Shenrancaijing original
Author | Wanqi
Edit | Li Qiuhan
In addition to travel photos, there are music festival scenes that can be swiped in the circle of friends.
"Many little girls came to the festival in line early in the morning with their suitcases, and some flew in from the north and south of the world to watch one or two bands perform for 40 minutes." An industry insider shared with Deep Burn.
Although some music festivals have been cancelled due to the impact of the epidemic, according to the statistics of a Little Red Book blogger, there are still nearly 20 music festival performances in the 7 days of National Day, and the resurrected shrimp music has opened an indoor music festival for 6 consecutive days. According to the official announcement of the performance lineup, Zhao Lei, Jiang Yunsheng, Pain Yang, Second-hand Rose and other popular musicians or bands, at least two per capita, Zhou Shen, Zhou Zhennan, Zhang Shaohan and other star singers are also among them. Even though the holidays are over, there are at least five more festivals in mid-to-late October.
According to the "2021 May Day Performance Observation" released by Damai Data, there were 56 music festivals across the country during the five-day holiday, an increase of 37% over the same period in 2019, and the box office and attendance increased by 252% and 173% respectively compared with 2019.
This is a market that is clearly exploding.
In addition to strawberries, wheat fields, M_DSK, midi and other music festival IP that already has a certain reputation and reputation, in recent years, the music festival has been deeply integrated with the cultural tourism industry, and such as the Jiuzhaigou World Traveler Conference and the Gobi Paradise Baichuang Film-level Pioneer Music Festival have been developed. At the same time, the downward trend of music festivals is obvious. According to the research report of Wanlian Securities, the music festival is presented in terms of geographical distribution, with Shandong Province as the center in the north and Hebei, Henan and other provinces, and the Central Plains region has become a popular performance area this year.
It was unthinkable that the first three years of the Midi Festival, in order to attract audiences, were once free admission. A well-known music critic once described the current music festival as follows: "Music companies make money through music festivals, host cities promote urban image and sightseeing tourism through music festivals, and real estate developers hang cultural labels on future real estate through music festivals." ”
The stars are coming, the audience is coming, and the capital is coming, but are the practitioners behind the music festival business really ready for work?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" who is "joining" the festival >? </h1>
In the words of veteran music fans, the music festival has changed. This is reflected in both the lineup and the audience.
Judging from the performance lineup of the music festival, the proportion of "traffic-oriented artists, including singers and idols" is very large, which is a significant change in recent years. Senior music fan Lily told Deep Burn. For example, the National Day Cactus Music Festival invited Zhou Zhennan, the former captain of the boy band R1SE, and the Luck Alliance, which became popular through the talent show "Tomorrow's Children Orchestra Season". In the guest lineup announced by the Chengdu station of the 2021 MAX Music Festival in November, there is the popular boy group INTO1, which has just been selected from "Creation Camp 2021", and zhang Yunlei, a cross-talk actor.
Everyone is keen to participate in the music festival, and an artist management practitioner told Shen Yan that on the one hand, because most singers do not have the strength and funds to open concerts, and the music festival performed by the "platter" can just make up for it.
On the other hand, the epidemic has been repeated, and it is difficult for offline performances to unfold. "I didn't dare to open a concert, and some singers who were stuck at home didn't announce it. In particular, variety shows, including "China's New Rap", "Summer of the Band", and even some idol singers who were drafted, have begun to run music festivals," Lily also mentioned.
In order to attract more consumers, the organizers are also trying to enrich the lineup. Zhao Wumian, brand director of BaifuKu Holdings, the sponsor of the Beijing M_DSK Music Festival, told Shen Yan that they chose to prefer hip-hop music festivals in the sponsorship of the festival, which is also the reason for joining hands with Modern Sky, which has a rap label. In the preparatory process, the two sides will negotiate the choice of artist singer in advance. The arrival of idols and stars is more direct to the general public, and it can also make the music festival publicity open up its popularity faster.
The festival tore off the band's label and tended to tilt towards the offline platter scene. The change of the lineup has made the crowd attracted by the music festival become wider, and there has also been a fusion problem facing the breaking circle.
One of the music festivals is a veteran music fan who feels the heat wave of music on the spot. One is to see it as a way of recreation, with young people coming from out of town to track music scenes, from the city center to the suburbs. "It's like asking friends to run to an open place to play." Lily said that the girls would dress up and run to the scene of the music festival to punch in.
