Moment House: future proofing events for fans

The energy of a packed stadium, the excitement of hearing your favorite song live, the glimpse of the musician moving with the sway of the crowd.

I can still remember my first concert. I imagine we all can.

An appreciation for live performance is universal and not to be replaced. That said, digital connectivity offers a new potential to experience live performances, while also offering a venue for meaningful connections with fans and revenue for artists and creators. Digital events don’t need to replace live in person — done right they should stand on their own, offering another way to share and experience.

While the concert & event industry ($35B U.S. market) and live streaming industry ($24B U.S. market) have grown tremendously over the past decade — proven recently by the 12M viewers of Travis Scott’s Fornite experience — artists struggle to monetize digital events and create engaging experiences for fans. Digital events are typically cast on free platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch are often low-fi, generic, and uninspiring. On top of that, because these are free ad-based platforms, the content and experience has been commoditized, with none of the platforms having an eye toward creating a premium or unique experience that consumers will pay for.

Touring is incredibly important for fan engagement, but as the creator economy matures and concerts are on hold because of the pandemic, artists are looking for opportunities to reach their fans directly. On the heels of advancements in modern video capabilities, there exists an important opportunity to empower artists and creators to host compelling digital events and deepen their relationships with fans.

One company found a solution that we at Forerunner believe stands out from a talent, design, product and technical standpoint.

Los Angeles-based Moment House is a self-service digital events platform for creators that has built a beautifully designed, interactive, and ticketed new unit of content called a *Moment*. Starting with musicians this fall, the company will empower creators of all types to host premium digital events.

Whereas the concert and event promotion industry has been largely consolidated under Live Nation, and touring has become the primary way for leading entertainers to generate revenue (income from album sales has decreased from $13B in 2000 to $1B in 2019 and shifted to the $7B streaming service industry), Moment House sits at the hot intersection of events and streaming. We see a new category emerging, propelled by three major tailwinds: (1) consumer willingness to prioritize paying for experiences and services over goods, (2) advanced digital connectivity and design evolution, and (3) a growing movement of both top and emerging performers engaging with fans directly via owned social and media channels.

Moment House co-founders Arjun Mehta and Shray Bansal come from fitting backgrounds in both entertainment and software engineering, and they’ve built deep in-roads with music industry execs, granting them advantages in early access to talent. When we met, their youthful spirit and impressive technical skill sets showed a deep understanding of the market opportunity. Arjun graduated from the inaugural Iovine and Young class at USC — led by powerhouses Jimmy Iovine and Andrew “Dr. Dre” Young — and has attracted interest and advice from the likes of Mr. Iovine, Scooter Braun, Jared Leto, Troy Carter, Quincy Jones and Eric Greenspan. Importantly, they bring an artful eye to their technology savvy, and have conceived and brought to life what we believe is a stand out product experience.

While we invested based on the long term potential, Moment House also feels uniquely timely. Music, comedy, and events can bring much needed joy and distraction after months of isolation — Moment House occupies a bright spot for creators and audiences.

Go ahead, live in the Moment.