04/10/2020
Coronavirus (COVID-19) has changed a great many things for most people. Economically it's hit most people very hard. It's forced a great deal of reappraisal of many things, the mundane and day to day but also the plans and schemes we all had, long term goals and ambitions, it's not been a very settled and positive time for anyone.
The live music industry has been hit particularly hard as an example of commercial sectors that are very probably permanently changed. With restrictions on gatherings and free movement, travel and assembly more akin to Martial Law and 'curfew-under-wartime-occupation' - the live music industry has atrophied and withered.
But, there are always other possibilities.
Technology, particularly digital communications technology, may very possibly be the saviour of "live music" events in these troubled and troubling times. It may perhaps be necessary to rethink the definition of what exactly constitutes "live" music.
Streaming a performance of music by musicians who all live together and therefore represent one single household is one such possibility. It requires no guest musicians or visitors to the household, indeed some of the "musicians" will be computers or electronic equipment, such as drum machines and others will be actual human musicians playing musical instruments.
This will be mixed down as it would in a live setting at a venue and broadcast "live" on the Internet.
When Coastal was started, it was planned as a recording studio, people would pay to come and record their music. That was the 'dream' and the whole purpose, so that's what we started.
But it's all changed. Now we've become a "live-streaming-internet-performance-studio/venue" with the only caveat being we can't have guest musicians over to play, perform and record.
So, in response to this situation we are going to launch a 24/7 web stream of music and randomness with video. We don't know when, we have no date yet, but before 2021! It will be announced on social media, probably...