Even if some music fans may be burned out on straight performance livestreams after 16 months, no one at Amazon will take the bait to knock the format — they’ve used it before, and they may well end up using it again.
The three specials-within-a-special, all about 25 minutes each, start airing today.
If there were a fourth division called Amazon Travel, maybe that would be a part of it, too, given the unusual settings for these three films, all of which offer a “take me away from all this” feeling of escapism.
“The intensity of the work certainly over the last two months was quite large — certainly the production, the filming over the course of a few weeks, and then going into post-production to edit and make the final piece pull together,” says Ryan Redington, VP of music industry for Amazon Music.
And in the case of Billie directing, Elena, was she the only one that directed her piece? It just is an opportunity, and those things can come together in these busy artists’ lives who are in such demand, it’s almost like the condensed amount of time is an asset to that, I think.
“They have a window, they like the idea, and they like the idea of it being in front of the paywall.” “They’re excited to have the creative freedom to execute on something, especially in the case of Billie co-directing.
“If we told you we actually wrapped filming the 1st of June…,” says Alaina Bartels, head of talent synergy and special projects for Amazon Studios.
The execs all reiterate that the artists took the lead on the basic concepts, deciding what particular niche of world-building they wanted to do.
What do you think of the rocket? What colors do you want to be seen you’re going through when you depart to space?’ AndI think that everybody who’s a Cudi fan, having seen him doing different volumes of ‘Man on the Moon,’ to now actually see him in space is really incredible.
“It was pretty much a first in the sense that I think it was really the first time that Prime Video, Music and Amazon Studios all worked together worked together collaboratively from the start on vision and the creative,” says Salke.
In 2019, we really kind of stepped up a notch: We had Becky G, SZA and Dua Lipa, and then Taylor Swift headlined.
Partly translated: If it looked like live audiences might still not be a thing yet by mid-June, what sort of music experience wouldn’t seem like it was missing an ingredient without one? Not that there are any regrets about having planned to do something more conceptual that would leave screaming devotees out of the picture.
The Amazon Studios head points to “the inclusive nature of the content and how we’re reaching out to customers in that way — or not even ‘customers.’ With audiences.” Of course, if you do happen to buy something while the end credits are scrolling, it’ll have been a hell of a loss leader.