2016 Performing Arts Market: "Internet +" has achieved significant results, IP development expands fan economy

On the basis of the continuous refinement of the performing arts market, the "Internet +" strategy has found its own advantages in the testing of the market, further spawning a new industry form and intensifying the development and transformation of the performing arts market.

In 2016, the performing arts market was generally active, with various performances staged in turn, with high audience participation. With the changes in residents 'cultural consumption needs and the improvement of quality, the total number of performances, audience numbers and box office revenue in large-scale concerts, dramas, children's dramas and other categories have maintained a high total. At the same time, on the basis of the continuous refinement of the performing arts market, the "Internet +" strategy has found its own advantages in the testing of the market, further spawning a new industry form and intensifying the development and transformation of the performing arts market.

Looking back on 2016,"Internet +" played a full role in the performing arts market. Companies such as "crowdfunding","IP development", and "VR live broadcast" bear the brunt of the "magic weapons" and have become the focus of the annual performing arts market. Relying on the advantages of the Internet, they integrate resources and create new types of consumption through various models, stimulating the growing young consumer group, and also enriching and activating the performing arts market. Zhu Kening, president of China Performance Industry Association, once said,"One of the most prominent changes (in China performance market) is the continuous expansion of development directions of brokerage institutions in the market. A series of breakthrough changes have taken place in China performance market, which is still in the expansion stage."

Online crowdfunding: The sword refers to popular culture focusing on crowdfunding among consumer groups

. This common fund-raising method is widely used by many markets due to its low threshold setting and strong promotion. In the 2016 performing arts market, crowdfunding also played the role of quickly and closely combining sponsors and sponsors. It is worth noting that this operation model is extremely effective for relatively niche performance products in the market. With the help of various cultural and popular trends generated on the Internet, we accurately grasp the consumer groups and their number, and discover new territory in the performing arts market.

On January 29 this year, the crowdfunding project of "Ancient Style Recitation Concert" Finding a Life and Half a Day "was launched. The concert, scheduled to be held at Guangzhou Beilei Theater in March, went viral before it started. Ten minutes after the crowdfunding began, the box office exceeded 120,000 yuan; an hour later, 77 tickets with the highest price of 580 yuan were sold out. On February 3, 88 520-yuan tickets were also sold out. In the end, the total crowdfunding amount for the project reached 177,000 yuan, becoming the first project to ring the high box office bell in the ancient music industry at the beginning of this year.

The "Ancient Style Recitation Concert" Finding Life and Half a Day "crowdfunding project is a market case in which niche music products are produced and marketed through crowdfunding. Behind its success, it reveals the interaction between pop music culture and crowdfunding. The performance organizer of the concert, Xiyin Society, is an original music club that has 36,000 fan attention and more than 200 million popularity (song plays) on the large-scale original music platform 5sing website. On July 23, 2015, Xiyinshe's ancient style album "Ren Jian Ci Hua" launched crowdfunding at 5sing. This recitation + song album with the theme of paying tribute to Wang Guowei raised nearly one million yuan, setting a record for the highest crowd-funded project in 5sing. In October 2015, the ancient style recitation concert "Seeking Ci Words and Words in the World" held in Shanghai continued to be crowdfunded on 5sing. A total of 150,000 yuan was raised for tickets for the performance. At the performance site, the number of viewers of the online live broadcast of 5sing live exceeded 50,000, and the total number of netizens 'bullet attacks reached hundreds of thousands. Audience participation was high.

In the crowdfunding history of Xiyin Society, ancient music and the consumer groups behind it have become the decisive factors in winning funds. As a new music style emerging in the 21st century, ancient music is in a relatively niche position in current China pop music and has a low share in the overall performance market; however, it relies on the accompaniment music characteristics of China poetry and national musical instruments to have influence among the younger generation of consumers. The middle school student group is the main force among the ancient music consumer group. Proponents of music products have targeted the cultural consumption needs of the younger generation, accurately positioned them through various platforms on the Internet, and used crowdfunding to complete marketing.

IP development: Bypass traditional models to expand the fan economy

With the full penetration of IP in recent years, public awareness of it has increased rapidly. Due to the high brand effect and fan base of IP in the performing arts market, the full development of IP has become the focus of many performance agencies, boosting the trend of employment in the performance agency industry. In 2016, when IP attacked the performing arts market, the popularity and value of IP in the industry have greatly increased, and the performing arts market has also completed its new form. Data shows that in 2015, the copyright revenue of performance agencies reached 1.249 billion yuan, an increase of 17.21% from 2014. A number of performance agencies with high-quality original works and mature brands, such as Kaixin Mahua and Zhilehui, have become leaders in the market this year through copyright cooperation methods such as performance rights and adaptation rights of their works.

