Ablissa wrote: ↑Wed Jan 16, 2019 10:56 pm
Just out of curiosity - why does everyone think they're dropping the liveshows in 2019? I'm not disputing it and I believe you are right, but I just wonder why, because I (maybe naively) thought they would want to stick to this easy source of income. Then again, they dropped DAPG...
I’ve talked before here (and other places) about how I think liveshows are dying (if not already dead) for various reasons.
First and foremost, they’ve been making liveshows shorter and shorter in more recent years. They went from about an hour to about 50 mins to 40/45 mins now we’re down to about a solid 30 mins. 35 mins if we’re lucky.
At the end of 2017 they announced that liveshows would be as and when. The reasons they gave for switching to doing liveshows as and when were solid and fair imo ie. Dan/them not always having good days/weeks, not always having things to (or that they can) talk about, being busy some weeks/not having time/scheduling issues etc. I feel like most of these reasons still ring true.
These two things (shorter and less frequent liveshows) were happening right up until their Rize sponsorship started.
The state of liveshows in 2018 before the tour:
January:
Dan: 1 show - 16th Jan
0 Phil shows
February:
Phil: 1 show - 1st Feb
Dan: 1 show - 20th Feb
March:
Dan: 1 show - 6th March
Phil: 1 show - 22nd March (over month and a half since his last one)
April:
1 Dan show: 4th April
Joint: 24th April - last show/night before they leave for tour
(Phil did 1 solo show which I’m going to exclude bc it was pigeon fest and not a proper live show)
Then the tour started and Rize/Younow were sponsoring their tour and liveshows became a stipulation of Younow/Rize funding the tour.
I think after the tour they made a decision to see the joint liveshows out to the end of the year in line with ‘Giving People What They Want’ etc. It could also be that the Rize/Younow contract went beyond the end of the tour. I think it’s possible they had a specific number of liveshows to do (and they did go an entire month into the tour w/o doing liveshows). Or it could also be that their contract stated they do liveshows until x month/the end of the year or w/e. All conjecture but it’s plausible imo - we don’t know the terms of the agreement.
In terms of solo liveshows post tour - they each did 1 solo liveshow in October. It seems to me like this was Dan’s idea.
In Dan’s solo liveshow of October he made an off handed ‘is this a throw back to 2016?’ comment and during the show he also said, “So I thought, ‘Hey, this week why don’t we just do regular Dan and Phil separately live shows like the good old days.’”
So, I think it’s pretty much safe to say (frequent) solo liveshows are a thing of the past (much to my dismay).
IMO, joint liveshows were/are a way to get Phil to do a liveshow.
I’ll straight up say I don’t think Phil ~likes~ doing liveshows anymore. He does them as part of his job. Dan on the other hand still needs/wants to do them and gets enjoyment (catharsis?) out of them. It’s not just out of obligation for him. But when Dan does a liveshow there’s an expectation that Phil does one too.
In addition to all the reasons they’ve mentioned for as and when liveshows, I also think there’s a dimension of privacy in it. I think they just don’t /want/ to be telling us about the things they’ve been up to every week particularly on weeks in which they’re just doing personal/admin stuff. They can use ig stories to show us these things now. Yeah, it's not the same but the general purpose is served - updating their audience on the things they've been doing.
Also, in the bigger picture, it has been over 6 years of liveshows. Where they were when they started liveshows (pre London move, pre 1 million subscribers etc) is so far from where they are now. Also, there’s no immediate movie/book/major project to spon (atm). They don’t /need/ to be doing them weekly/frequently anymore (or at all tbh - specifically in terms of /Needing/ to). They can find other ways to do this in the future or just do a one off liveshow for whenever they need to.
Also, I think they’ve become more ~private with regard to liveshows since then. They used to do them come rain wind or shine. They did liveshows at Ian’s house, they did liveshows at Bryony’s house, they did them quickly before/after they had events and they just don’t do that anymore. From this, in addition to liveshows getting shorter and fewer and farther between etc, we can, in my opinion, see that their priorities with regard to liveshows just aren’t what they used to be.
And yeah, I think you could argue that it’s exactly because they’re part of their job that they wouldn’t end them but I think they’re in a position where they can end them if they wanted to. In terms of the money aspect, yeah it’s easy money but it was never /that/ much money for them (espec in comparison to their other money making ventures) and therefore ending them wouldn’t be a massive loss to them financially.
And correct me and forgive me if I’m wrong but from what I’ve seen/noticed they don’t even open all that many premium messages anymore - and that’s where the money making aspect of it comes in, right? They either bring things up of their own accord or they take comments/suggestions for topics etc they see in the live chat.
In the conspiracy theory realm of it all: I think them moving (if they are (and I do think they will be)) plays a part in it too. If I recall correctly, other than the odd tightly controlled/angled picture every now and then the reason we first saw their living flat was bc of liveshows, right? I’m still of the opinion they’ll want to keep their permanent home far more private than their current/past ones so I think this could also add to the demise of liveshows. (And if not, I think all my other reasons are ~enough.)
I don’t think liveshows are completely dead quite yet (though it absolutely wouldn’t surprise me if they were). I’m still hoping for a handful of liveshows as and when/few and far between at least for part of the year. I definitely think they’ll be gone by the end of the year if not sooner.
At this point of the year in all years previous they’d have done a liveshow(s) by now:
In 2016 Dan’s first liveshow was on the 5th, Phil’s on the 10th.
In 2017 Dan’s first liveshow was on the 10th, Phil’s on the 12th.
In 2018 Dan’s was on the 16th and Phil didn’t do a liveshow in January. His first liveshow of the year was 1st of Feb.
At the moment, I do think they have a few reasons to be ~avoiding liveshows. No doubt the chat will just be filled with questions about dapg, the future, their plans etc. and I don’t think they can/want to answer these right now which yh fair enough.
With an AP video imminent, the watch party this weekend, and, (I assume) a Dan video incoming before the end of the month + Phil’s birthday week, I’m not holding out too much hope for one this month. Though I still hope for at least a beginning of the year/looking forward/update liveshow at some point. But I think the longer it goes w/o them doing a liveshow the less likely it is they'll actually do one.
Also, I think it's probably worth noting they made no comment on the future of liveshows in their final liveshow of last year. This could be read into imo.
tldr; My belief is that they’ll go back to their pre tour infrequent as and when ~schedule for liveshows and then let them taper out until they stop completely... If they’re not already dead which is also very plausible to me.
Nevertheless, it’s all speculation on my behalf. And liveshows are personally my favourite content so I’d absolutely more than love to be wrong.
Maybe Easter baking will still happen? But if they're moving it might not, I guess. I don't know why I'm posting this ramble, I just feel stupidly restless and I want them to do something 
You'd be distributing/downloading copyrighted material.