There is also a new influx of fans. Searching for music festivals on Weibo, fans rent light signs for their idols, which is a rare preparation for music fans to participate in music festivals before.
Fan Zhou Xing told Shen Yan that the reason why he chose to buy a ticket to chengdu to participate in the Chao Pan Music Festival was because of star Zhou Shen. "Fans will organize reinforcements and will hold up blue signs that night." Li Yue was once a music festival fan, and now is a fan of zhang Yanqi, a former member of the boy band R1SE, who participated in the Taihu Bay Music Festival, and she said that fans cherish the opportunity of this kind of offline performance, and will participate in the star chasing in the future.
Fans have shown stronger spending power for idol performances, which also makes the music festival more likely to harvest. Although in the final analysis, the young people participating in the music festival will come to the lineup, there is a certain gap between the new and old audiences. For example, Zhou Xing and Li Yue both said to Shen Yan that if they were not their idols, they would not participate in the music festival again.
Fan Fan, a veteran music fan, told Shen Yan that some fans came for one or two people's bands or stars, and they had not heard other singers' songs before, and the hi points on the scene could not be felt. For him, some idol singers appeared, "I will definitely not run to the front to hi, one is that I have not heard their songs, and the other is that their fans will still wear light signs, which will spoil the atmosphere."
This conflict is not small, some music fans sighed on Weibo, can you let the love beans open a platter together? "Why should the audience be strong, now the ticket price is high, the sense of experience is poor, and it is tired and crowded for more than ten hours of standing."
How to break the circle and integrate is what the gradually expanding music festival is facing and needs to be solved.
Still, Lu Xiansen's lead singer Doubly doesn't feel completely bad. He told Deep Flame that the organizers welcome the arrival of different consumer groups, after all, the tickets are not divided, the more people participate in the better, from the consumer side, the music festival does face a kind of cultural shock, from the beginning of a little contradiction, to slowly get used to, will integrate a new culture, "the band's music must be heard by more people, let different people hear, it is possible to transform into people who like them", he said.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="31" > festival more "value"? </h1>
The music festival market is booming, but the influx of such a large area of new people, how to undertake them, is the problem facing the industry.
Li Hongjie, the planner of the music festival, mentioned in an interview with First Finance and Economics that he had been planning the music festival for 13 years, and until now, he dared to say that he had entered the door. "It's too tough to do music festivals, it's too complicated, and every year there are new problems that you don't expect. Planning a music festival is equivalent to creating a temporary town, you are responsible for the food and drink of tens of thousands of people, from catering, health to safety, all have to do a good job. And, security comes first. ”
In terms of service guarantee, the level of music festivals varies. According to Lily's observation, some mature music festivals will have medical teams, but some of the newly emerging music festivals are not medically passed, and some have not seen the relevant configuration. Accommodation transportation also needs to be considered, some netizens complained on Weibo, some new music festivals can not search for raiders on the Internet, remote location, "do not know where to live appropriately."
In addition to the on-site service, the audience is more concerned about the quality of the festival.
Lily took advantage of the National Day to go to a music festival, she complained about the deep burning, the scene was particularly bad, the stage, choreography, lighting, sound is not very good. As an independent musician, Ang Lee also expressed concerns about the quality of music, "Now some of the bands on the festival are of poor quality, and some musicians make songs that will pick popular words, which is suspected of pleasing the audience." He said.
Doubly mentioned to Shen Yan that the band participating in the music festival will provide the organizer with a list of musical equipment, which is very important for the presentation of the performance effect, and it is also the place where the organizer needs to work hard, but the situation he may encounter is, "After arriving, you communicate well, and the other party gives you a different on-site arrangement", he felt that it is not in accordance with the preparation of advance communication, and should also be informed in advance, so that the band has time to make other preparations.
A lot of music festivals have worked publicity, and big money has been spent on the main artists of music festivals, and equipment is often ignored. They'll think you're coming, and you're sure you'll be able to act. In fact, the real performance needs to be coordinated by many conditions, in addition to the equipment can make a sound, but also to understand what the band needs to present, in order to ensure the experience of the audience. "Multiply sigh.
It is doubtful whether the experience of the festival has gotten better, but an objective fact is that tickets have become more expensive.
