150 Shares
Colorado artist Laura Brehm, whose music was streamed tens of millions of times in 2020, is for the first time making a living solely from streaming revenues. (Provided by Outerloop Group)
Laura Brehm strummed an acoustic guitar as a singer-songwriter before finding success as a featured vocalist on electronic dance-music tracks a gig that has brought her international work and tens of millions of plays on services such as Spotify and YouTube Music.
But even as music-streaming revenues are projected to hit $23 billion this year an increase of 50% over 2020, or $3.3 billion, according to a Statista survey the Colorado musician will see only a fraction of the money that her work generates.
“By March 12, everything was shut down,” says Peer, the founder and musical director of Kol Nashim, the women’s choir within the Colorado Hebrew Chorale. “To cancel was devastating.”
Undeterred, Peer says organizers spent the better part of the year putting together an online version of the event, which will stream on March 14. Over the past year, she and her choir have acclimated to the virtual world, hosting classes and practices through Zoom calls. But just because the concert will be virtual doesn t make staging it an any less daunting of a task. Not everyone is enamored with livestreamed concerts.
When the owners of iconic jazz club El Chapultepec decided to close the business for good in December, rumors spread about the future of the legendary spot: Would the building be torn down and replaced with a condo complex? Could someone buy the El Chapultepec name and keep the club going? Or would anyone have the moxie to take over the space and create something new?
The family of Jerry Krantz, who d run the Pec for decades, decided not to sell the business and just shut it down. But they didn t own its home Evan Makovsky, co-owner of Shames Makovsky Realty Company, bought the building at 1962 Market Street after Krantz died, leasing it back to his family and since the structure is in a historic district, it isn’t going anywhere (though there s plenty of construction next door at the future home of Dierks Bentley s Whiskey Row).
Keep Westword Free. Since we started
Westword, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who ve won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism s existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our I Support membership program, allowing us to keep covering Denver with no paywalls.
The dearth of live music over the past year has been a drag of epic proportions, and the folks at Denver s Party Guru Productions know it as well as anyone. Yet crowding at a rave or club is still a no-go.
So the promoters have found a solution: Have the artists perform inside a hotel atrium while fans enjoy the music from their room balconies. Party Guru calls the concept a vertical concert experience. The shows, two this weekend, are part of the SerotonINN Sound Series. The company hopes to make the events a regular occurrence in Denver even beyond COVID-19.