Episode 62: How to successfully live stream your concert

Speaking of the Arts

Since the beginning of social distancing, live streaming has been the one major performance opportunity available to artists. We can easily spend all day everyday now tuning in to watch artists of all types. As a result, our industry has simultaneously become flooded with live streaming and confronted with many new challenges. For example, how do you compete for people's attention with so many streams happening? How do you determine the proper price for virtual tickets when your patrons are used to viewing content for free? What type of artist fee should you offer an artist for a virtual concert? Should you use Facebook, YouTube, and/or Instagram to stream the event or are there better platforms out there? How do you make a unique experience for your patrons when you no longer have the ambience of your venue? If you are an artist, how do you make a unique experience for your fans who may be watching your show on a small phone? Lastly, what will all of this look like when live music can finally resume in person? These questions and many more are fundamentally changing how live music is presented and received. While we won’t have time to address everything on today’s webinar, our goal is to share new ideas that address some of these basic challenges. Today you will hear from Laura Simpson, CEO and Co-Founder of Side Door (https://sidedooraccess.com/home). Side Door’s platform marketplace is built to connect artists with curators, venues, service providers and audiences to make booking, ticketing and payments easy, fair and transparent. Next you will hear from Andrew Baranbom, Founder & CEO of First Tube Media (https://www.firsttubemedia.com/), a full-service livestream content platform that makes it turn-key for brands to execute innovative sponsorship programs. Next up will be Eric Essex, Director of Programming at the University of Alabama Birmingham’s prestigious Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center (https://www.alysstephens.org/). Over the years, Eric has booked everyone from Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis and Pat Metheny to Diana Krall, Yo-Yo Ma, Emmylou Harris and Oscar winning actor Al Pacino. Next you will hear from Nicholas Russotto, Director of Music Programming at the 92nd Street Y in New York City (https://www.92y.org/). Finally, you will hear from Emmet Cohen (https://emmetcohen.com/), winner of the 2019 American Pianists Awards and the Cole Porter Fellow of the American Pianists Association. I also want to thank my team member Marie Le Claire who is with us today to ensure things run smoothly. Thank you Marie.