Pollstar (01/28/22) Brown, Eric Renner
The Smile, a band composed of Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and Sons Of Kemet's Tom Skinner, on Jan. 29 performed a concert at the Magazine London venue for a sold-out crowd of 1,250. The event was beamed out live to dozens of independent cinemas and venues and to home viewers worldwide, with two more live concerts following at 1 a.m. and 11 a.m. the next day. Claire Mas at livestreaming promoter Driift said the band wanted all three concerts to be truly live rather than one rebroadcast performance, hinting at how the format might develop once physical audiences return. "This is obviously the first event that we have produced and promoted that is both a physical live show and a livestream," said Driift co-founder Ric Salmon. "It was a big moment of realization for us, actually, because what...we realized is that Driift has evolved to be, we think, the first kind of specialist producer and promoter of live events that is focused on delivering live events truly tailored to the digital era." The stream was broadcast to homes through Dreamstage, with showings at independent cinemas and venues made possible via Driift's partnership with live and on-demand content curator/distributor Rippla. Mas explained that Driift plays a central role in the event's production, adding that "we've always partnered as much as we can with experts in their field, because we're not tech people as such. We're mostly curators and promoters and really come at it from a management and an artistic mindset first."
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