The Allman Brothers Band just finished their annual concert event at the Beacon Theater in New York known to fans as “Beacon Run”. It’s a 15 night concert event that the Allman Brothers have been doing since 1989.
Now, the Allman Brothers are a little before my time but I can appreciate 40 years of success. What I can appreciate even more is the online property they have created to view all 15 nights called Moogis. For $125, Allman Brothers’ fans across the nation can watch every night of the concert event from their computers. Whether they are here in Los Angeles or across the Pacific in Hong Kong, at the office or hooked up to the media centers, fans can watch 15 nights of great music without having to be there.
The Allman’s had a vision:
Five years ago Butch Trucks, a founding member and drummer of the Allman Brothers Band, had a vision of how the Internet could bring the live concert experience into people’s homes around the world, expanding the audience of a live concert to many thousands of music-loving fans. But this would be more than just another streaming video service that didn’t care about the content itself – it would be an extended community that felt that same magical bond that comes over a crowd during that roar of approval after a soaring solo.
In a time when the economics of music are failing for the performer, the Allmans have found a way to connect fans, create incremental revenue, and take advantage of technology.
I believe this same vision needs to be applied to live comedy. Live comedy shows from the Improv, Laugh Factory, Carolines, etc. should be made available live online and on-demand.
Nothing surpasses the experience of seeing comedy live. Just like nothing beats seeing sports live or music live. But sometimes people just can’t get there. The schedule doesn’t work out, too many family obligations…the reasons are numerous. Now imagine being able to log into your computer in Los Angeles and seeing all the live comedy going on in NY. Or even better, imagine a live comedy venue in Los Angeles being able to generate revenue from people in Des Moines, Iowa. The internet makes this possible. The technology that the Allman Brothers use makes this possible. Comedy venues and comedians simply need to move beyond the fear of being seen live by more than 200 people at a time.
At first thought, the business model would probably function similarly to cable television. Providers of comedy content (comedy venues in this case) would be paid a certain amount per subscriber to the service. If you aren’t familiar, cable operators like Comcast and TimeWarner pay cable content providers like ESPN a fee per subscriber for use of their content. I believe ESPN gets paid a lot because of how important and recognizable it is (would you subscribe to cable if it didn’t have ESPN…no thanks!). The cable operators then make you pay a fee for access to that content in the form of a subscription. In most cases, this puts the cable operator and the content provider on the same side because both make more money with more subscribers.
The Improv (in aggregate) for example could demand a decent rate simply because of all of the content they create nightly across the country.
I can see someone paying $50/year for the right to view all the live stand-up comedy they want. The revenue the site then pays back to the venues is all incremental, to cover operating expenses and hopefully pay comedians. I don’t know if this subscription rate is too high or too low, but in order for this to work, I think it would have to be something VERY reasonable. I can see up-sells or additional packages that include live comedy concerts in partnership with companies like Live Nation.
It’s time that we make watching live comedy easy for people all over the country. It’s time we move beyond clips and ad models to a subscription model that delivers value in the form of live comedy. It’s time comedy venues and comedians embrace technology and it’s ability to generate incremental revenue and connect fans.
