How Amazon Music Livestream from Primavera Sound Works

Last week we explained how to use live streaming amazon music From Primavera Sound in Barcelona. Now that we are lucky enough to see what is happening at the Parc del Fòrum “in the field”. It’s time to understand more about this area of ​​business in which the platform invests so heavily,

Amazon Music Livestream, or: Reimagining Television

Let’s give some numbers. Amazon Music live stream covers five steps, most important: “twins” main stage Estrella Damm and Santander and stage Kupra, Ron Bruegel and – obviously – Amazon Music (where Menskin will perform tonight). Each episode is filmed by multiple cameras that vary from five to ten.

between operators, directors, production technicians, hosts, computer scientists, translators, Hundreds of people working on a live stream at the same time, an Amazon Music source tells us. With a truly global aspect: Spanish subtitling of interviews is done (manually) by simultaneous translators in Chile, while encoding for Twitch of the video signal transmitted by the on-site control room at Primavera Sound is done in Zurich, Switzerland Is.

In short, it’s television reinvented, Same production volume, same tech level, but no schedule (at least not in the traditional sense) and all oriented towards the social dimension like Twitch.

Interview with Kirdis Postel and Claire Imocha

After a tour in the “Button Room” of Amazon Music Live Streaming at Primavera Sound in Barcelona, ​​we meet kirdis postela (Global Head of Artist Marketing) E Claire Imocha (Head of Music Industry, Amazon Music Spain) to learn more about the strategies underlying these projects.

Interest in live streams looked like it was destined to fade with the end of the pandemic. It’s interesting that Amazon Music, instead, chooses to bet on it right now. how come?

kirdis postela: Like everyone else, we initially thought that the resumption of in-person shows would reduce the use of livestreams. Instead, when we broadcast Maluma in Medellin and Kendrick Lamar in Paris, for example, we found that this was a fallacious argument. The fans just wanted to see their favorite artists, feel part of that experience. That’s why we understood that – for both the fans and the artists – we should continue to invest in live streams.

Can you tell us something about future projects?

KP Extension: Eight festivals have been livestreamed this year, and we hope to do even more in 2024!

Elodie’s concert in Milan was the first to be broadcast live by Amazon Music. I know that it was filmed by 18 cameras: it is clear that in general these are high-level productions.

Claire Imocha: Primavera Sound 2023 airs on Prime Video and four Amazon Music Twitch channels. Various stages have been filmed, not just the two main stages.

KP Extension: There are many cameras that shoot live, but we also do with one camera, if it suits the artist’s requests more.

And in addition to concerts, interviews and backstage footage are also broadcast, right?

There: Yes, there’s a lineup of cast interviews alternating with the live schedule.

KP Extension: And it’s a linear broadcast: when we’re not filming a concert we go to an interview and, once the interview is over, we go to another concert.

How does Amazon Music choose events to live stream? What is strategy?

There: I can talk about Primavera. We started last year with a more limited project, with a smaller booth and live only on the Spanish Twitch channel. The results were good, so we expanded into what you see today.

KP Extension: In general it is a matter of chance. When we started telecasting festivals live, it’s not like they chose them based on viewership. Rather it is a question of marrying artistic deduction and trying to subvert the public’s expectations.

Not all digital platforms can rely on both audio and video streaming services. It’s a strange aspect of a company like Amazon: what synergies can be made between Amazon Music and Amazon Prime Video?

KP Extension: First live streaming activities. When we started, we only did them on our Twitch channels: first only in the US, then on ten global channels. There was an opportunity to broadcast Kanye West and Drake’s concert in Los Angeles: Prime Video joined the operation at the time, and the rapport has since developed.

Kirdis, you helped launch breakthrough program by Amazon Music. Tell us about how it was born and how the artists who are a part of it are selected and supported.

KP Extension: It actually launched right before I joined Amazon Music. It is important to us to support emerging artists in a meaningful way. Support varies from 6 to 18 months. This is an opportunity to build a genuine partnership with the artist, understand what they need and emerge in the best possible way. We want to help them build their campaigns rather than offer something offbeat.

There: I, like Kirdis, come from the world of record companies. We know that budding artists really need support. Now that I see him “on the other side of the fence,” I understand that we have a responsibility to provide support and opportunities to reach a wider audience.

Do you solicit applications from artists and labels or do you handpick them?

KP Extension: Both, this is a conversation. The label and artist clearly know Breakthrough and make offers to that effect. Our team then considers which artists we might be most useful to.

There: Above all, we want to create genuine teamwork with the artist and their label.

Another important editorial product for Amazon Music is the Amazon Original format. What can you tell us about the future?

There: For us at Amazon Music Spain, Originals are a great opportunity for everyone. We care a lot, and we don’t do a lot of them in Spain, just for moments like Christmas, summer, pride, women’s day etc. And we’ve also gotten a lot of attention from fans of the artists involved and people who would have discovered those artists for the occasion.