February 28, 2022
“Digital Performance” refers to online performances and art exhibitions against the backdrop of digitization. With the development of digital technology and the globalization of Internet infrastructures, traditional live performances and art exhibitions have been upgraded and transformed digitally. In general, the performing arts industry and cultural tourism industry belong to a typical “onsite” and “offline” economy. They were restricted by space, time, weather, and other conditions. Audiences can’t enjoy the performances anytime and anywhere. Internet technology has brought diversified ways of visiting and exhibiting and created a series of brand-new virtual exhibition spaces, such as online theater and digital theater. In 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 has caused significant impacts on offline performances and art exhibitions, and also opened a window of opportunity for the integrated digital upgrade of the global performing arts market, creating a space of communication for the coexistence and sharing of diverse cultures. The combination of performing arts, new technology, and infrastructure not only influences the future development of Poly Culture North America but also puts forward a new proposition in the era for deepening cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries and breaking cultural barriers.
The revenue of global recorded music market revenue rose in 2020 against the backdrop of COVID-19 in 2020. The streaming services played the leading role in the growth of revenue and successfully made up for the losses created by other forms.1 Digital performance has become a new opportunity for the development of the performing arts industry at home and abroad in the “post-pandemic” era.
(1) Background of “Digital Performance”
The integration of the performing arts industry and the Internet did not happen overnight. As early as 2005, popular offline performances in America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and other regions were available on various websites for global Internet users. With the explosive development of Internet technology in all fields, the integration of the global performing arts industry and technology has been further deepened. The era of “Digital Performance” has officially launched.
The globalization of digital infrastructure has pushed the maturity of the new models of “Internet + Performance” and “Internet + Art Exhibition”. Among them, the application and combination of 5G and AI technology have provided transformational technological support for the global “digital performance” market. 5G is short for the Fifth Generation Mobile Communication Technology. It is a new generation of broadband mobile communication technology featured by high speed, low latency, and large connections. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology that uses machines to realize intelligent activities. It is characterized by deep learning and intelligent interconnection. The combination of 5G and AI technology has significantly improved the clarity and smoothness of online videos. The immersive and real-time interactive mode of its videos has provided Internet users around the world with a better viewing experience.
The global “Digital Performance” is supported by four technologies. First, the even better 4K, VR/AR/MR/XR, and the immersive holographic technology realize the immersive online performance. Second, the “5G+AI” technology cluster realizes the intelligent construction of cultural consumption scenes with high-speed data transmission, precise information push, and intelligent data analysis. Third, big data and artificial intelligence technology make the intelligent push and precise distribution of cultural consumption come true by analyzing the user persona precisely, transforming offline consumption into online consumption. Fourth, the Internet of Things, digital computing, and other technologies gather all kinds of terminals into the interconnected system, making the construction of smart platforms a new trend. With the application of 5G and AI technology in the performance and art exhibition industry, the potential of “Digital Performance” will be released tremendously.2
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit heavily on the live-performing industry. Live music with ticket sales as its core, currently accounts for more than half of the global music industry’s revenue, with overall estimates exceeding $50 billion.3 The outbreak of COVID-19 caused the decline of the global revenue of the live music industry by 75% in the 2020 year on year,4 but it also created an opportunity for the online-performance market. Online ticket sales reached $600 million in 2020; From June to November 2020, live concerts on Bandsintown, a global website that offers performance and ticketing information, grew from 1.9% to 40.7%.5
In the first half of 2020, the number of users watching online music performances in China exceeded 80 million.6 In February of the same year, Modern Sky hosted a live stream “Strawberry Music Festival” in Bilibili, and took the lead in moving the performance stage online. The viewers of the live streaming reached a total of more than 1 million. The peak number of viewers was about 490,000, and the highest number of bullet chatting of one day reached more than 100,000. In April of the same year, American singer Lady Gaga and Global Citizen jointly initiated the online charity concert “One World: Together At Home”, which successfully raised USD 127.9 million. The pandemic has made the global public became increasingly inclined to enjoy performances and art exhibitions through online means. The information gap of performances between different countries has been constantly narrowed. National boundaries were no longer the barrier of cultural exchanges.
