Concert network Sofar Sounds claims that artists have generated nearly $650 million in ticket and merchandise sales since the onset of the pandemic through the company’s self-serve, direct-to-fan Concert Listings tool.
The company revealed the figure in a recent blog post, highlighting its most recent updates on how it is expanding its efforts to support artists.
It follows a recent report by Variety stating that Sofar has made a comeback after facing significant challenges during the pandemic, paying out more than $30 million to artists since the pandemic.
The company confirmed these figures in its most recent blog post, saying, “Sofar directly paid artists over $30m for performing at Sofar shows and running fan reward or VIP campaigns through Sofar.”
The majority of Sofar shows feature three artists, each performing a 20-25 minute set to an audience. These unique performances take place in non-traditional spaces, with Sofar taking responsibility for filling the venues. Sofar ensures a minimum artist payment of $100 per show, which increases based on the size of the audience.
Looking ahead to 2023, Sofar says that it has plans to host thousands of shows across 78 countries, featuring tens of thousands of performances.
“Most of us that work here are musicians and music is what drives us. Our live shows are all about artist discovery, creating a listening room for artists and community in non-traditional spaces across 78 countries.”
Sofar Sounds
“Sofar exists because of artists. Most of us that work here are musicians and music is what drives us. Our live shows are all about artist discovery, creating a listening room for artists and community in non-traditional spaces across 78 countries,” the company said.
Sofar said it beefed up its offerings to artists following its acquisition of Seated, an artist services company offering touring artists ticketing services and tour promotion tools, in February 2021.
The company said it is focused on the artist as its customer, noting that one of the top challenges that it has consistently heard from artists is that they are exhausted creating video content to ‘feed the beast,’ trying to keep up with the pressure of constantly posting social media videos that take them away from creating music.
“Musicians are artists NOT content creators.”
Sofar Sounds
“Musicians are artists NOT content creators. Musicians are Artists,” said Sofar.
Sofar has also embarked on developing new products and services.
Among its offerings, called Layers, is a video creation suite integrated into music recording software.
This lets musicians produce short-form videos that can be shared with their audience.
Before the pandemic, Sofar, in May 2019 said it had raised $25 million to fuel its global expansion.
It then partnered with Signia Creative, a division of the private investment office Signia, and UK-based charity Help Musicians on a series of shows to raise funds to support musicians.
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