Live event company Sofar Sounds returned to in-person gatherings this summer with a three-city concert series, Solstice in the City, in partnership with Stella Artois Solstice Lager. The concerts were held on three different dates in Los Angeles, New York City, and Miami, and featured artists with local ties to each city.
Solstice in the City represented an opportunity for Sofar’s artists, the fans, and Stella Artois’s brand to reconnect after over a year. Jaclyn Ranere, CMO of Sofar Sounds, explains, “We started our partnership with Stella Solstice Lager last year with virtual performances to feature Austin Millz, Caleborate, Kablito, Karmic, and Run River North, celebrating the summer in San Francisco and Los Angeles.”
This year, Sofar Sounds and Stella renewed their partnership to celebrate the summer once again in cities around the country, only this time in-person. “We were fortunate enough to work with artists who really define the soul of these cities: Maye, Evan Giia and Elena Rose — each for their hometown audiences,” shares Ranere.
Sofar Sounds also brought in a digital element for these shows, as all of the performances were filmed by creative agency CTRL5 and are being published across the company’s social media and content channels, including YouTube. “This summer’s Solstice in the City was a hybrid approach to celebrating music and community in these three cities, through intimate live music performances in unique outdoor venues and then extending those performances to a digital audience,” says Ranere.
She shares in that in the absence of in-person shows, Sofar relied heavily on YouTube and that the platform’s reach has helped the company connect artists both with new fans and to the community it’s already built. Performance and interview clips featuring Maye from July’s event in Los Angeles debuted in mid-August, while New York headliner Evan Giia appears in the latest video that just went live on Sofar’s YouTube channel on September 9th.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Sofar has hosted virtual performances with over 250 artists across 50 cities globally through its Listening Room series, and artists keep 100% of the proceeds. The company’s YouTube channel averages almost 5 million views per month. Moving forward, Ranere notes that digital experiences will continue to be a key way to introduce artists to new fans around the world.”
Sofar Sounds is known for organizing intimate live music events with limited audience capacity that allows for a more immersive and less disruptive environment in which to enjoy the performances. This also facilitates things like social distancing, and Ranere shares that since the start of the pandemic, Sofar Sounds has raised more than $3 million through the Sofar Sounds Global Artist Fund, payment for canceled shows, Listening Room performance donations and other programs to help new and developing artists.
“All of these intimate concerts were outside to help keep our community safe. We’re currently requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test for all crew, artists and audiences at Sofar shows. We are also operating all shows at reduced capacity,” she says.
The long-awaited return of live shows has been a lifeline for the music industry, but Sofar has also been supporting artists throughout the shutdown of the past few months. Ranere shares that since the start of the pandemic, Sofar Sounds has raised more than $3 million through the Sofar Sounds Global Artist Fund to help new and developing artists. The company also launched In Session, a free webinar series to help artists hone their craft and learn more about how to grow a music career.
The company also operates a unique business model that makes the return of live events all the more exciting and further helps support artists. Fans purchase tickets to shows based on the neighborhood, but they don’t know the exact location until the day before, and the lineup is only revealed as artists take the stage. It’s almost like Spotify’s Discover playlist, but IRL.
“We love the anticipation of the unexpected and the joy a music lover experiences when they discover new music,” says Ranere. “By not revealing show lineups in advance, guests show up with an open mind and the artists’ performances quickly turn them into new fans.”
Through Sofar shows, fans can continue their discovery of new music in cities around the world, and artists, in turn, can foster connections with new and existing fans — both in-person and online.