Episode 2
Live Stream Performances
If you are a hard working musician stuck in this pandemic like us you are probably really missing playing live. And like many, you may have turned to the internet to get your fix and find some income by performing a livestream performance.
0:00:01.7 S1: Welcome to the show that explores the methods and strategies on rock and the financial side of your music business with over 40 years combined experience. Here are your hosts, Chris Webb and Dave Tamkin.
0:00:16.1 S2: Welcome to musicians tip jar. Where, we talk about musicians and money, where we find ways to make your garage band profitable so that you can finally move out of your parents garage. I'm your host, Chris Webb, joined by my co-host, Dave Tamkin.. If you are a hard working musician, just stuck in this pandemic, you are probably really missing playing music live, and like many, you may have turned to the internet to get your fix and find some income by trying a live stream performance, or perhaps this is the intro into the world of live stream for you either way. Today, we will talk about the fundamentals of live streaming right after this.
0:01:03.7 S1: Today's episode is brought to you by Stone Cottage Studios. To believe that music and visual art is transcending, has no borders, represents everyone and has the ability to live the heart and soul, they believe that music has the power to unite and light, motivate and inspire. To cottage studios provides evening for musicians to reach their fans through video and audio production right here in Boulder, Colorado, check out their interview-based artist sessions, live stream events and filming and recording projects at stone cottage studios dot com.
Chris, thanks for having me back again, I'm not sure how many weeks that you continue to ask me to be your co-host, but so far, this week 2, so I have a good streak going on. Everyone check out livemusicsociety.org . They just gave away 50 million in grants for small music venues around the nation, and they opened up applications for the next round, and deadline is by March 2nd. So if you know of any small venues in your community, please ask them to check out live music society dot org and submit an application, and hopefully we can keep their head above water for a little bit longer during this hard time on small music venues.
0:02:28.0 S2: The quote of the week is by John Cage. “I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas, I'm frightened of the old ones” ,
John Cage was one of the founders of early electronic music. It's good to know what one of his most famous pieces is Four Minutes and 33 Seconds. Have you ever head of that... You know, how long was it? Well, what's interesting is that it really has no music, he sits down at the piano, opens up the piano and lets the room make the music, awkward noise, is somebody coughing, a seat adjustment, some weird sounds and the scaffolding, whatever. Then he shuts the case of the piano, and then that's part one, it opens back up.
0:03:51.2 S2: Yeah, yeah. That was pretty genius. This week, we are obviously talking about the intro and overview to live streaming, we put these principles to the test ourselves and apply them with our own live streams, so we will integrate some of our own successes and failures as we go through this outline. We'll just kinda go in order, but I'm just gonna give you the outline first, we're gonna figure out what technology we're gonna use in advance, we're gonna promote, we're gonna engage with our viewers, monetize your performance, and just a couple of other round about things to just keep in mind, when you get started,
Number 1, top places to live stream your performance.
0:04:37.5 S1: I'd like to keep this list short, 'cause for our second episode, I think there's three places that are very easy to live stream on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Twitch would be my fourth option, I just started a channel on Twitch, which I have yet to develop, but I think that would be my fourth go to from my personal experience, which is probably the most live-streamed audience that you're ever gonna be able to get in front of. You have your audience now that you've built over the years, or you're starting to build an audience. For ease... Let’s start with Facebook. Facebook is an awesome place to start. It's a click away, you just hit “LIVE and you’re ready to go, and you can also monetize it too, which we'll go into later by selling tickets if you want to, but it's an easy way to start streaming from your phone or computer. You can stream as long as you want. Instagram is a little bit shorter, you have an hour time limit, so you'd have to restart your stream, but if you focus and plan accordingly, you can have a nice live stream for just an hour. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engines, owned by Google, so it's a great way, even after, to keep that recording and to get new fans while you're growing. Twitch is awesome because people turn to that like they do a cable channel Channel or television channel, they're looking for live streams, they're looking for people performing, so it's a great way to find new fans, and also engage the ones you have now...
0:06:14.5 S2: Which one's your favorite?
0:06:16.6 S1: Now? I started live streaming just in the end of March, once the pandemic, the first time I have a live-streamed, I was nervous about it. So I had one phone on Facebook and then my buddy Brad's phone on Instagram, and we would just have two different angles and we did it at the same time, so we would reach both audiences. It's really nice with Instagram because it lets your followers know that you want live, so does Facebook, but I don't think people are scrolling like they are on Instagram. Facebook is more of a destination. You're going there for that amount of time, where Instagram is something you can browse a little bit more easily.
0:07:03.6 S2: And I feel like since this pandemic has started, a lot of these platforms have put a lot of time and money into improving their live stream platform. I feel like Facebook life was pretty easy to use when I had never really done it before, we had started planning all this either, and I found it to be very easy to use and intuitive and easy to pair up with all the rest of my gear, so I was happy with that. It's nice that they offer monetized relied stream now by clicking this button and go... When you finally pick which one you're going to live stream on, what are some of the gear that you're gonna need to make your live stream effective?