In 2013, the total box office of the first part of the drama "Tomb Robber Notes" was nearly 35 million yuan, and the first round of the second part also grossed 20 million yuan. This year, the third tour of "Tomb Robber Notes" is still popular, and fans are still devoted to the performance consumption. Coincidentally, this year's drama "Left Ear" co-launched by Zhilehui and Light Drama has also received good market feedback. Based on the fact that the novel "Left Ear" has been released for ten years and has a wide and solid fan base, when the crew of the drama "Left Ear" broadcast the rehearsal video live on the video website Douyu, it attracted 200,000 people to watch it online simultaneously. The number of clicks exceeded 1 million times. The strong effect brought by IP has not been reduced and has become a marketing guarantee for the performing arts market. According to Hong Hong, marketing director of Beijing Century Huapeng, because of IP fans as the mass base, it is easier for more well-known IP works to be promoted during performances. Like the stage play "Get lost!" based on the comic book of the same name "Tumor King" has a smooth tour operation, is less affected by regional cultural differences, and has received good feedback from the performance market.

In addition to the role of IP in performance marketing, its continued popularity has also promoted the expansion of acting agents. According to statistics, in 2015, there were 4899 performance brokerage agencies, and 28548 employees holding performance broker qualification certificates. Compared with 2014, the number of institutions increased by 7.01%, and the number of employees with certificates increased by 6%. The total number of institutions and employees with certificates have continued to rise for many years, indicating that the performance market is gradually stabilizing its development trend.

Taking drama as an example, for traditional dramas, relatively emerging dramas such as IP dramas have expanded the drama industry to varying degrees, and the economic benefits and professional needs they bring have increased significantly compared with the traditional drama era. Data shows that the total revenue of performance agencies in 2015 reached 13.307 billion yuan, an increase of 7.63% from 2014. Pan Yan, secretary-general of China Performance Industry Association, pointed out that under the guidance of favorable factors such as the government's increased attention to the cultural industry and the gradual maturity of the market environment, performance brokerage agencies have taken the initiative to explore development space, innovatively created operating models, and increased integration with the Internet and other industries.

VR Live Broadcast: Emerging technologies may become future business opportunities

After the development in recent years, online live broadcasting has a certain degree of market maturity and has been widely recognized by consumers. VR live broadcast, a popular fan in the entertainment market in 2016, is widely sought after by stars in the entertainment industry and has become one of the marketing strategies of major video websites. However, some VR companies have also experienced poor business conditions. In 2016, VR technology entered the domestic performing arts market in a high-profile manner, and the ensuing live broadcast of VR concerts set off a technological craze, earning enough attention for the audience and providing a new performance viewing experience. As an expansion of online live broadcasting services, the launch of VR live broadcasting has opened up new space for gold mining in the traditional performing arts market.

Due to many limitations such as the size of the performance venue, fire safety, and cost, traditional concert performances have a fixed space in terms of the number of spectators. The use of online VR live broadcasts has undoubtedly added more possibilities to the performance revenue. In October this year, Karen Mok's "Look at the World" concert tour was held in Hangzhou. The concert was live online in VR format. The live broadcast was limited to iQiyi member users, and more than 1.9 million users watched it online. The "Faye Wong Fantasia 2016 Live Concert" to be held at the end of the year will also be broadcast online using VR technology. VR live broadcast has become the "high-quality" and "standard" concert for performing stars this year.

VR live broadcast is a combination of virtual reality and online live broadcast, providing viewers with an extremely realistic visual experience, as if they are in a live broadcast venue. On the one hand, VR, a cutting-edge technology, enriches the viewing effect of online live broadcasts and activates the live broadcast industry and performance market; on the other hand, the higher viewing cost of VR live broadcasts is difficult to accept by many consumers. For example, in order to have a better viewing experience, users need to equip themselves with higher-priced VR glasses or helmets in the early stage, and the consumption cost of VR live broadcasts has become a problem in its marketing. Wang Yi, founder of One Meter Observation, said that the VR industry has not yet established a profit model and has not been universally recognized by the audience. "VR basic hardware is equipped with high prices and low cost performance. Basic VR glasses cost several thousand yuan, and many users feel that top-notch VR glasses do not have good viewing effects." Wang Yi said.

In contrast to the popularity of VR live broadcasts, in 2016, some VR companies experienced "premature decline". Judging from the current New Third Board market, there are a total of 23 companies mainly engaged in the VR industry and involved in VR concepts, and 13 of them lost net profit in the first half of the year. Take Manheng, a high-tech company that has been deeply involved in VR business for nine years, as an example. Its business covers a wide range of businesses ranging from military and energy to virtual parks and concerts. Although operating income in the first half of the year was 40.39 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 95.48%, and a decrease of 30.79% from the loss in the same period last year, it still lost 7.11 million yuan.

According to a report released by investment bank Digi-Capital, it is estimated that the global augmented reality and virtual reality market will reach US$150 billion by 2020. At the same time, the domestic VR market will achieve rapid growth of 200%-300% in the three years from 2015 to 2017. The annual market size is expected to reach 2.16 billion yuan. In the future performing arts market, whether VR live broadcasts will develop into a popular element of live performances or become the cornerstone of diversification of performance models remains to be seen.

Editor: Nancy