In addition to the impact of COVID-19, the performing arts industry is also in urgent need of breaking away from the constraints of area costs, personnel expenses, and physical space and finding new opportunities. According to the survey, the continually rising ticket prices and declining audiences have become the two new problems for the current European music festivals, limiting the development of music festivals.7 The traditional live-performing industry needs to expand its industrial chain by breaking the boundary with the “online + offline” performing model. The traditional performances and art exhibitions that were confined to a single culture are also constantly breaking cultural restrictions and spreading from regional exhibitions to global ones.
At present, the digital exploration of the cultural exhibition industry mainly includes the following three forms. The first one is virtual performance. The sponsor normally uses holographic projection and other forms to promote the visual effect of the offline concert. For example, the concert of the virtual singer “Hatsune Miku” developed by Crypton Future Media in Japan simulates Hatsune Miku’s performance through holographic projection has successfully held more than 50 concerts around the world. The second one is long-distance viewing. The sponsor holds online performances through digital channels, such as high-speed 5G communication networks or even VR devices, so that audiences can watch the performances in real-time through various mobile terminals. The third one is the digital cultural exhibition and virtual cultural tourism. This form aims to achieve the “digital” expansion of creation, production, and promotion through the digital transformation and development of cultural resources.
(2) Advantages of “Digital Performance”
“Digital Performance” is different from digital and online performance. The former envisages fundamentally how performances create value for audiences and explore the performing model in the digital world, while the latter is a value-added service derived from the traditional performing arts industry. It is the initial stage during the development of “Digital Performance”. In recent years, the pursuit and construction of the “Metaverse” by the cutting-edge technical professions represented by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, also makes the “Digital Performance” an industry with more profound and broad prospects for development.
Watching shows and performances on computers, phones and tablets are completely different from that of live performances. Theater gives audiences a natural sense of ritual, for it requires audiences to select the plays carefully, purchase tickets, arrange a special time and then enjoy the whole play quietly and completely. “Digital Performance” breaks these limits. Bandwagon, an Asian digital entertainment website, listed “8 reasons why it is cool to watch concerts online during the quarantine time”: No need to wait for the “World Tour” that never makes it to Asia; The current price is more affordable; No traffic jams, no parking anxiety; You can enjoy the show with comfortable clothes while lying on a comfortable chair or bed. You don’t need to smell strangers’ sweat or beer; You will never miss any moment of online shows; no extra spending on snacks and drinks; You can enjoy the show with friends and relatives who live far away at the same time.
As for the lack of on-site atmosphere and interaction when enjoying the “Digital Performance”, relevant performing arts companies have already started to explore stronger interactive experiences. For example, audiences can vote in advance for performance track and performing places, choose their favorite shooting angle in real-time, participate more in the interactive activities during the performance. Top Hits Online Music Festival Thailand 2020 uses a variety of interactive methods and AR approaches, including a giant 360° screen that displays live images of audiences, allowing performers not only to notice some particular audiences but also to talk with them, which is almost impossible at a regular concert.
“Digital Performance” has a variety of advantages that live performance does not have. First, it breaks away from the restriction of venue. The size of audiences will no longer be limited by the capacity of the theater, concert hall, stadium, and other performance venues. It realizes a leap-forward expansion of the size of audiences from ten-thousand to one million; Second, it breaks away from the geographical constraints so that audiences from different locations and time zones around the world can enjoy the same high-quality performances at the same time; Third, it breaks away from the limitation of time. The digital resources uploaded to the cloud can be downloaded at any time, allowing audiences to watch performances repeatedly at any time; Fourth, it breaks away from the limitation of storage space. The application of nearly infinite cloud storage space realizes the high-resolution and high-quality storage of performances.
Digital Performance is an excellent opportunity for music and technology companies to cooperate. In addition to pop music, classical music is also looking for breakthroughs in applying new technologies. Established Music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music have massive classical Music reserves, with Apple Music alone boasting over 500,000 classical Music albums. In 2021, Apple acquired classical music streaming company Primephonic, with plans to improve the current Apple Music service and launch a dedicated classical music product in 2022. In addition, new classical music streaming apps are popping up, such as IDAGIO, named one of the best inventions of 2019 by Time magazine, which provides video and audio streaming to music lovers in more than 160 countries worldwide.
