Driift Driift creates a new vertically integrated approach to live performances

Founded in 2020, UK-based Driift was set up to capitalise on and drive the new opportunities that were presented by lockdown’s cessation of live music concerts. Spun out of artist agency ATC, Driift takes an artist-centric approach, with a core focus on high-production values and ticketed events with ticketing partner Dice.fm.

Driift proved its model with an early and small, but critically acclaimed, ticketed live streamed concert for ATC artist Laura Marlin. Driift powered events for a number of ATC artists, but it quickly expanded to other artists too. Key successes in 2020 included selling 150,000 tickets for Niall Horan’s Royal Albert Hall live stream, Kylie Minogue’s album event, and selling 75,000 tickets for Andrea Bocelli’s ‘Believe in Christmas’ event, making it the highest-grossing classical live streamed concert to date, in December 2020.

Key to Driift’s success in 2020 was concentrating on production quality and creative formats, something that was patently lacking from the majority of live streamed concerts when the company was formed. As 2020 progressed, more live streamed concerts followed Driift’s lead, improving the quality of the video experience. Though, by late 2020, many larger live streamed events still delivered poor quality visual experiences, largely because they simply tried to replicate the live experience. In contrast, Driift recognised early on that the future of live streaming lies in innovating new video formats rather than simply trying to be a poor imitation of traditional live performances.