New technological advancements like the Internet radio and the emergence of live streaming set a new age for both music artists and fans. The convenience, personalization, and ease of access, etc. have bought more consumption of online music and increased the willingness of the audience to pay for it.
The good news is that it’s not just beneficial for the audience, but for emerging artists around the world as live streaming offers them the ability to create, record, and perform their music anytime, anywhere. It also facilitates interaction with fans, growing audience base, and eventually monetize their content- depending on the platform they choose. For example, the success of Spotify has caused artists in niche genres like Danish cloud Rap to flourish and other big stars like Ed Sheeran to earn impressive income.
Likewise, music-streaming platforms have fundamentally changed the listening experience of music lovers, too. Personalized recommendations ranging from Indie, rap, etc. to infinite micro-genre permutations, these platforms offer a lot to the audience. Though a small part of it, live streaming is a highly efficient tool for music artists and performers.
5 reasons live streaming can benefit music artists
Earlier, artists were restricted from reaching out to their listeners via physical sales of their music through albums and concerts alone. However, modern musicians seem to benefit from the broad range of options available to create and spread their music from streaming services and audio streaming software to create their own websites to selling songs through iTunes and Google music. It is far easier to promote concert dates and gain live access to remote audiences through live streaming.
Here is some major impact live streaming has brought in to musicians:
Facebook live has the most reach
Facebook live is the most famous for live video streaming, yes, even more, popular than YouTube. Facebook live has the most reach as it offers brilliant features to reach your audience. There are some valid reasons why Facebook Live is a powerful live streaming platform.
When you go live from a festival venue on your Facebook page, notifications about the same are sent to all followers. Even after live streaming ends, your followers still can view the broadcast and they will get notifications. Facebook live video can also be shared on Instagram, which is another great feature. This helps in further reaching more audiences.
Better engagement with live streaming
Live videos have a unique power than what other types of marketing tools can do. It offers a tangible feel of what events are like at the real venue or a music festival. Additionally, live videos can be a real-time conversation considering that the audience can engage in through the comments. Facebook reports that viewers tend to spend 3 times more time and comment 10 times more for live videos than on pre-recorded videos. Leveraging this, you can enhance user engagement by spicing up interaction.
While it is not possible to get the artists to interact with viewers during the performance, there are other possibilities for live streaming like Q&A sessions before a show, behind the scenes, VIP meet and greet, and a lot more.
Measure success through analytics
Live streaming platforms help music artists to measure success through analytics and metrics, which is changing the way how musicians interact with online fans. For example, Facebook live offers a full range of reactions of fans and provides valuable analytics to publishers. Instagram and YouTube also have analytics tools embedded within the platform. Before choosing a live streaming platform, you must check out what analytics and tools are available for publishers.
The live streams of popular artists hit billions of plays. Thanks to well-optimized live audio streaming servers that support a pretty huge number of simultaneous listeners. Besides streaming numbers, artists can also view precise listener info like age, gender, location, and even medium through which they consume music. This info not only allows artists to understand who is listening to their music but also fine-tune their live streams in the future to outreach to fans in the best way possible.
Monetize your content
Some live streaming platforms facilitate setting up online subscription services and invite viewers to sign up for a monthly fee to exclusively access your live streams. Pay per view is also another business model that helps artists to monetize their content. If not live-streaming platforms, artists can set up the monetization model they prefer in their own music website.
Live streaming is not just a great way to gain exposure, but also to make revenue as well. For example, 60’s California psych-rock legends, the Grateful Dead staged a Farwell gig in 2015 and offered pay per view live experience for their online fans. This live music event set a record with a whopping 4 lakh online subscriptions besides a gross of $5.22 million in ticket sales.
What are different live streaming options available for music artists?
If you are new to live streaming, you can start with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and even YouTube to live stream your events. Let’s explore the commonly available options.
Facebook live
Facebook live is the best live streaming platform that allows you to reach out to your fans in real-time. Facebook’s live streaming functionality not only allow you to host a live stream on your Facebook page, but also allows your fans to go live at the event from their mobile devices. The tool allows you to choose your target audience, receive real-time feedback in the comment section, and track the number of viewers. Facebook Live is a simple and user-friendly live streaming tool that is great for artists looking to jump right into live streaming without going through the complexities of setting up a live stream.
Multi-streaming apps
Imagine being able to set up a YouTube live session and Facebook Live for your gig or music festival simultaneously. This wouldn’t have been possible a few decades back. But now with modern technology, it is possible to host more than one live session at the same through multi-streaming apps like Live. You can go live on multiple platforms at the same time via a dashboard, making it simple to reach a broad range of audiences concurrently. This is great for artists who want to broadcast their events over multiple channels through a single platform to avoid the hassles of managing multiple live streaming platforms.
Create your own music website
Building a strong personal brand that communicates with fans is essential for any artist to transform from a musician to an icon. Of course, music streaming platforms and social media platforms help artists to build their brands, but all of them lack control. Whereas, a fully customizable website gives musicians complete creative freedom to design their page the way they want. A dedicated website leaves a more professional impression and provides the opportunity to connect with their fan base. The increasing popularity of music sharing scripts has also led to the creation of personalized live streaming music sites than ever before.
How to present your live streaming effectively to your fans?
Staging a live show may sound easier than done, but it’s possible to pull off in the best possible way. For the best results, consider the following:
- Choose the right venue and ensure that you have the best live streaming set up to go live.
- Hire a small crew of tech-savvy audiovisual engineers to ensure your audio and video quality is great through the event.
- Offer yourself a lot of time to plan and market your event.
- Create plans for success. Get your team of creatives in order to ensure you plan for success.
- Use social media, forums, and word of mouth to publicize your live event.
Conclusion
Today, music is consumed at an insane rate. Decades back, listening to the radio, buying physical records, etc. was the primary way of consuming music. Live music events and music festivals were viewed live by fans only at the venue. Now also the live events, gigs, and music festivals are still accessible live, but online.
Live streaming platforms leverage complex live audio streaming software and algorithms to handle the insane amount of traffic on a daily basis. The era of streaming music is here, and if you want to be recognized as an icon, establishing your presence on music streaming platforms is necessary.
