{"id":2458495,"date":"2020-05-15T16:20:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T22:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=325745"},"modified":"2020-05-15T16:20:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T22:20:00","slug":"high-country-nugs-nets-brad-serling-is-saving-the-music-one-couch-tour-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/high-country-nugs-nets-brad-serling-is-saving-the-music-one-couch-tour-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"High Country: Nugs.net\u2019s Brad Serling is saving the music one couch tour at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"580\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/nugstv_sampleb-1024x580.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/nugstv_sampleb-1024x580.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/nugstv_sampleb-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/nugstv_sampleb-768x435.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/nugstv_sampleb.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>Dead &amp; Company at the University of Colorado\u2019s Folsom Field in 2019.<\/strong><br \/><em>Courtesy Nugs.net<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>When Belly Up Aspen announced the postponement of Bob Weir and Wolf Bros\u2019 three-night run on March 12, ticketholders held out hope that coming together in October would be a reality. But in the weeks that followed, more Colorado concert cancellations were made official \u2014 from Dead &amp; Company at Folsom Field in Boulder to Phish at Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods Park in Denver to Widespread Panic at Red Rocks in Morrison \u2014 making the only thing I had left to look forward to in 2020 a long shot.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On April 30, the Belly Up box office shared a message from Weir and his bandmates directly: \u201cOut of an abundance of caution we are cancelling the remaining Bob Weir and Wolf Bros tour dates for the remainder of 2020.\u201d The statement concluded, \u201cIn the meantime, be good to yourselves \u2014 and to each other. Help a neighbor. Find a way to pay it forward. We are all in this together. Let there be songs to fill the air. See y\u2019all soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For live music lovers, filling the air (and our time) with songs during quarantine has been made all the better thanks to&nbsp;<a class href=\"http:\/\/nugs.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nugs.net<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 the leading livestream company for jam bands, and provider of pay-per-view concerts and professional live recordings for classic rockers including Metallica, Pearl Jam, Wilco and Bruce Springsteen.<\/p>\n<p>Founded by Brad Serling in 1993, the subscription-based multi- media platform is experiencing its busiest two months of business ever with a 670% spike in traffic and a conversion rate of 54% from free 30- day trial users to paid subscribers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Eight weeks ago, Serling, who\u2019s also the host of SirusXM\u2019s \u201cWeekly Live Stash\u201d on the&nbsp;<a class href=\"https:\/\/www.siriusxm.com\/jamon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jam On channel<\/a>, got a call from Phish\u2019s manager asking, \u201cWhat do you think we should do?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said, \u2018Well, we should do a weekly video series.\u2019 That\u2019s how this all started. And then the next day, I got a call from Metallica saying, \u2018What do you think we should do?\u2019 Then the Dead called, so it became clear that we should just make it a nightly thing and give each band their own night,\u201d Serling shared with me during a recent phone interview. \u201cNow we\u2019re at the point where we\u2019re doubling up on most nights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And the majority of the coronavirus content is completely free, stream-able on band Facebook pages via the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Nugs.net (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nugs.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nugs.net<\/a> and <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Nugs.tv (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/nugs.tv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nugs.tv<\/a> websites, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"YouTube (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/nugsnet\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a> channel and mobile app. Serling admitted that from a business perspective, he\u2019s surprised by the sizes of the audiences <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Nugs.net (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/nugs.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nugs.net<\/a> has commanded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been doing livestreams for 25 years, even before&nbsp;<a class href=\"http:\/\/nugs.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nugs.net<\/a>&nbsp;was a company,\u201d said Serling. \u201cI\u2019m amazed as a fan of how good the feeling is when you know that there\u2019s thousands of other fans at that very same moment watching a concert \u2014 especially when it\u2019s not live or I\u2019m playing a show from 10 years ago. It\u2019s amazing. It feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Serling gets input from band managers and archivists to curate which shows to program each week \u2014 often presented with a nonprofit partner attached, depending on band affiliations (i.e.&nbsp;<a class href=\"https:\/\/www.grammy.com\/musicares\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MusiCares Foundation<\/a>,&nbsp;<a class href=\"https:\/\/www.rexfoundation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rex Foundation<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class href=\"https:\/\/phish.com\/waterwheel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The WaterWheel Foundation<\/a>). So far,&nbsp;<a class href=\"http:\/\/nugs.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nugs.net<\/a>&nbsp;has raised more than $500,000 through its coronavirus concert livestreams alone.&nbsp;<br \/>\u201cI think there\u2019s been this shift now to reality setting in \u2014 first it was an initial state of shock and really just uncertainty,\u201d added Serling. \u201cNobody knowing what was going on \u2026 I think what surprised me is how in the last week or two \u2026 at least nationally, if not globally, there\u2019s now this acceptance (in the music industry) of, \u2018Okay, this is the world we\u2019re in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Serling doesn\u2019t have an end date set for&nbsp;<a class href=\"http:\/\/nugs.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nugs.net<\/a>\u2019s free weekly series, he is in active discussions with artists to start producing virtual tours \u2014 filmed in-studio with no audience or at a partner venue \u2014 that would mimic a traditional travel schedule with geo-fencing enabled to sell tickets within each city.<\/p>\n<p>According to&nbsp;<a class href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2020\/music\/news\/coronavirus-lockdown-live-music-virtual-live-stream-pay-per-view-1234600699\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Variety<\/a>&nbsp; \u201cNugs. net has cameras and equipment installed at eight major venues in the U.S., including New York\u2019s Sony Music Hall and the Fillmore in San Francisco, that can be activated with the flip of a switch, and the company can ship equipment virtually anywhere a gig could be played. Once the venues are determined to be safe for artists to perform with a small crew, the company plans to broadcast concerts from them, albeit without an audience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no rule book to go by here,\u201d explained Serling. \u201cEverybody\u2019s making it up as they go along and trying to make lemonade out of lemons as best we can. I\u2019m now on Zoom calls from the minute I wake up until the [nightly] livestream starts, so honestly, watching what we\u2019re broadcasting has been a huge stress relief for me personally. Sharing these shows has definitely been a beacon of light in a world that needs light.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Katie Shapiro can be reached at&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"mailto:katie@katieshapiromedia.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">katie@katieshapiromedia.com<\/a><em>&nbsp;and followed on Twitter&nbsp;<\/em><a class href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bykatieshapiro\"><em>@bykatieshapiro<\/em><\/a><em>.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/high-country-nugs-nets-brad-serling-is-saving-the-music-one-couch-tour-at-a-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dead &amp; Company at the University of Colorado\u2019s Folsom Field in 2019.Courtesy Nugs.net When Belly Up Aspen announced the postponement of Bob Weir and Wolf Bros\u2019 three-night run on March 12, ticketholders held out hope that coming together in October would be a reality. But in the weeks that followed, more Colorado concert cancellations were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2458495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-17 15:58:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2458495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}