From the perspective of the industry, many people express deep combustion, which is a reasonable phenomenon. An industry insider explained that after the demand expands, the price will naturally rise, referring to the competition "concert" of the music festival, the middle-to-high ticket price is above 1,000 yuan, for the fans who chase the stars, the price of a music festival is five or six hundred yuan, which is acceptable. "Most of the festival tickets are good, and some of the head music festival tickets are snatched in seconds." Zhao Wuxian is very optimistic about the music festival market and is planning to further cooperate with some music festivals.
But consumers, are they really willing to accept it?
Fan Fan said he has been chasing music festivals since his freshman year and has chased nearly 20 shows so far. "Some music festivals will set multiple levels like concerts, and the price is similar to watching a concert." On May Day this year, the Star Nest Secret Music Festival was reported by the media for 888 yuan, and the ticket price of the National Day, Chengdu Cactus Music Festival, there are 588 yuan, 788 yuan, 988 yuan, 1388 yuan four files, in 2018, its live ticket price is only 300 yuan.
For those fans who come from other places to rush to the scene, the cost is even greater. Zhou Xing bought a ticket for 699 yuan, but with the addition of one night's accommodation and travel expenses, it cost nearly three thousand yuan. "It's three months of my living expenses." Zhou Xing said that if it were not for the idol, he would not participate in the music festival again.
On social platforms, there are not a few voices complaining about the higher ticket prices of music festivals but the worse experience. Even Ang Lee, an independent musician, mentioned that he felt that some of the festival ticket prices were "not worth it".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="48" would > festival be better? </h1>
The festival is in a dividend period, which is indeed a good thing that can generate revenue.
As far as the music industry itself is concerned, Modern Sky CEO Shen Lihui mentioned in an interview with the outside world that the band has a fixed singing remuneration for participating in the music festival, before "The Summer of the Band", the new pants were 400,000 per show, and the pain was 450,000, and China had 300 music festivals a year, singing 20 times, and the annual income could be close to 10 million. Ang Lee revealed that now because of the pull of the head band, the appearance fee of non-first- and second-tier bands has also risen. The level of the artist list is increased, and the ticket price can also be higher.
It can make music creators get considerable income, and the consumption it drives cannot be ignored. For many cities, some venues and amusement parks have been opened up to become music festivals, which can also stimulate the local economy, increase income generation, and drive local cultural tourism. A taxi master in a northern city said that every time a music festival is held in the suburbs, he goes back and forth to the city twice a night and can earn 400 yuan.
Doubly mentioned that when the music festival model first began to rise, there was a lot of capital coming in from all over the world, and there were also some unprofessional organizers, but the chaos has been reduced.
In the Internet era, bad reviews can be spread thousands of miles, in the view of Doubly, if the music festival is particularly poor, it will immediately be criticized and evidenced by music fans, and it is likely that there will be no next time. Under this mechanism, practitioners will continue to be forced to improve their professional standards, "if you really want to do music festival industry, you will inevitably improve the overall level, from equipment to service, do not want to improve, will definitely be eliminated."
Although a large number of new music festivals have appeared, Shen Lihui once mentioned that "about 20% of the music festivals that can be held for more than three consecutive years are less than 20".
After years of working in the industry, he was puzzled that "we saw that the whole market was prosperous, there were so many performances, and various music festivals were going up", but he felt that the real prosperity should not be like this.
"In a truly healthy market, what is consumed should be the content itself, consuming its cultural attributes, so that good creators and organizers can obtain the same input-output ratio", according to his observation, music festivals are becoming a way of life, you can drink, make friends, chase stars, no longer limited to listening to music. That is to say, in the current boom, what people come to consume is not the music content itself.
In the eyes of some people, the current music festival, "music form" has been higher than "music value". "People think music festivals are fashionable and cultural, but are they coming to feel the music? In fact, it may be an attitude to life. This attitude to life, which can represent the trend, can be music or something else," Said Doubly.
But he didn't feel the need to worry too much. "After that, the market will shrink and it is unlikely that there will be such a large area of barbaric growth as it is now." The public's appreciation level, ability to identify, and young people's music consumption have been much better than before. This needs to be cultivated slowly, and the development of the industry needs to be expanded first, and more young people need to come in first. He said.
The really healthy market is that every group of people with different types of music has enough spending power to let creators have income, and people are willing to go to a music festival for the sake of the music itself, not just for the sake of photos and catching trends. "It's still getting better, don't worry," Doubi said.
*The caption and the accompanying images in the text are from Pexels. At the request of the interviewees, Li An, Li Li, Zhao Wuxian, Li Yue, Zhou Xing, and Fan Fan are pseudonyms.