A growing number of classical music orchestras, radio stations, and music lovers are experimenting with new interpretations on YouTube or podcasts. A new KOL from Shanghai, China, is one of the be best. The classical instrument players dressed in different costumes of different dynasties play the qin, drums, or pipa, with the scenery full of Oriental meaning, let the audience as if through time back to the ancient feast music. Videos of the group’s performances have been viewed more than 100 million times on Bilibili and YouTube.
By January 2021, there were 4.66 billion Internet users and 4.2 billion social media users worldwide. The average time spent online is around 7 hours.8 The competitors of video and music platforms are no longer limited to their peers, but also games, e-commerce, and social media, for they all need to capture the attention and time of Internet users. To increase the appeal of content, Netflix, HBO, and other platforms are producing their own content, expanding the categories of content available online. In addition to specialized video and music websites, social media such as YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, and entertainment media including Billboard are also focusing on high-quality “Digital Performance”. On Twitch alone, viewing time of music and performing arts categories increased by 524% in March 2020, while Instagram Live usage surged by 70%. Moreover, video games such as “Fortnite” and “Minecraft” also have started hosting online concerts, attracting millions of viewers from around the world by using augmented reality and extended reality to improve the performance quality.
In this “battle against time”, offline quality performances and art exhibitions provide diverse content with viscosity for video websites, differentiating it with games, E-commerce, and other new media platforms. Not only did it effectively enhance the dimensions and quality of the contents, but also became a major carrier that attracted new, especially young users. Chinese video websites such as IQiyi, Tencent Video, Youku, and so on have opened channels on global video websites YouTube, attracting millions of subscribers. High-quality plays, performances, and exhibitions from around the world have attracted more audiences through collaboration with great platforms, creating opportunities for video platforms to attract more users.
Professionals from the performing arts industry received the heaviest strike from the outbreak of COVID-19. The main source of income of artists, technicians, sound engineers, and other professionals largely relies on live performances. Although they cannot earn a substantial amount of money through streaming media platforms at present, the development of “Digital Performance” has opened up a new channel for them to increase income and withdraw cash, creating a healthier industrial ecology. In addition, online performances also provide a practical diversion effect of traffics for albums, entertainment shows, and live concerts.
In June 2020, Korean pop group BTS held its “BangBang Con” concert. This 100-minute concert was live-streamed via the company’s self-developed mobile app WeVerse. The concert attracted 756,000 audiences from 107 countries and regions while the revenue reached nearly 20 million USD. The concert’s eponymous show attracted at least 50 million viewers, while 2.2 million fans watched it on YouTube, earning BTS a large number of subscribers, as the result, the purchases of streaming media and albums increased as well. Talents and artists can also give full play to new media platforms to attract users, such as starting a channel on Patron, an artist crowdfunding platform, to attract fans to subscribe to their channels and get paid from subscriptions.
Due to the outbreak of the pandemic, the number of foreign artists’ performances in China has declined significantly since 2020, on the other hand, Chinese performances and art exhibitions rarely have the chance to perform abroad. “Digital Performance” creates opportunities for the two sides to conduct communication and exchanges. It also provides more job opportunities and increases incomes for professionals in the Chinese and foreign performing arts industry.
(3) The Trend of “Digital Performance”
According to professional institutions, it is predicted that 65% of global GDP will be driven by digitization by 2022.9 Virtual space and technology will push the upgrading and transformation of the global performing arts market, break the limitation of time and space, and realize the comprehensive integration of performance, art and people’s life. Artists and performing arts institutions with different cultural backgrounds will have more opportunities to collaborate, creating necessary conditions to enrich the cultural dimension of the world and improve the integration of diverse cultures.
