Erykah Badu didn’t make any profit on her first livestream from her Quarantine Concert Series.
After most of the world went into lockdown last month due to the global health pandemic, Badu was worried about how canceling all of her shows would affect her band and crew, so she worked with a company to set up a livestream from her own home.
The 49-year-old artist only charged fans $1 each to log in to her first livestream, and while she didn’t make any profit, she insisted it was worth it as it helped her to iron out any technical glitches.
She told Variety: “On March 13, I was preparing to do a weekend of shows — I’ve toured eight months out of the year for the past 22 years, and it’s how I make my living and support my band and my techs and my crew.
“I had to quickly think of something, and like every other artist in the industry, we thought of livestreaming. But I couldn’t just put a phone up on a tripod and do a livestream on one of the social platforms because that would just feed me. I had to figure out a way to keep morale up for all [my] musicians and techs and engineers and keep all of us employed.
“Ordinarily people would pay $40 to $200 for this [kind of show], but we’re in a climate where so many people have lost their jobs, so we only charged $1. I didn’t make any [profit] the first time, but it was a learning experience, and I figured I’d take one for the team.”
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