Why VERZUZ Is The Most Impressive Live Stream Concept To Come Out Of Lock-Down

Since live music has been put on hold because you know what, live stream concerts have swept in to provide a much needed live music fix. Artists ranging from superstars to emerging acts are all putting on different types of live stream concerts for their fans. However, one live stream concept in particular has managed to captivate millions around the world by perfectly leveraging from this lock-down period, and that’s VERZUZ.

What is VERZUZ

Started as a fun Instagram live feud between legendary producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, the widespread praise it achieved led the producers to morph it into an Instagram series with subsequent battles between Nelly and Ludacris, T-Pain and Lil Jon, Jill Scott and Erkyah Badu and many more to come. This is how it works — each artist shows up at an appointed time on their Instagram Live account and it begins with one of the artists playing a song they made from their discography, the opponent then replies by playing a song they made and it keeps going for 20 songs via a battle format. This seemingly simple concept has now garnered tens of millions of viewers, and counts Michelle Obama, P.Diddy, Adele and Jay-Z as regular viewers.

How it has captivated people

The execution of VERZUZ has been unintentionally flawless, and that is a testament to the natural way it came about. Every part of it beautifully comes together to provide an immersive experience for the fan and a celebratory moment for the artists involved. An all encompassing experience we or the artists were simply not getting anywhere else, I break down all these components that make VERZUZ such a great format.

The battle concept

The nature of it being a battle makes it almost TV game show-esque but without the awkward host or judge. The banter that has come out of these battles have been second to none — whether it was Timbaland playing Kanye songs on repeat and Swizz bowing his head knowing he lost that round, or Babyface questioning Teddy Riley for playing a remix in the battle and then in a sneak diss replying with; “I don’t do remixes anyway”. The latter causing insane viral moments with parody videos, memes, and a few hundred people including celebrities instantly changing their Twitter handles to “I don’t do remixes”. On top of the music, the friendly back and forth adds an important entertainment layer to the VERZUZ format that we’re not seeing in other music related live streams.

The stories

By keeping it as a simple 1-on-1 live stream with no complicated rules or potential disturbances, it cultivates a conversational atmosphere between the artists. Anyone in media knows that artists prefer talking to other artists than they do with media journalists, and because of this, these battles are gifting us amazing conversations, and have allowed us fans rare glimpses into the makings of some of the most iconic songs made. A striking example of this was when Teddy Riley played a Michael Jackson song he produced, after the song finished playing Babyface took a moment to share a story where Michael was pressuring him to get an intro to Halle Berry back in the 1990s. A story that no-one knew or no media company had reported on, but came to light thanks to the VERZUZ format, and of course tabloid media ate it up.

The shared experience

We all have access to these songs played by VERZUZ artists, I mean you just need to search for them on your Spotify or Apple Music, not hard. However, it’s experiencing the songs played by its creators and all of us fans tuning it at the same time, commenting on the live feed is what makes it such a communal moment, something that real live music does. For example when Ludacris played his smash hit “Area Codes” it got everyone from Big Boi to Travis Scott and us fans (West Sydney represent lol) all commenting their area (post) codes in sync. This wasn’t requested by Ludacris or purposefully orchestrated, it just organically happened and it was actually a really cool little shared moment we all had. This is just one example, there’s been loads of other truly amazing shared moments in each of the battles.

Keeping it on instagram

Despite it literally crashing Instagram and breaking streaming records Swizz Beatz and Timbaland have decided to keep it on Instagram, and so they should. If this was a pay-walled stream or on a TV setting (no doubt they would have had offers rolling in), it loses it’s authenticity and that relaxed connection between artists. Even with glitches in the Teddy Riley Vs Babyface battle Teddy Riley broke off into a solo live stream playing his hit “No Diggity” while on the keys and face-timing with Dr Dre all at the same time. A truly incredible music moment that resembles when an artist spontaneously brings a massive surprise guest on stage — something that likely wouldn’t have gone down in a more formal live stream setting. Swizz Beatz and Timbaland understand this is a concept for the people, justifying why they’ve kept it on Instagram.

The impact and future of VERZUZ

After each battle every artist experiences a huge spike in music streams and social media follows. The celebratory nature of the show naturally reinforces the love people have for these artists and the reach is enabling these artists to attract newer/younger audiences. The milestones it’s achieving for all involved is something other live stream concepts are barely hitting.

With its success and reach, massive artists like Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliot, DMX, and many more have all expressed interest in taking part in future battles. There’s talks about a Dr Dre Vs P.Diddy battle, and even a Eminem Vs DMX battle, safe to say the anticipation for future battles is sky high and I definitely see Swizz Beatz and Timbaland branching off to other genres outside of Hip-Hop and R&B as well. It’s become so big that there is no doubt VERZUZ will continue to exist past lock-down, and become a strong part of the overall online music ecosystem going forward.

What can the music industry learn from this

What the industry can learn from this is that being organic is key. Timbaland and Swizz Beatz didn’t start this to be a global phenomena, they started it because it was fun, interactive, and entertaining to fans during lock-down. As Swizz told AP:

Me and Tim’s mission is to bring happiness, to help everybody get past this hard moment because we’re all being affected

Start here, an unselfish desire to entertain fans when they don’t have proper live music. Live stream concerts can never replace the magic of live music, so instead of trying to replicate it on a live stream, artists should be optimising on what these live streaming platforms provide that concerts can’t, which is a closer interaction between fans and artists, and this is something VERZUZ has nailed. Fadia Kader, head of music at Instagram, who has been closely working with Timbaland and Swizz Beatz on VERZUZ has this to say about music live streaming to the Washington Post:

Keep it simple, IG is not meant for high production value, it’s meant for intimate direct-to-fan moments.

As a template for inspiration, VERZUZ by focusing on genuine interactions has produced so many amazing memories for fans, and given much deserved flowers to legendary musicians — and these are the sorts of combined wins we need more from online music streaming. Hats off to Swizz Beatz and Timbaland.