The Impact of Covid-19 On Entertainment And Social Media Maximization
About four months ago, no one would have thought that major economic activities, business transactions, events and shows, social gathering and conferences would come to a standstill, due to a global pandemic, covid-19.
In December 2019, reports surfaced out of China, that a cluster of pneumonia cases in the central city of Wuhan, which may be due to a new type of coronavirus has been infecting and killing thousands of people.
The World Health Organization said at the time, that it was still assessing the extent of the outbreak, but noted there were no reports of the novel coronavirus outside Wuhan, China.
WHO later declared the disease a global pandemic. Two months later, the disease had spread to more than 75 countries, over two millions infected, and more than a hundred thousand deaths recorded globally.
Situations, ways of life, and the way we interact have since, changed drastically.
See Also: I Had No Intention Of Spreading Covid-19 At The AMVCA – Seun Otolorin
Countries all over the world shut their borders and place restrictions on movement of persons, vehicles and all social gatherings.
In Nigeria, the Federal Government ordered lockdown in three states, including: Abuja, Lagos and Ogun. Other states like Kano, Rivers, Osun have also imposed lockdown to contain the spread of the deadly Coronavirus.
Life for some is at a standstill, while front line medical workers are facing a frightening new normal. Commercial activities have been paralyzed and the world economy plunged into major recession. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also alerted Nigeria to brace up for a worse recession than previous three decades.
One of the major economic sector affected in Nigeria by the pandemic is the entertainment industry.
In this article, CityBuzz takes a look at how the novel Coronavirus has altered what was regarded as norms in the entertainment world, how the changes has enhanced the maximization of social media, and possible changes we are likely to see in the way social media are used by entertainers.
The Norms Prior To Lockdown
Prior to lockdowns, entertainment events and shows like musical concerts, comedy shows, movie premiere, album launch, Album listening party, and related shows are usually anchored at major event centers, hotels, Halls and other places with capacities of at least 1,000 to 10,000 crowds.
Effects Of Lockdown
Unfortunately, these type of shows and event have been cancelled, rescheduled until further notice, as part of measures to prevent Covid-19 from spreading.
For instance, Davido’s ‘Good Time’ musical tour, was cut short, AY annual Easter show (AY Live), and a host of other big events were canceled.
Cinema released date for films are being postponed or cancelled, as it would be widely foolish to release movies for cinema when attendants would be at its lowest or none.
Films and television movie production shutdown, with all entertainment venues and attraction centers shutdown as well. Activities at clubs, malls, arenas, cinema houses have all been halted.
The economic impact of these cancellations are enormous, and we can only hope, that the pandemic is eradicated fast, and life return to normal.
Read Also: The World Is In A Worse Recession Due To Covid-19 – IMF
The Changes Propelled By Covid-19 Pandemic
Covid-19 has however, influenced and propelled lots of changes to human lifestyles; the way we interacts, the way we worship, and most especially the way entertainers have been keeping up with their teeming fans.
Religion activities are now observed via the internet or cable TV, conferences and meetings are conducted remotely via social media and teleconferencing, students now receive lectures via TV, Internet and Radio.
In like manner, entertainers now understand they can maximally utilize social media to reaching their fans, entertain them and still make economic gains.
Although, it is not new for entertainers; singers, artistes, comedian, actors and actresses holding live sessions on social media, but the trends have soar since the covid-19 lockdown and self isolation begins.
In the wake of self-isolating and lock-down a number of celebrities put up live sessions on Instagram to ward-off boredom. Others jumped at unexplored social media apps, like TikTok. But as the lock-down continues, creativeness began to spring up.
More celebrities now granted interviews via social media, a number of Disk Jockeys’ (DJs’) are either mixing songs live online, to entertain their fans, or to challenge each other with various artistes hit songs existing in their archive. One of such was the titan battle between DJ Shizzy and DJ Sarz, both, whom in rounding off their sessions dug deep to place Davido’s “Dami Duro” and the never heard version of Wizkid’s “One chance” with Drake, side by side. Viewers and fans were stunned, it was exciting, was entertaining and the fans response said it all.
Watch Video Of DJ Chizzy And Sarz Below:
Taking a cue from the DJs’ exploits, Comedians have also jumped at the opportunity that covid-19 lockdown presents, by organizing online show.
CityBuzz can reports that AY Live scheduled to hold on Easter Sunday at Eko Hotel which was cancelled, was eventually held live via YouTube, Instagram Live and Cable TV. The show gathered over 84,000 live views on Easter Sunday night.
The Future:
This section takes a look at Economic Implications Of Social Media Maximization By Entertainers.
It is no doubt that Covid-19 has opened many entertainers eyes, and broadened their horizons to the potentials, and financial benefits derivable from using social media platforms to promoting their trades.
This trends has just began, it will definitely grow. So, if social media platforms becomes a new way, and new channels for entertainers to reaching their fans, CityBuzz can report that the followings would happen:
1. Entertainers would love to take advantage of the platforms without bricks. In other words, online channels provide remote platforms with no costs to the hosts or viewers, saving them costs that would have been incurred, securing a hall or space, costs of logistics and a whole lot of costs associated with planning and organizing a show.
2. To fully maximize the financial benefits derivable from using social media platforms to entertain fans, Entertainers, may have to partner with social media creators (as obtained with YouTube) to monetize their contents and viewership.
3. Should ‘2’ above materialized, and we have entertainers in partnership with social media creators, two things can also happen:
i. Most social media platforms creator will upgrade their applications to premium and non-premium, whereby premium users will have access to certain contents and features, like: live events and shows, while non-premium users would be restricted from viewing ‘premium contents’.
ii. Premium contents can only be accessed on pay-per-view bases, or on-demand.
Other avenues entertainers would make financial gains would be from direct sponsorship by brands, which will be hyped and intermittently display during the live streaming.
Conclusion
Certainly, social media platforms have not been fully exploited by Nigerian entertainers, we however believe that with the outbreak of covid-19 that has forced a lockdown, many will dig deep to do more and benefit more with social media.
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