The ongoing global coronavirus pandemic has made it impossible for musical acts to tour, so it is no surprise that companies like Warner Music are looking for online alternatives.
As reported by Billboard, the music company is holding PlayOn Fest, a virtual music festival that aims to raise funds for the COVID-19 Solidarity Fund of the World Health Organization. The festival is running for 72 hours straight up until Apr. 27.
According to the publication, the festival will air unaired footage of performances by Panic! At The Disco, Charlie Puth, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Cardi B, Bruno Mars, Coldplay, Green Day, Roddy Ricch, Paramore, David Guetta, Lil Uzi Vert, Weezer, Twenty One Pilots, Wiz Khalifa, Ed Sheeran, and Death Cab for Cutie.
Forbes reports that one of the artists included in the lineup of the virtual music festival, Cardi B, expressed her excitement for the event, lauding the fact that it will raise funds for the World Health Organization and aid its efforts against COVID-19.
Of course, Warner Music isn’t the first label to think of using previous concert footage to stay connected with fans while touring is not possible. Over two days, pop superstars BTS held “Bang Bang Con,” a free concert streaming event that provided an “at-home BTS concert experience.”
For “Bang Bang Con,” BigHit Entertainment, BTS’s agency, streamed footage from different concerts over the course of two days. The concerts include “BTS 4th MUSTER,” “THE WINGS TOUR IN SEOUL,” “BTS WORLD TOUR ‘LOVE YOURSELF’ SEOUL,” “THE WINGS TOUR THE FINAL,” “Most Beautiful Moment In Life On Stage: Epilogue,” “BTS 3rd MUSTER [ARMY.ZIP+],” “BTS 2014 LIVE TRILOGY: EPISODE II The Red Bullet,” and “Most Beautiful Moment In Life On Stage.” According to BigHit Entertainment, 50 million views were accumulated by "Bang Bang Con" over the course of two days.
Coronavirus infections continue to rise all over the world, which may make virtual music festivals like these become much more commonplace. According to the Apr. 24 situation report of the World Health Organization, there are now 2,626,321 people around that world that are confirmed to have COVID-19. Of that number, 81,529 are new cases. Deaths caused by COVID-19 are now at 181,938 people. New deaths make up 6,260 of that total.
The Apr. 23 update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States at 865,585 people. There are now 48,816 people that have died from COVID-19 in the United States.