In an economy increasingly hostile to independent individuals in the music industry, platforms that pivot survive. Artists’ primary revenue stream, touring, is unsafe. Venues’ entire business model, live performance, relies on touring. Traditional systems for monetary aid and relief, like unemployment or PPP loans, continually fail to accommodate creatives. Those remaining afloat have done so by investing in internet infrastructures — cameras and connections that supplement online-streaming capabilities.
There’s another sector of the industry affected by live show cancellations: ticket vendors. Large ticket vendors like Ticketmaster and StubHub have survived by making changes to their refund policies that only allow full refunds when shows face full cancellations, not postponements. But for small-scale concert ticket operations, like the ticket sale-and-trade social media site CashorTrade, entering the streaming economy was necessary. On July 21, CashorTrade.org announced the launch of Cash or Trade Streams, a streaming platform focused on generating revenue for venues, festivals and artists prevented from conducting business-as-usual during the pandemic.
CashorTrade is typically a ticket-trading-gone-social-media site where site members buy, sell and trade tickets at face-value prices. It was initially envisioned as an anti-ticket scalping community where live music lovers could pass on a concert experience, without profit, if they were suddenly unable to see a concert they paid to attend. The site became a hub for a niche community of music enthusiasts who traded tickets for beers, or used the chat function during sales to make friends with other members with similar music tastes. According to co-founder and CEO Brando Rich, some users even met their spouses on the platform.
When the virus hit, and live shows for the foreseeable future were cancelled or rescheduled, CashorTrade’s primary purpose became temporarily obsolete. Because of the site’s ethic of operations, they couldn’t save their revenue streams with predatory policies like larger ticket vendors; instead, Rich and the team provided full refunds to all parties engaged in pending transactions. But the platform also sought to ensure that its business model could stay viable to see live music’s return — and in order for live music to return, artists and venues need to survive the economically tumultuous period.
“We have this platform, we have this fanbase nearing 250,000 users from every state in the nations and 20 countries, and no events for possibly a year,” Rich says. “Most companies are going through similar situation — What’s next? Do you close the company? No way! We were amped up for a major year ahead. We had a moment to look for the silver lining, and see how we could pivot.”
So, CashorTrade entered the streaming economy. The streaming market is crowded, even more so now that public health conditions confine entertainment to the living room couch. Many tech startups sought to take advantage of the newfound focus on streamed artistic content. Scott Mohler, a music manager with Eminence Arts, says he’s been contacted by nearly 40 or 50 start-up platforms.
“Oddly enough, two were porn sites. Interesting pivot,” Mohler says. But when he was contacted by Jonny Adler from CashorTrade, Adler could clearly articulate the platform’s goal: to create a system of support, so artists could return to live performance. “He wasn’t out to make a quick cash grab, he was playing the long game.”
Mohler represents cross-genre musician Hayley Jane, who will post streams on a CashorTrade account. For Jane, and all artists, using the platform is free, and 100 percent of audience donations will go directly to their accounts via an in-platform tipping mechanism that alleviates the necessity to build clunky overlays with PayPal links. According to Rich, CashorTrade’s revenue stream will also be donation-based, allowing audiences to “tip their servers” — literally, their platform service provider — voluntarily.
Venues and festivals are also able to create accounts on CashorTrade, and use the platform’s contract mechanisms to set payment agreements with artists. Philadelphia’s Ardmore Music Hall is choosing to engage with CashorTrade to expand the audience reach of their streamed content. According to Dan DeLozier, partner and VP of Marketing at the venue, cross-posting on various platforms allows Ardmore to reach past their regional fanbase, which, though loyal, can only donate so many times. The venue keeps trying to increase production value and take advantage of the tools at their disposal — for example, by projecting Zoom conferences of listeners on the wall while musicians stream, so performers can still experience audience reactions — but these advances can only sustain them for so long.
“The music industry needs support, in general — especially independent venues,” DeLozier says. DeLozier, like many, is hoping for federal legislation geared toward helping the music business persist past the crisis. “This industry is built around large gatherings and enclosed spaces. We don’t see a world where we open with only 100 people in the room and can stay afloat. We’re fortunate to have the infrastructure to do these streams, and lose money slowly, but a lot of venues don’t have that option.”
The music industry’s ethic of mutual aid is important; it is what independent acts turn to, in lieu of structural support. It is this ethic that created CashorTrade Streams, what compels the leaders of the platform to continue operations, and what sets it apart from other start-ups seeking to capitalize on the cultural moment.
I’m a freelance journalist based in Houston, Texas and New Haven, Connecticut, where I study English and Creative Writing at Yale. I grew up in South Texas on a steady
I’m a freelance journalist based in Houston, Texas and New Haven, Connecticut, where I study English and Creative Writing at Yale. I grew up in South Texas on a steady diet of Dixie Chicks and Baby Bash, and “Big ‘Ol Freak” by Megan Thee Stallion has been my most-frequented track since its release — I’m excited to cover these traditionally regional genres and the places they overlap, especially as the internet continues to subvert genre as we know it. I can be found on Twitter at @riannamart, and via email at [email protected].