Well folks, weāre now four weeks into the existence of No Contact Concert Series, and this project has officially grown into far more than we originally imagined. Yes, we put a lot of time and hard work into this each week, but the truth is that we owe that success just as much to you, our viewers, and the artists that trust us to present exciting and high quality streams of their live performances. For that, and for each of you, we are eternally grateful.
Now that weāve hit this milestone (as well as having passed our 2,000 follower mark and upwards of 25,000 views on our videos), Iād like to take a moment to tell you a little more about who we are and why we do this.
No Contact Concert Series is a collaborative effort by Codex Sound, a full service production company out of Hickory, NC, and Midwood Entertainment, a boutique booking and event promotion agency based out of Charlotte, NC. For the past decade, we have worked together closely on live shows and festivals across the southeast. You might have seen and heard some of our work already at concerts held at the US National Whitewater Center, the Beech Mountain Summer Concert Series, the Sounds of Summer concert series in Charlotteās First Ward Park, Hickory North Carolinaās Music in the Mill series, Hillsborough NCās River Park Series, and many other wonderful events.
It may be an understatement to say that we all truly live for live music. Itās what we do on a daily basis; it is our passion as well as our careers. And like so many, when the world was brought to a halt by the COVID-19 pandemic, we found ourselves instantly facing dire financial straits. Within a week, we began seeing all of our events begin to cancel, and again, like so many others, we were faced with some very frightening questions: Would we be able to keep our employees working? Would we have any work at all this year? What was our industry going to look like when all of this was said and done? What would happen to the artists that we have worked with for years and about whom we care very deeply? Would live music survive?
To be quite honest, crawling under each of those concerns was one major unknown: whether we could even afford to ensure that our businesses, as well as those that we work closely with in this music community, could even survive this time of economic crisis. The music industry is not unique in the fact in having to do some serious soul searching as we figure out who we are as an industry and how we can adapt to these frightening changes.
The No Contact Concert Series was ultimately born out of that moment of crisis and that need for creative and adaptive thinking. Ultimately, it came down to one determined (if not also very stubborn) commitment; if we couldnāt safely bring you out to see live music, then we were going to make sure we bring that live music to you. Itās what weāve always been dedicated to doing, and we just needed to figure out how to make that same dedication work under these new constraints.
We moved fast, and we are very lucky to have extremely dedicated friends and families who have supported us in every step of the process. Sound engineers, camera operators and video engineers, lighting directors, booking agents, marketing specialists, and countless other talented people began calling to see how they could get involved once they started seeing how our plans we playing out on a day-by-day and week-by-week basis. As we tackled each new problem and figured out how to change the normal live music model to this temporary streaming model, theyāve continued to support us and have our backs on each and every show.
And now, as I said, here we are. All of that hard work continues to grow into something that we become more and more proud of every day. We grow with each show, we redesign our model to best suit every performance we are presenting, we sometimes (more often than not) come in to work for no pay, and as always, we stay dedicated to the promise of giving quality live music performances to you and anyone who is kind enough to join us on this bizarre and exciting journey. Again, we live for live music, and weāll keep doing this as long as we can, which is to say, as long as you keep watching. Your willingness to do that, in other words, to support our hard work, is both humbling and inspiring. You make what we do possible!
Your support can manifest in many different ways. You watch each week; that I think is the most important part. When you enjoy one of our shows, you talk about, you share it with your friends, and you come back for more. That helps the word spread, and with each new like and follow that the page receives, the possibilities for this project grow more ambitious and more exciting. So please share the series page with as many people as you can. We have gone from reaching out to friends and family to explain our plan and ask them to play, to being booked out through the end of July and having to field calls daily from agents and managers asking how to get their artists involved. (We have some exciting announcements coming very soon!!!) Your interest continues to make that happen.
Even though times are uncertain, our support system is strong. We have several title sponsors who have contributed their services to help us spread the word. Some of them have provided whatever financial backing they could to help us keep the lights on (both figuratively and literally). We can never fully repay those debts, and we will always be thankful for the care that has been shown to us. They come from the same love for live music that we bring to our work, and the payoff is most often seeing a successful show or watching an artist present their music to thousands of viewers. If you or your business would like to get involved, please feel free to reach out at [email protected] to inquire about how you can sponsor the series or an individual show.
Finally, while I will always feel a little uncomfortable asking for financial support, the truth of the matter is that your contributions are what allow our crew and the artists continue providing quality live music. In many ways, we are simply taking the standard live show model and opening it up to operate on a contribution basis. We know, going into each show, that we might be working for free that night or that we all might make enough to cover our gas to make it to the show. Sometimes, it might cost us money just to put on the show. Itās a risk weāve all accepted, and weāll keep fighting each week to make those shows happen. Itās what we do, and weāre not giving up anytime soon. But please, if youāre able, do consider tipping during the shows. The difference it makes for us and the artists is impossible to communicate.
You can also contribute to the series between shows via Venmo @crowdless or Paypal at https://www.paypal.me/crowdless. We will never tell you that you have to pay to watch, but if you feel so inclined, your help will always be appreciated, and your contributions will always go towards making this series better. But as Iāve said, all we can really ask of you is that you keep tuning in and that you keep enjoying live music. You are the blood that pumps through this industryās veins, and you are what keeps our work alive. You are part of our music community, and every week we are both proud and thankful to consider you part of our No Contact Concert Series family. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for that.
Please take the time to visit our website www.crowd-less.com to learn more about our crew, our sponsors, upcoming shows, and ways that you can contribute to the series. We canāt wait to see you each week, and weāll never get tired of seeing how much you enjoy watching live music!
Very sincerly,
The No Contact Series crew, Codex Sound Company, and Midwood Entertainment
(Craig Bess, Micah Davidson, Josh Goodfellow, Josh āTurnupā Jones, Mark Martindale, Rom Teague, Luc Valcourt, Taylor Wi******er, and John Crawford)
