How Online Platforms Can Boost Artists’ Reach
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What if you are a musician and cannot play live due to restrictions, or you are unable to travel to your audience because of travel restrictions, or perhaps you prefer not to do in-person events? Online platforms could be the solution for your potential revenue stream.
With over 2.5 billion people on YouTube each month, 602 million monthly active users on Spotify and music being the number one genre of content on both, you’re bound to find your audience. By adding music on both platforms simultaneously, you’ll be able to potentially find a larger audience, widely gain more exposure and generate more revenue.
Pandora’s box has been opened and you can now monetize from your home, a park or any place you can think of as your stage. Stage an event from your home and reach an audience. On YouTube, your home show could have a variety of revenue streams. These can include advertisements, merchandise, in-video branded content and affiliate marketing links.
Sharing your art through online platforms also opens you to new ways to engage with the audience. Engagement technologies help make the audience feel close to the artist without physically attending a concert. They have developed over the years to allow the audience to chat among themselves or even with the artists during the video or audio chat.
Technology can even help you to analyze chat and video data to ensure the chat is clean of derogatory terms, images and videos that do not align with the community. Question-and-answer sessions after an event can allow super fans to share more specific questions. Unlike typical in-person concerts, digital events allow you to reach an audience that can span globally and offer a way for the community of fans to feel more connected to you as well as each other.
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Advances in augmented reality (AR) and virtual stages are at the forefront of innovation in live music. These technologies are not just about enhancing visual elements but are about creating immersive and interactive experiences that go beyond what traditional concerts can offer for those watching the concert via live stream at home. Festivals like Coachella partnered with Unreal Engine, a real-time 3D creation tool computer graphics game engine, to create a YouTube livestream with eccentric 3D visuals floating around the stage. I expect this will expand and evolve as the gaming companies who crafted gaming environments will look to see the potential in the music industry virtual concerts.
With this level of interactive live and intimate community engagement, the key to keeping your audience is authenticity. There’s never been a better time to show the world your true self.
From smaller clubs to large arenas, I expect to see live streaming of many more events in the future. No matter the event, there will be an audience online to share with. Because of the multiple revenue streams, adoption has been easy and smooth from the management point of view. It’s important to note that live concerts can not be fully replaced. When we lost them during the pandemic, we found an alternative with virtual events. Virtual events have grown into a new revenue stream for the artists and will continue to grow. However, the bonding and the energy with the artists and fans in attendance create an emotion that can’t be replaced virtually.
The technological hurdle has been passed. The pandemic saw a rise in home events and the acceptance by the audience was overwhelming. From Zoom parties to stand-up comedians and magicians, whether in spite of or because of fluctuating world events, the adoption of online performance demonstrates that the show must go on.