Yesterday, the popular Dutch artists ‘Nick & Simon’, successfully tested a new form of presenting their performance to their audience. Their theatre concert “Sterker in Carré” was broadcasted live in 55 cinemas across the Netherlands. 

Tickets for the live concert, performed in the famous Royal Carré Theatre in Amsterdam, were sold out within 2 hours in presales. As a result, a large number of fans did not manage to secure a concert ticket. In order not to disappoint those fans, the concert was streamed live in 55 cinemas across the Netherlands. According to Kyra Kuppens, event manager at Pathé Cinemas, the ticket sale for the live stream was phenomenal from the start. The concert was meant to promote the duo’s new record, ‘Sterker’, which is already an instant success. Although the album isn’t released until the 21st of September, 25.000 copies were pre-ordered already, which makes it a golden record, even before release. This is a great example of artists responding to the fans demands, by out-of-the-box thinking initiatives. 

For Cinemec, a theatre in the town of Ede and one of the participators in this event, the innovative business of offering live streams of concerts in their cinema is well beyond the pilot stage. Through satellite connections,  they show opera, ballet, theatre and concerts on the big screen, broadcasted from New York, Paris, Moscow and London. It is interesting to see how other forms of art, apart from film, are now embracing video-platforms to reach a bigger audience. For example last summer, major music festivals, such as Tomorrowland and Lowlands, used YouTube to stream their concerts. Additionally, for cinemas, this is an interesting business model; by expanding to art forms other than film, cinemas could engage a broader crowd, beyond movie fans. 

Future of Copyright follows developments in innovative business initiatives with interest; previous articles can be found by clicking the links below: 

• Music festival Lowlands streams live on YouTube channel
• YouTube invests another $200 million in its professional video channels
• Warner Music: streaming services generated turnover of $15 million in 2011
• Cinemac: Innovative movietheater gives cinema experience new boost

Sources: Cloud9Music, Cinemec, Nu.nl

Written by: Nathalie Falot