Montreux Jazz Festival 2021 MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL DEVELOPS HYBRID MODEL WITH NEW STREAMING DEAL AND DIGITAL INITIATIVE FOR UP-AND-COMING TALENT
As festivals across the world continue to reel from the impact of the pandemic, with many already starting to announce cancellations, one has embarked on an ambitious plan to keep its lights on: the Montreux Jazz Festival. The legendary festival has adopted a new hybrid digital model to entertain fans across the world, even in lieu of last year’s cancellation. The festival has announced its expansion of its always on, never cancelled strategy, with new partnerships including a free global live stream of the 2021 festival and a new initiative to champion emerging talent. In 2020, the festival launched a partnership with YouTube for a 16 day broadcast of performances from the festival’s archive of footage. Montreux Jazz Festival’s strategy allows the festival to operate all year round and outside of the traditional festival season, with their always on digital strategy. This means that the Montreux Jazz Festival is able to operate as a sustainable business, whilst driving a revenue stream all year round, even throughout the pandemic. Montreux, 2 February 2021: — The Montreux Jazz Festival has unveiled its initial plans for 2021 to further future-proof the legendary festival amid the ongoing global pandemic that has disrupted the live event industry. Founded in 1967 on the Lake Geneva shoreline, the Festival has adopted an always-on digital strategy, through its subsidiary media company Montreux Media Ventures, to become a more robust and resilient music festival. Continuing to champion its hybrid model of live music and always-on digital access for 2021, the festival has brokered an exclusive livestream deal with Canadian music, media, and technology company Stingray and its world leading streaming service, Qello Concerts by Stingray. The livestreams will be available to watch free of charge so anyone, wherever they are, can enjoy the magic of the festival. Additionally, the festival has announced the launch of its MJF Spotlight initiative, set to foster the next generation of ground-breaking talent that the Montreux Jazz Festival is so well-known for supporting through its Montreux Jazz Artist Foundation. The mutually-supportive initiatives will help develop new, creative opportunities required for the long-term sustainability of both the festival and its artists. These projects are the latest in a series by Montreux Jazz Festival as it continues to expand and diversify its partnerships and presence. Last year, in a difficult context for the whole live industry, Montreux Jazz Festival continued to keep its lights on, even though the 54th edition of the festival was cancelled. In the summer of 2020, Montreux brokered a deal with Eagle Rock and YouTube to launch the ‘54th Summer of Music’, a 16-day virtual music festival hosted exclusively on YouTube. The virtual event provided an internationally accessible digital platform for fans to experience the magic of Montreux Jazz Festival in lieu of the physical event while also raising money for the soon-to-be-opened National Museum of African American Music in Nashville. The festival is expected to announce details about its 55th edition in the coming weeks, as well as new deals and partnerships with brands and labels throughout 2021 to further future-proof the iconic Swiss festival. Qello Concerts by Stingray Livestreams Qello Concerts will livestream future editions of the festival as part of an ongoing multi-year agreement. Additionally, the streaming platform will be granted the license to high quality content produced by the Festival’s subsidiary media company Montreux Media Ventures. Qello Concerts by Stingray already has access to over 50 concerts from the Montreux Jazz Festival, including iconic performances by Ray Charles, Wu-Tang Clan, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Deep Purple, Carlos Santana and more. Commenting on the livestream deal, Montreux Media Ventures CEO Nick Bonard said, “Our deal with Qello Concerts by Stingray to livestream the festival is a key part of our hybrid model, creating an always-on experience. Streaming is a crucial medium for securing the continued success of the festival: if people can’t come to the Festival, we will bring it to them. This deal will enable us to adapt and respond more nimbly to the key challenges facing the sector while generating support for the true lifeblood of the Montreux Jazz Festival — bold, new talent — for many more years to come.” “We are thrilled to announce a partnership with Montreux Jazz Festival, one of the world’s biggest and longest-running music events, to expand our content offerings with livestreaming,” added Mathieu Péloquin, Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Communications of Stingray. “We are always striving to offer the best concerts available for our music fans. Now, more than ever, audiences can access concerts from their favorite artists and continue to look to Qello Concerts for the top music entertainment they crave.”
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