and original music into the public eye, and has also opened up a broad market for LiveHouse, a must for musicians’ career development. However, the larger market size has not brought about the growth of high-quality musicians and bands, and even the head LiveHouse still faces the problem of lack of high-quality content.
While content is lacking, the market is developing rapidly. According to relevant music ticketing platform data, China LiveHouse box office revenue in 2018 was about 250 million, and in 2019 this figure was about 375 million; in 2021, China LiveHouse box office revenue increased by 488% year-on-year, and the number of viewers increased by 326% year-on-year. Despite the impact of the epidemic, the LiveHouse market is booming.
After years of development, LiveHouse has blossomed all over the country, and has formed well-known LiveHouse brands such as Chengdu Bistro, VOX, Jiangjin Wine·OMNI SPACE, Hefei ON THE WAY and so on. Generally speaking, LiveHouse’s revenue consists of three parts: box office revenue, venue rental, and wine sales. Among them, the box office revenue of the performance is the core. According to relevant sources of the organizer, the current average annual number of LiveHouse performances is 100, which may be less than 100 in small and medium-sized remote cities, and the top few can reach 150-200. But even the head, the number of performances is far from enough. LiveHouse in Japan can do 500-600 games.
“The industry has developed without preparation,” said Chen Shi, the manager of the hills. Therefore, at present, the entire industry still has not been able to explore a stable profit model, and the professional and technical personnel are uneven, which has also become a hidden danger for the future survival and development of LiveHouse.
as a business
After wandering between ideal and reality, Xiaoke took a safe approach, opened a bar first, and used the stable revenue of the bar to gradually realize the ideal LiveHouse. At present, the annual turnover of Xiaoke’s bar is about 3 million, and the profit is stable.
Many LiveHouse managers are musicians. Out of their love for music, they initially ventured into LiveHouse, a high-risk investment regardless of cost. Founded in 1997, the famous Wenqing check-in place and the veteran-level LiveHouse Chengdu Bistro have also begun to have age anxiety. “Including the aging of the brand, the extension of the brand is a problem we are constantly facing. Next It is also a question whether to go small or big,” said Shi Lei, the founder of Chengdu Bistro.
Bars are similar in nature to LiveHouse, but far more profitable than LiveHouse. In contrast, LiveHouse is a model that relies on bands and focuses on content operations, and it is difficult to achieve a high degree of standardization and the implementation of chain stores in a short period of time like bars. Costs remain high and revenue struggles. However, Meng Jinhui found that a large number of bars collapsed during the epidemic, and young people urgently needed intermediate products like LiveHouse to meet cultural needs.
The LiveHouse soil, which has been cultivated for many years, has ushered in Internet capital such as Damai and Xiudong in the past two years. Wang Di, the director of the Hangzhou Wine Club, said that after the band has improved its business capabilities and gained greater popularity from LiveHouse, which is the starting point of its career, it will inevitably move to a larger platform, and it is unlikely to give back to LiveHouse, which started performing at the beginning.
In the absence of high-quality content, high rent costs and increased competition, LiveHouse practitioners are trying to explore more possibilities in operations. They began to re-examine the positioning of LiveHouse, and gradually realized the essence: to treat LiveHouse as a business, not just a feeling.
At present, almost all LiveHouses can have performances on weekends, but the mid-week market is generally ignored, and the venue space is seriously wasted. It is understood that the LiveHouse with the most domestic performances is Shenzhen HOU LIV. The reason why it can do the most shows is because HOU LIV has developed afternoon and midnight shows and makes full use of the spare time during the week. According to the host Papaya, HOU LIV has performed many afternoon performances since 2019. Although it was difficult for the bands invited at the beginning to accept the special afternoon performances, they have been encouraging them for the past two years. In 2021, HOU LIV has been able to achieve every month. 50%-60% of afternoon performances.
