The love of music will never fade! What if you could get a private performance from artists you love in the comfort of your own home? The music industry has expanded and developed over the past few years, with the world relying on the advancements of technology. Music streaming has been an important factor for maintaining listeners sanity. Social media has become more interactive, with live streaming!
The music industry has developed through the centuries. From the sounds of the 50s early pop to the Avant Garde nature of edgy alternative rock, the sounds of some of our favourite artists stretch from far and wide over the globe. The mainstream music industry has seen many positive outcomes and some epic failures over the years as record labels serve a beacon of music creation. The past years however, has shown a deterioration of mainstream audiences everywhere. In the past few years much of the music industry happenings have taken a drastic shift.
Through rapid technological advantages to the crazy times of the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of record labels began to decline. With the music industry being one of the most affected entities by the expansion of technology’s advancement, many independent artists have managed to take their careers into their own technological hands. Artist have been creating promising careers through the world of the internet and social media. One particular musical aspect has brought the live stage into every family’s homes for an optimal viewing experience.
The Love of Live Streaming
According to Wikipedia.com, live streaming refers to online streaming media recorded and broadcast in real time. Through the craziness of this epic life-changing times, live streams have served as a positive adaption to the music universe. From the words of Medium.com, 80% of online users prefer watching live videos from a brand. As a strong musical effort, live streams drive more traffic, views and truly provides positive engagement with the audiences much more intimately. On a more personal level, live streams have provided many opportunities for music artists around the globe. Being an artist myself, I have experienced the huge benefits of live stream performing. I had the extreme pleasure of performing my own concert on Facebook Live this past June. I also was able to be apart of the artist line up for the German Cochibamba Music Festival, a few months prior!
Live streaming has easy access for growing their audience base and monetising their creations. For example, with only a span of three days, jazz singer Esperanza Spalding created a full-length album. She then streamed it live on Facebook in 2017. Her music sales flourished as the live stream gave her an efficient outlet to promote her music.
Advice for the Online Stage
There are key elements on how artists can utilize the live stream media option to bring in music listeners. With the strong potential of broadening the music consumer market interaction, live streaming as the power to facilitate user engagement. Through real time commenting and chat sessions, customer engagement can provide the huge potential for new fans. Live streaming additionally lends to marketing in terms of opening up opportunities for monetisation and powerful tips for musicians to grow leverage. A lot of times, artists in concert settings have a hard time reflecting a strong form of personal relatability. With the up close and personal responsiveness of live streaming, artist can allow themselves to open up with their viewers and create a safe sharing space with their followers and potential new listeners.
It’s important for artists to create a general structure to the life broadcast. There have been times where I have witnessed various levels of structure with streamed concerts. With this lacking, many viewers lose interest and the watching count slowly fades.
An important tip for artist: Approach the streamed concert as if it was a live-in person concert.
Things such as a concert performance lists, calculated and planned, will create a flowing event. A crucial aspect of bad live streams could be due to the lack of proper equipment. The live stream should reflect your brand and quality of music. As an artist, many aspects such as Wi-Fi connection, camera and lighting define the professionalism of a proper live stream. It’s also important that the duration is not that long. Many concerts I have seen on the social media stage spanned too long for comfort. Artists should also allow the platform as a space to call action to certain important topics. Pop icon, Billie Eilish, created a live stream surrounding the importance of climate and environmental change. A crucial aspect of live streaming to keep in mind is copyright flags. Multiple stories of cover songs being taken down or flagged on social media platforms, has caused an impactful stir in the music industry these past couple of years. Artist must make sure they have full rights for sharing content on the online stage.
Live streaming has become an important part of the social media experience. My prediction is that there will be many more live streams to come, from mainstream to the independent artist hemisphere. The reality is that artist still have to eat. Through the efforts of live streaming, artists maintaining a financial income, while still doing what they love. So, the next time you are finding our mind consumed into a lovely album or genre, fall down the musical rabbit hole with live stream content.
Photos: Shutterstock
To perform live can be daunting, here are some tips to get you started:
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