0:07:48.8 S1: You already have it in your hand, in your pocket every single day, so it’s something that's easy, it's your phone, you could turn it sideways for Instagram, vertically and start streaming, no problem. The second thing is your computer, ready to go. Quality video from that. Something that you used, and your latest live stream was OBS.
0:08:22.1 S2: Yeah, I felt like OBS was a little complicated. If you're intimidated by the technology and you're nervous about the live stream, perhaps obvious isn't the place to start, 'cause it takes a bit of a learning curve, but it is an incredible resource as you get more comfortable, re-stream is also a valuable tool because like you said maybe... Now, Facebook allows you to sea two places at once, but re-stream will allow you to connect to multiple platforms at once.
0:09:15.3 S2: Interface. I was using was a Scarlet Focusrite.. It worked pretty well, and it did take some getting... The volume set, I feel like a lot of the volumes have been quiet, so it's been one of those things that I have had to play with to get enough gain through this stream. That'd be the only issue that I kinda came across. The first one we did, we just took the bows and put it behind the cameras and face it at us, so we had our own monitor and then also the speakers just picked up that pretty crisp sound and it worked out... Alright, yeah, and of all these options, I think that the best option is usually the path of least resistance, figuring out which one is closest to what you already do when you perform, and making that the way you set up, so that if you wanna play through your speaker like you're used to during your non-covid days, you can set it up the same way, put your phone in front of it and just perform a live stream like that.
0:10:32.7 S2: Lighting... What did you do for lighting? In my case, I wanted it to feel like it was a living room performance, so I didn't want there to be a bunch of color lighting and all that, in this case, I put some dim lighting as much as him as I could with the lighting still looking pretty good, and I just used one of my Zoom call lighting fixtures. I was a little afraid of doing it inside the first time, so... No sunlight also We did it right before sunset, so it's kind of cool during that hour just to kinda have colors and surroundings change a little bit in the background...
0:11:28.9 S1: After you've decided where and how you're going to be doing your live stream, the next thing to do is start to promote it, but all your fans know through all your socials, like something like make a Facebook equipment for that platform, do a count down on Instagram, stories on Instagram, Snap, Snapchat, let them know, let everyone relict announce it everywhere, you can hit up your newsletter, you've built this fan base and if you haven't already, you could let everyone knowing all your socials to find out about your next live stream to Aster email, we'll let you know when the next live stream is, so you can build your audience that way. As your friends and family to tune in, tell them to share your posts, so you can spread it that way, and once your live stream starts, you can also ask them to share that as well because that goes on their Facebook event or their Instagram and the algorithm starts there, where they can continue to share and I'll get more people coming in, because Facebook will say, Frank from south side just shared his webs live stream, and then all brings viewers will see that if you're a big unedited in Reddit, if you have a following there, it's almost like before times where you are trying to promote it everywhere you could, but now you're just doing that online.
0:12:53.8 S2: Have... Do you feel like you've gotten the word out, the next thing to make sure you are prepared to do is engage with your audience, the viewers. I found it fun when I was watching other live streams and I would make a request, or I did a shot out and said, You're sounding great, and the songwriter or the performer would acknowledge that they can see my comment, it's
0:13:17.1 S1: Huge, especially during these times where you're alone by herself, and not only the one acknowledge that you're there watching because it's not like you have the I contact you do when you're performing live in front of somebody, you have that engagement. So do the shot-out tank, people ask them if they wanna hear a song, engage with them, and I think the more you can focus in on that and be a part of that community and have people even talking to each other while that performance is going, the better produce it with musician friend... I had interviews with a friend of mine that we would just play a song each and then we would talk about this song, and we took each other's audience and brought it to one platform. When we would do it on their Instagram, one time we would do it on my Instagram, so it was nice just to expand that reach that way, have guest interview someone in the middle of your set, ask them to join your Instagram Live or your Facebook Live, and ask them a few questions or ask them to play a song because you're engaging with their fans as well and acknowledging the talent that they have to offer and get the hang out for a little bit, which we don't get to do too much.
0:14:37.8 S2: Yeah, not the point with how you engage with your audience when I first was getting my live stream started, I was worried that that was gonna be hard to do staring at a little dot, and I noticed pretty quick that I kinda went into the routine of it, immediately, as if I was just back performing a live performance, it's funny how quickly you just adapt, and if you can just allow yourself to be in that space and be creative, and hopefully that's part of what your environment is allowing you to be at, and the way that you've set your sound up, it makes it easy to get back into that space where you can just engage with your audience the way that you usually do in normal times. When
0:15:28.2 S1: We did our second livestream, Brad and I were so far away from the screen we couldn't see, so I asked and to come and write out who was saying what I'm a white board, and then she would write out four or five comments and turn it to us, so then we could acknowledge that they were there and thank them and be very grateful that they were tuning in, and then she would erase it and then wait for another comment, so it was also nice just to have some people there that were watching the show that it felt like it was almost a performance as well as having some help in the process.