Live streaming characterized by real-time interaction is the trend for the next generation of digital applications, especially for social media. Social media platforms with more than 1 billion monthly active users, such as Facebook and Instagram, are promoting their live streaming functions. Their backstage algorithms have also increased the weight of videos, especially live streaming videos. A study by Middlesex University suggested that the popularity of live concerts will remain the same after the pandemic ends, while musicians will be highly motivated to attract new audiences with online methods. The study covered classical and pop music of different genres, showed that 90% of musicians and 92% of fans believe that live streaming attracts audiences who are unable or unwilling to go to live concerts. More than two-thirds of fans believe that online performances will remain an important part of the performance market after the pandemic. 95% of fans recognize the importance of emotional engagement of artists during live concerts; 82% of audiences agreed that performers recognizing their presence in the crowds during live streaming make them feel connected.
In December 2020, the total online ticketing revenue worldwide was 292% higher than in June of the same year.10 While ticket prices for online shows are far lower than those for offline shows, they also provide fresh cash flow as the number of viewers per event exceeded the capacity of a single stadium. In China, NetEase Cloud Music took the lead in exploring the premium model for online music performances, launched the LIVE-supporting project “Light up LIVE Action”. The first paid live show cost 1 yuan, and the second live show cost 12 yuan, bringing in millions of yuan for tickets sales.
At present, online music performance is still in the transition stage from the freemium model to the premium model, but it is still dominated by the freemium model. Despite large audiences and high revenues, most online performances are barely profitable given human cost and production costs. Performing arts companies, artists and talents are trying to increase the actual revenue of online performances by adding value to the experiences of “Digital Performance”, such as designing different ticket prices, arranging digital shows with “limited seating”, and offering online viewers options regarding different video streaming.
Traditional offline performance is a positive display of the stage, focusing on the presentation of the outcome; while “Digital Performance” can display the performance in 360 degrees, which also puts forward new requirements and creates new opportunities for the performance market. In April 2020, the first online drama “Waiting for Godot”, created by Director Wang Chong and actors from Wuhan, was premiered online. From project planning to performance, the whole performing process is completed with online methods as assistance. From art appreciation, background explanation to plot analysis, online performances gradually discovered the new possibilities that offline performance does not have, as well as the new market’s potential.
In recent years, Poly Culture North America has been adapting to the iteration and progress of Internet technologies. Through overseas social media, new media and other channels, it has gradually developed a workable paradigm of “digital performance” in various forms as online exhibition, online performance, and live-streaming lectures.
Poly Culture North America started to activate the online performance market in 2020, which was accelerated by the COVID-19 outbreak. By Nov. 2021, Poly Culture North America has successfully held many Chinese culture-themed online events in Canada, which, as important bricks of the bridge of friendship between China and Canada, responded actively to the Asian Heritage Month. Poly Culture North America and Beijing Forbidden City Concert Hall, an affiliation of Poly Theatre Management Group, and Phantom Creek Estates jointly held “The Oriental Voice” online concert on May 28th, 2021 (Vancouver time) to exhibit to the world traditional Chinese culture. The concert included three chapters: Classics, Nostalgia, and Diversity. It gathered top traditional Chinese ensembles and Chinese folk music performing artists, serving the audio-visual banquet of pipa, erhu, guqin, traditional opera and many other characteristic forms of musical expression from China. The songs performed included Jasmine Flower, Horse Racing, The Peony Pavilion – A Surprising Dream and others well-known to Chinese and foreign music lovers. The purpose of the concert agrees with the original intention of the Asian Heritage Month. It introduced Asian art and culture to the world and complied with the coexistence and development of different ethnic cultures encouraged by the Government of Canada. This online concert was premiered on eight platforms at home and overseas (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Kwai, Yangshipin, Weibo, and WeChat channels) synchronously, and received a large number of followers and comments. This is a useful attempt at “digital performance” of digitalized on-site performance.
Poly Culture North America’s art business has also responded promptly after a short wandering period. Poly Culture North America and Beijing Poly Auction, Poly Art Museum, and Beijing Poly Art Center have jointly launched a series of art webinars named “Poly Online: A View on Art”, which invited top-level guests in the industry to a roundtable discussion over contents covering the world’s greatest paintings, the art of calligraphy—Chinese national essence, jewelry appreciation, trends and analysis of the auction industry, etc. In the discussion, the guests and experts online in Hong Kong and Macau analyzed and interpreted the previous path, present situation and future trends of the art market on the whole. With the help of the online mode, they have continuously introduced Chinese traditional culture to art fans around the world.
