How live streaming is transforming the music industry…and why that might scare you
The structure of the traditional music industry was quite straightforward with record labels being used as a common formula to deliver music o the audience. But, in the past decade, significant transformation in the music industry due to technological advancements was contributing to the diminishing of record labels and distributors. The music industry has been one of the most affected industries by the evolution of technology. The most significant innovation in the music industry has been the digitalization of music, the adoption of live streaming, and the emergence of music streaming platforms.
The emergence of live streaming technology has brought in a booming period for music creators.
Is streaming good for the music industry? Yes, it definitely is. It is a known fact that live streams drive more views, traffic, and bring in more quality engagement. As you might already know, over 80% of online users prefer watching live videos from a brand, and the music industry is no different.
Live streaming provides lucrative opportunities for emerging music creators across the globe to create, record, and perform their talents and reach to a wide global audience.
One of the primary reasons why musicians care about live streaming is because of its rising popularity and huge audience base.
Music artists can interact in real-time with their listeners, grow their audience base, and finally monetize their creations. Even for popular musicians with a huge follower base allows them to provide front row access to all fans despite their physical location.
How is streaming affecting the music industry?
Live streaming platforms and social media provides active space for musicians to perform live, share updates, engage with listeners, and get feedback from them in real-time.
In the past times, musicians had limitations in reaching out to their fans through live concerts of their albums. However, musicians of today have the advantage of modern technology that helps them to explore the opportunities offered by live streaming. From beginner level music artists to established brands, live streaming can be a powerful way to distribute their music and establish engaging relationships with their growing audience base.
In 2017, Esperanza Spalding, a popular jazz singer created a complete music album from scratch in 77 hours and streamed it live on Facebook. With live streaming, promoting music shows is much easier as it helps you to reach a large global audience.
Now, let’s look into how is streaming affecting the music industry and how you can benefit from it.
Reach out to a broad global audience
Live broadcasts hold the potential to reach a broad global audience without any geographical limitations. Even after a live video ends, there are many options to put up the same videos on social media platforms and other channels. This helps in reaching more audiences further even after the live stream ends.
Facilitate user engagement
Live streaming has a unique power that other marketing tools don’t offer. It provides a tangible feel of enjoying music events in real. Live streaming for artists also offers better user engagement with fans through real-time commenting and chat sessions.
Offers detailed analytics and reporting tools
Live streaming platforms feature the functionality of measuring the success of your live music events through detailed analytics and reporting tools. By leveraging this feature, you can improve the way you interact with your followers.
For instance, Facebook Live offers a full range of analytics features to publishers. Not just Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube also provides powerful built-in analytics as well.
Music creators can view the number of views, precise information of the listeners, and even the devices they used to watch the live streams. Analytics and reporting tools allow musicians to understand their followers at a deeper level and fine-tune their offerings to reach out to the audience in the most impactful way the next time.
Opens up opportunities for monetization
Putting the social media live streaming platforms aside, many dedicated live streaming platforms allow your audience to access your live streams for a monthly subscription. Also, you can set an ad-based or pay per view payment system to monetize your content.
Live streaming for artists is an excellent way to increase your brand exposure and also to generate significant amounts of money alongside.
Powerful tips for musicians to grow leveraging live streaming
While live streaming helps to grow your music brand, leveraging it the right way is essential if you want to utilize its potential to the fullest. Regardless of the live streaming platform you use, you must approach live streaming the right way. Here are some of the powerful tips to make the most out of your live streaming efforts as a musician.
Music triumphs everything
When you consider all live streaming activities related to music for both creators and fans, original songs remains the favorite activity for both parties. As a music artist looking to leverage the advantage of live streaming, you must master streaming your music shows and concerts live. Instead of talking about your shows, or teach your followers how you make the music, stream your shows directly to your followers, that is what they are looking for.