0:16:03.4 S2: You know, I'd love to be able to talk a little bit about just what the cool little benefits, the outside benefits of ADI.
0:16:10.5 S1: About the fact that you can play to anybody in the world, like the fact that my brother and studied was able to watch the show, which he hasn't seen the self me playing in years. I was talking to kind-hearted strangers today, and they have a live stream coming up at the studio that I work with, and they said We're calling all our friends in Richmond, Virginia that haven't seen us play in almost two years, and they're all gonna tune it. That's something you don't get to do for every show, it's pretty awesome. I get to play for my cousins in Connecticut that as their kids are getting older and I don't get to see them get older, they definitely get to see me get older, but yeah, that is definitely a benefit that your audience just expanded from everybody in front of you in a brick and mortar to one in the state, that one in the country in the world, you can deciding at what times on your plan and you can target an audience that you know you do well, like an area you do well, and based on the time zone and when you perform.
0:17:20.1 S1: Yeah, and how you advertise that if you did your newsletter correctly, every being in Colorado, you can tell everyone in California that you have a happy hour show, you have a dinner show in Colorado, and you have an after party in New York.
0:17:34.4 S2: So after you've kinda gotten your set list together, you're planning it out, you're gonna perform for an hour, you know what songs you're gonna play, who's gonna trump join you and what you might talk about, you wanna make sure that you're set up to make some money, performing your art. So what are some easy ways to do that? It's very easy just to announce your PayPal, your Venmo, Your Cash app, your handle, I'm like, but in the common section, but it on a sign right behind you while you're playing... Tell everyone, thank you very much for showing up. We're taking donations in April, we lost a whole tour of the West Coast, we lost on two dates, renegades bought a van.
0:18:18.8 S1: Which we still have it just siting driveway right now, but he just bought a van ready to go. And we can do any of it. So our fans were so nice to donate what they could, even if it was a dollar or 5 or 20, we would say If you donate 30 will send you a T-shirt, something just to get them involved, you can donate some of it to your community to the homeless shelter do something to raise everybody up, so it was nice to present this in a way that you can say, Hey, you're helping me create my art and just hit my Paypal up, hit my Venmo up, and it's like a picture. And we're very grateful for it, and
0:19:06.9 S2: Don't be afraid to ask it over and over again when you think you've asked him many times, you probably need to ask a couple more, and
0:19:15.7 S1: I was surprised how generous people were, they were happy to do it, that they streamed it to their large television in their living room and made a concert out of it, and normally would be a night out and food and drinks and everything else, but here's five bucks, Here's 25 bucks, thank you very much for some entertainment and make us forget about what's going on right now.
0:19:38.2 S2: So at the end of every episode, we like to give you some actionable steps to try to use what we've talked about and put it into action, so so many times we find ourselves learning so much material and not actually using any of it, so we're trying to give ourselves easy steps to try to make use of what we learn, step one, set up a live stream date, put that date hard on the calendar to pick a platform that you're gonna live stream in and try it out. Stick with it for a little bit, get people used to going back to that platform if it doesn't work for you...
0:20:14.3 S1: Alright, another started with Facebook, try Instagram. Second it, YouTube third. We have nothing but time right now. So make it interesting every time.
0:20:24.2 S2: And number three, set a financial goal and promote according to that goal, make sure that you know what you're trying to get out of all this work, and then you can present yourself in a way that's hopefully targeted towards that goal and this isn't something that you have to do only one, this can be weekly, this can be monthly, this could be like Dave had targeted to different platforms weekly, so you don't repeat yourself in the same places, so if you found this useful and you wanna let us know what's been working for you and what's not been working for you, if you just feel like hanging out and talking to some other humans, and if you maybe have some more tips to put into this jar... What's the best way to connect with us?
0:21:07.9 S1: You could check us out on a musicianstipjar.com, or email us at musicianstipjar@gmail.com, and as always... Thank you for joining us and remember. There's already enough for everyone, you just need to know how to get it. Until next time, on behalf of Dave Tamkin and myself, Chris web. Please stay safe, stay healthy, take care of each other. Keep picking your financial destination like Baylor... Pica banjo intentionally and with great skill. This is a musicians tip jar. Nothing on this show should be compared to a big meal. For professional advice is consult an appropriate tax, legal titles or financial professional for individualized advice, individual results and all guaranteed an artist can strategies have the potential of property loss, those are operating on behalf of Musicians Tip Jar LLC exclusively.