In addition, as all physical performance was forced to stop, in Nov. 2020, Poly Culture North America and the Vancouver Academy of Music (VAM), Beijing Forbidden City Concert Hall, an affiliation of Poly Theatre Management Group, and Poly WeDo Music first attempted to put on an online performance—“Music in the Air” digital show, to keep on promoting cultural exchange between China and western countries via the online mode. This online concert took a mini-movie-like form of expression, telling the story of artists in two countries using music to encourage people to pull through the COVID-19 pandemic. The audience not only enjoyed the wonderful performance as on an in-person concert, but also got involved in the plot of the online concert, therefore getting a better experience. It should also be noted that, the Grand Finale of “Music in the Air” digital show—The Same Song was recorded in Vancouver and Beijing separately and mixed together. Such an ingenious yet hard-to-perform way of production is also difficult to achieve in an on-site event.
“Music in the Air” digital show was premiered on 8 major video platforms at home and abroad (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Kwai, Yangshipin, Weibo, and WeChat channels) synchronously, and received all favorable comments. On the first day online, it reached the global views of 180,000. The event was also highly recognized by the Chinese Consulate General in Vancouver, which then included this online concert in its 2021 Chinese New Year reception. The audience may play the concert back repeatedly, which allows for further expansion of the audience group and increase of the views. On Dec. 1, 2021, the online concert reached a total views of 478,900 on overseas social media platforms and the global views of 669,500.
The online concert jointly held by Poly Culture North America and the Vancouver Academy of Music has been praised by local communities and media. During the preparation of the concert, all performers of the Vancouver Academy of Music managed to rehearse and shoot under the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. With high-quality video materials provided within a limited time, they contributed significantly to the success of the concert. This cooperation with the Vancouver Academy of Music has laid a solid foundation for Poly Culture North America’s development of online performance business; in the meantime, it has enriched the content and form of online events and increased the diversity of the topics.
The digital transformation of performances and art exhibitions has become an irresistible general trend around the world.
However, the development of “digital performance” follows its objective rules. Performing art companies should choose the most appropriate way of transformation based on the international situation, industry advances, technical support and the actual conditions. Although online performance offers new ideas for the development of online and in-person concerts in the “post-pandemic era”, in its nature, “digital performance” can never fully replace on-site performance. For example, online performance cannot have total involvement of the audience as on the site of a physical concert; people would listen to the music while doing housework, and might therefore miss the subtleties in the music performance. In addition, although online performance allows the audience to enjoy it in a comfortable space, their viewing experience might be constrained by the lack of professional facilities in such a space—the performance is likely to become the background sound of everyday life.
Live performance, especially a concert, is very special. Emotional communication between artists and the audience will be enlarged infinitely in a finite space. This emotional resonance can hardly be achieved via media. Moreover, on-site performance attaches great importance to sound experience and atmosphere on the venue, which involves the sound effect, atmosphere, special design of the concert hall and other factors. The focus is “hearing (experience)”. Even the most advanced recording technology cannot restore the sound experience and audience experience in the concert hall. Therefore, pop music pays more attention to the “visual” effect is more inclined to use the Internet and new technological means, while classical music is still exploring the field of “digital performance” because of its extreme requirements for sound quality and environment.
The “digital performance” should develop towards discovering the uniqueness of online performance to give the audience the experience they cannot have with physical performance and thus maximize the unique advantages of online performance. Take “Music in the Air” digital show, for example, The Same Song jointly completed by Poly Culture North America and the Vancouver Academy of Music is a huge success, which is profited by the background setting: the Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra’s China tour was put off due to the pandemic, for which Poly WeDo Music children’s chorus went to the first stop in place of the Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra’s China tour to complete the international online cooperation. This complete storyline makes this performance unique and meaningful. In “Music in the Air”, in addition to music playing, the background story told by the host, interviews with the performers, rehearsal footage, etc. make it different from a traditional concert, more like a music film or documentary. The audience can only understand the performance better and get fully involved in the music after knowing the story behind the stage. Therefore, future “digital performance” may introduce a background story, more colorful screens, a clear storyline and other elements not easy to express in traditional on-site performance to show the unique advantages of online performance and attract more audiences online.