Allow your personality to shine through
Live streaming a music event is as close to a physical event with an audience. The focus is more on the performer than the art being performed. Hence, it is important to keep your personality- Be comfortable, flexible, creative, interactive, personable, and above everything be genuine.
Your audience will love the way they interact with the audience and make them the part of the show. Moreover, be spontaneous when you are on live.
The spontaneous and unscripted nature of live streaming is the major point of attraction for your audience. So utilize it to the fullest. Your followers would appreciate the real nature of live broadcast and you must take advantage of this opportunity by responding to your audience’s vibe.
Have a general structure to your live broadcast
While both musicians and audiences love the unscripted nature of live streaming, it won’t hurt to have a general structure to your live streams. Fully unscripted live broadcasts especially music events could be daunting for musicians. Hence, you can make a structured plan to keep your listeners engaged through live broadcasts. Before each broadcast, prepare a broad plan leaving rooms for impromptu scenarios and engagement.
Get the right equipment
You can indeed live stream your music events with just a mobile device and a stable wifi connection, you might have to invest in professional gears to give a professional touch to your streams. You need to keep the standard of a real music event even if you broadcast live.
Start with a DSLR camera, a lighting tool, a microphone, a tripod, an encoder, etc to begin with.
If you have the best quality smartphone, start with that. Invest in the best quality external mic too to ensure quality audio delivery.
Plan what to stream
While your fans and you love to stream live music performance,s you can shuffle up the content. The type of content need not be the same always. For example, you can live broadcast your practice sessions, live stream an interview with a celebrity musician, stream unrehearsed practice sessions, behind the scenes of your show, or anything that would excite and keep your audience engaged. When you feel things are going monotonously, try out different content strategies to spice up the game. Also, make it a practice to engage with your audience through comments to establish a personal connection with them.
Duration of your live broadcast
When it comes to the ideal duration of your live streams, the key to success lies in finding the perfect balance. If your live video is a full music performance, decide whether to stream the entire performance or just shoot a small portion. Broadcasting just a few minutes is too short, a couple of hours might be too long as well.
The ideal length depends on the type of content you broadcast and the interest of your audience.
When you are beginning, try out broadcasting both small and large live broadcasts and measure the engagement for both.
If you find your audience loves your lengthy and engaging live streams, continue with that, or else consider cutting the length short.
Integrate call to actions
When music artists release their newest singles on the best live streaming platforms for musicians, they can prompt their followers to purchase the track by integrating the right all to actions. You can track the purchases in real-time and give shut outs to all followers.
In addition to directly selling tracks, you can consider selling your merchandise and other stuff. Musicians must look at effective ways to integrate the right call to actions whether it is to sell a new track, download a new song, or vote for their favorite song.
Participation comes in all types
Most listeners respond and engage with live broadcasts in the same pattern. But there would be at least a small percentage of listeners who respond in their own ways. Not all followers would sing a duo on live or leave comments during a live stream. Some audiences mostly offer virtual gifts like handclaps, thumbs up, etc to express their feelings. As a music artist, you must understand this and treat your followers individually according to their preferred methods of engagement. Regardless of a follower’s level and type of interaction, everyone loves being recognized y their favorite music artists. You must leverage each and every opportunity to customize your engagement with the audience.
Look for copyright flags
The stories of cover songs of musicians being taken down from social platforms are becoming common these days. This happens due to copyright infringement and occurs most times. If you are choosing to play original tracks, you don’t have to worry about copyright flags. But if you want to live stream recorded music, ensure you follow the copyright rules. These days, social platforms like Facebook and Youtube have strict copyright rules again copyright infringement.
Conclusion
Today music is consumed online at an impressive rate. A couple of years back, listening to songs through radio, purchasing physical music records, attending a real show, etc was the primary way of consuming music. Music shows and festivals were watched by the audience only at the venue.
Now, the era of music streaming is here and there is a huge potential for musicians to make the most out of live streaming. Live streaming for musicians is opening up lucrative opportunities for music artists and fans alike to leverage the best out of streaming channels.
