Evan Lowenstein has a pretty amazing story to tell: His company pulled in more money in the last 2 weeks ($884k, he says) than it did all of last year ($500k).
Why so successful? The pandemic has delivered ready-made audiences to companies in a few select industries. After 11 years in relative obscurity, Variety says Stageit has finally found its big stage.
The pandemic crushed the touring business for artists around the world. Musicians are entertaining quarantined listeners with homebrew sets on Facebook Live and Instagram — but on those platforms, there’s typically no way for the artists to get paid.
Stageit gives artists a platform to pick set times and ticket prices, with a virtual tip jar. The musicians keep 80% of the money.
Lowenstein says 25k artists have signed up with Stageit over the years, but most didn’t actually play a show. In recent weeks, 5k+ performers have signed on or reactivated their old accounts.
Live-streamed Coachella used to be for bummed-out music fans who couldn’t snag a ticket to Indio. But now that we can’t leave our houses, digital festivals are popping up everywhere.
Just one example: The subscription-based Live From Out There recently made $100k in a single weekend.