Live on Line: A Guide for Live Streamed Concerts
COVID-19 has affected all sectors and industries either directly or indirectly. Live performers have felt the squeeze more than most, and there is no set date for a return to normalcy in the concert space. However, after three months and counting of cancelled concerts, artists and music providers of all stripes have had some time to experiment with alternative and novel ways of presenting live music to an audience suddenly turning to mobile devices as their primary source of entertainment.
Adam Bomb performing at CHLO presented by The Hustle
The Academy is no different. We’ve moved our flagship series The Hustle to Facebook Live with the help of our friends over at Toronto City Hall. We’ll have more on them in a bit. For now, take a stroll through our selected list of purveyors of live streamed music.
City Hall Live Online
Haf n’ haf performing at CHLO presented by The Hustle
The City of Toronto is doing its part to support local musicians with the City Hall Live Online concert series. Every weekday at lunchtime, between 12 noon and 1 PM, two artists perform a half-hour slot each on CHLO’s Facebook Live page. During each set, CHLO posts a link to donate to the Unison Benevolent fund, a non-profit organization that provides counselling and emergency relief service to Canadian musicians.
The Academy has been fortunate enough to have presented two editions thus far, and we have a third lined up for Thursday, July 9th with Eyeda Sophia. You can catch future streams and catch up on past events on the CHLO Facebook page, and RSVP for the next edition of The Hustle x CHLO here.
URGNT Live
Created in response to the COVID-19 crisis, URGNT LIve is an ad-hoc, crowd-funded live stream concert series. They aim to unify the arts industry in Toronto in a safe and creative way, while raising money to pay those involved a nominal fee. This helps make up for lost wages as a result of quarantine, while documenting this bizarre moment in time and providing some much-needed stress relief through compelling content.
Their live streams and past events can be accessed from their website, and they take donations for artists on GoFundMe.
R.I.S.E.
R.I.S.E. Mondays, an experience now on Instagram Live
In normal times, R.I.S.E., which stands for Reaching Intelligent Souls Everywhere, is a Scarborough-based “edutainment” movement that hosts open mics every Monday and a concert the first Thursday of each month downtown. Now that the world has moved indoors, their platform has moved online. Instead of meeting at Burrow’s Hall Community Centre, their events occur on Instagram Live. In addition to these two performance events, they host a weekly workshop series, Empower Your Expression, every Tuesday via Zoom.
You can catch R.I.S.E. open mics every Monday and the first Thursday of each month at their Instagram page, and check out their Facebook page for more information on Empower Your Expression and other events.
DJ Mensa’s Iso-Lituation Wednesdays
DJ Mensa turned What’s Poppin’ to Iso-Lituation