Recommendations for Work Upgrading
Offline performance and “digital performance” are not yet fully integrated. However, as technology and the market continue to develop, the two are bound to arrive at the same end. Relevant enterprises and practitioners in the performance industry should on the one hand consider different demands of the audience online and offline to create programs suitable for “digital performance”; on the other hand, we should take into account the differences and similarities between Chinese and foreign cultures to design more inclusive programs that allow the audience of different cultural backgrounds to enjoy. This is both a latent requirement of the performance industry and an inner drive for global cultural communication.
As an important approach for introducing Poly Culture to the world, Poly Culture North America features both distinct characteristics of Chinese culture and deep roots in Canada. It shoulders the responsibility to promote cultural exchanges and mutual understanding between China and Canada. Therefore, Poly Culture North America should tap into and comply with the development trend of “digital performance” and plan its next steps accordingly.
Firstly, expand “digital performance” progressively. Under the impact of the pandemic, the global market of physical performance still faces many uncertainties. Online performance and exhibition, as useful supplements thereto, can expand the business to a proper extent. On the one hand, we should dig into existing resources, bring outstanding works of past performance onto the Internet, and continue the dissemination via YouTube, Facebook and other video platforms and social media; on the other hand, we may make full use of new Internet technologies and performance techniques to plan and prepare dedicated online performance and exhibition, further exploring the potential of “digital performance”.
Secondly, enhance the awareness of the protection of intellectual property. In recent years, the international community has seen raised awareness of the protection of intellectual property. Many countries have developed policies and measures to protect and maximize their intellectual property rights at home and abroad. Along with the spread of the Internet, borders for copyright protection are further broken. Intellectual property has become the most important asset in the digital world. Therefore, the progress of “digital performance” should take the protection of intellectual property as the baseline—know relevant laws and regulations of different countries well to avoid “stepping on the line” while getting familiar with operational rules on major video sites, social media, and new media platforms, follow relevant copyright requirements of video, audio, font, copyright, etc. strictly, and avoid touching the red line of intellectual property.
Thirdly, improve the experience in appreciating “digital performance”. Currently, the digitalized and online transformation of physical performance is still in the 1.0 phase of “digital performance”, with inadequate utilization of new techniques and impaired immersive aesthetic experience of on-site performance. In the next phase, we should improve the experience in appreciating online performance, use more effective techniques to break the “sense of one-dimensional view” of the audience so that they may feel the artistic appeal and verve on the venue. It must be pointed out that high-quality online performance requires more capital input, which is again a challenge for performing arts institutions.
Fourthly, actively seek quality partners. High-quality artistic presentation is the common pursuit of both physical and “digital performance”. This needs both breakthroughs made by performing arts companies and win-win cooperation of artists, staff, institutions and technology companies. Introducing high-quality partners not only improves the performance but also brings in different cultures and produces artistic enjoyment beyond the borders. Therefore, we should further connect quality resources at home and abroad, and: on the one hand, cooperate with leading performing arts institutions, artists and technology companies in the world to introduce high-quality performance in China to the world and bring in a first-class performance to China through online channels; on the other hand, promote outstanding performance and exhibition in China to the world via YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and other platforms and social media to help the overseas audience learn more about the culture and art development now in China.
Fifthly, tap potential profitability online. Today’s global online performance market is still dominated by performance for free. But some high-quality concerts online have started selling tickets and made some profit. As “digital performance” grows and matures, online performance will be a new growth point in the global performance market, or even become the main source of income in the performance industry over physical performance. Next, we may cooperate with major ticketing platforms, performing arts institutions and technology companies in the world to improve the quality of performance and online viewing experience while introducing real-time interaction, multi-camera, progressive ticket price and other forms to attract new audiences with a differentiated operation and further tap the potential profitability of “digital performance”.