In response to the lack of band performances in third- and fourth-tier cities, industry practitioners have proposed a “venue alliance” plan. Wang Di believes that LiveHouse can form an alliance for unified procurement. “Because the waist band has insufficient effective working hours every year, it is not that they are unwilling to perform.” Chen Honshi also suggested that the band should be packaged in a pool, and targeted to match Cities of different levels, “for example, this pool is dedicated to bands suitable for third- and fourth-tier performances, because even if they were asked to perform in first-tier cities, they would not be able to accept it at first. By dividing with bands or guaranteeing the bottom line, joint cooperation is considered Send him there, and he will slowly get up.”
Samples from Shanghai and Anhui
What hinders LiveHouse moving forward is the issue of the establishment of venue attributes. This is a problem that LiveHouse practitioners first hope to solve.
According to the above-mentioned organizer staff, unlike bars, theaters and other subjects, there is no precise definition of LiveHouse in terms of policy. Currently, only the Shanghai area separates LiveHouse from traditional theaters and bars, and is classified as a “new space for performing arts” for management.
Shanghai’s “New Space for Performing Arts” has expanded from shopping malls, cultural and creative parks, bookstores, and live houses to hotels, restaurants, cafes, art centers, tourist attractions, cruise ships, etc., and includes immersive dramas, talk show performance venues, etc. new business. Jin Lei, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, once mentioned that by the end of 2021, there will be 100 new performing arts spaces in Shanghai, covering 13 districts in the city. They add vitality to the city, provide a stage for newcomers, and allow citizens to get close to art. The exploration and practice of Shanghai’s implementation of the important concept of people’s city construction.
The attributes are not clear, and the supervision of LiveHouse is not targeted. “LiveHouse needs to sell tickets, so it needs to be approved, but if it is classified as a bar or theater, LiveHouse needs to be approved and supervised by the bar or theater. This is double supervision.” The above-mentioned organizer staff said.
The development of LiveHouse is closely related to local cultural policy. The forum was finally held at the ON THE WAY performance site in Hefei, Anhui Province. The site selection has ulterior motives, “I want my colleagues to learn about the complete ecological industry chain they have built.” Zhu Ning said.
With the ON THE WAY performance site (LiveHouse) as the core, with a total area of nearly 3,000 square meters, an “Anhui Original Music Base” ecosystem has been built, including small theaters, recording studios, rehearsal rooms, music classrooms, music exhibition halls, music bars, music Cafes, cultural and creative shops, etc. According to Lao Bao, the live director of the ON THE WAY performance in Hefei, Anhui, the content of LiveHouse should not be limited to band performances, but should link all content with music culture to gain more possibilities for monetization.
The performance of ON THE WAY in Hefei, Anhui is hidden in Lu Street, Baohe District. The state-owned enterprises behind this characteristic block have given ON THE WAY great support. “They gave me such a large area. If they rented it to a bath center or KTV, they would earn more than the rent. He asked me to come not to earn him rent money, but to enrich the space and make the neighborhood more attractive. You have to have a cultural soul.” Lao Bao said.
Lao Bao believes that the cultural industry is different from other industries and needs more attention and support from the government and society. “If every city in China has such enterprises and is willing to help the cultural industry, then the cultural market in China and the people’s The spiritual life will definitely be improved.”
The manager of Lanzhou Kuiyinyue forgives and expects: “Whether we can introduce corresponding development policies for the industry that really cares about artists’ music in the future.” For example, like Shanghai, each city defines LiveHouse and formulates its own standards. In addition, for LiveHouse practitioners, the number of people directly affects the box office ceiling, that is, revenue. It is understood that most practitioners believe that the current regulatory authority’s assessment standards for the number of people do not apply to livehouses, which is unreasonable.
Compared with big cities, livehouses in third- and fourth-tier cities are more eager for cultural support. Tongling Dynamics LiveHouse, Changzhi Weiwa LiveHouse, Qianjiang Fan LiveHouse, Jingdezhen Renaissance and other principals all mentioned it, hoping that the local area can regard LiveHouse as a concentrated space for local music, maintain active cooperation with the cultural and tourism industry, and become a national cultural linkage The first line of (tour), filling more content for the development of local cultural tourism.
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