Beyond Live (commonly stylized as Beyond LIVE) is an online live concert streaming service and concert series first established in April 2020 by South Korean entertainment company

SM Entertainment SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency. It is one of South Korea's largest entertainment companies where it was established in 1995 by record executive and record producer Lee Soo-man. The company ha ...

in partnership with

Naver Naver (Hangul: 네이버) is a South Korean online platform operated by the Naver Corporation. It was launched in 1999 as the first web portal in South Korea to develop and use its own search engine. It was also the world's first operator to in ...

. It is the first paid concert streaming service in the world that delivers full-scaled live online concert aided by technology such as augmented reality and with real-time interactions between artists and live audience enabled. On its establishment, the platform has been regarded by global media as a relevant response in substituting traditional concerts during the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The first live concert of the ''Beyond Live'' series was headlined by South Korean boy supergroup SuperM with the concert titled ''SuperM: Beyond the Future'' on April 26, 2020; the live concert recorded over 75,000 virtual tickets sold, playing to real-time audience from 109 countries. In August 2020,

JYP Entertainment JYP Entertainment Corporation () is a South Korean multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate founded in 1997 by J. Y. Park. It is one of the largest entertainment companies in South Korea, and operates as a record label, tale ...

joined with SM Entertainment to create Beyond Live Corporation, a joint venture operating and expanding the ''Beyond Live'' platform. It was launched on December 23, 2021. Since its creation, multiple artists from SM and JYP have delivered full-length live online concerts within ''Beyond Live'' series, and other K-pop entertainment enterprises started to produce virtual live concerts in similar format.

Background, technology and media reaction

By April 2020, it was announced South Korea's largest entertainment company

and South Korean Internet search platform and media corporation

had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with purpose to expand the reach of concerts to global audience. The joint effort lead to the creation of ''Beyond Live'', a series of online live concerts which, according to SM, was formed in order to combine "SM's content development capabilities with Naver's platform technology." On April 20, SM Entertainment released a trailer on their official YouTube channel announcing the upcoming series of live concerts, with the first live show to be headlined by K-pop boy group SuperM. Initially, ''Beyond Live'' was scheduled with four concert dates in April and May 2020. The concerts are hosted on the

Vlive V Live (stylized as VLIVE), sometimes referred to as V App, is a South Korean Livestreaming, live video streaming service that allows celebrities based in the country to broadcast live videos such as live chat sessions with fans, performances, ...

application and made available to audience from over 200 countries and territories. Subtitles in different languages are made available to live audience. Together with real-time access to the live concert, the paid audience have rights to on-demand viewing of the concerts afterwards. "Beyond Live" constitutes a real-time customized performance service for full-length and full-sized arena live concert in which there are no in-person audience, which is considered as different from prior commonly used methods of broadcasting a performance online from home or broadcasting an existing footage from previous concerts. The format and design of the concert is optimized for the online audience with the aid of technology including

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...

(AR) technology,

three-dimensional Three-dimensional space (also: 3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a geometric setting in which three values (called ''parameters'') are required to determine the position of an element (i.e., point). This is the informal ...

backdrop graphics, live sync camera walk, and digital communication to enable real-time interactions (two-way) between performers and the online audience. Specifically, ''Beyond Live'' concerts are credited for implementing augmented reality graphics to transform the stage to fit each performance, as well as varying camera shots arranged differently from normal concert broadcasts. Artists perform on a stage before "a backdrop of screens and visuals ..directed in real-time" by camera operators personnel. Real-time communication and Q&A sessions between artists and online audience are conducted via video calls. Global media outlets like ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'', ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'', and ''

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

'' have commended the platform as a viable and timely alternative to traditional in-person concerts, which were being cancelled around the world as a result of the ongoing

, as well as ensuing rules on social distancing and restricted travels enforced in various countries. The ''Beyond Live'' concert series is also regarded as a digital innovation created to foster interactions between artists and the "technical-savvy audience." In addition, ''Forbes'' remarked that, even if the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is to be ignored, the concert streaming service still addresses a prevalent need from international K-pop fans located across regions where K-pop acts rarely travel to, highlighting that for areas outside certain countries in Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Australia, fans lack the chance for in-person concerts and would need to turn to online alternatives regardless. On August 4, 2020, SM Entertainment and

announced the establishment of Beyond Live Corporation, a joint company for virtual concerts. It was formed to grow Beyond LIVE into a global online concert brand by strengthening global joint business development by adding synergy between SM's content production capabilities and Naver's technology.

Shows and reception

Piracy concerns

Illegal live-streaming has been identified as a potential concern. Before the first concert in the series, the ''SuperM: Beyond the Future'' show, SM Entertainment had warned of legal actions against copyright violation streaming. However, ''

'' noted it is possible that many people had attempted to stream the first live show via unofficial sources.

References

External links

* {{Internet streaming services 2020 concerts 2021 concerts 2022 concerts K-pop concerts SM Town JYP Entertainment Naver Corporation Live streaming services Multilingual websites South Korean entertainment websites