It seems like many meat and potato gigs are meant to be background to something else (eating, drinking, etc). In this context, online music would then be a side channel to whatever the listener is really streaming. If *those* events fall off and/or don't work well with streaming, what are the opportunities for live music performance? To have listeners stream the music directly from performers?
Listeners may have more time on their hands as captive potential audiences trapped at home. But going after that market entails a whole new set of issues. The marketing challenge is immense and so is the technical hurdle. How many of you are set up today with a professional streaming platform? Deep knowledge on sound recording, mixing, having the right gear, super fast and reliable internet for real-time transmission, sound-treated room to ensure sonic quality, an adequate sized room equipped with professional lighting, multiple cameras and a video crew to vary what listeners see during performance, etc. etc.
Can you do all that? Can your band do it? Can you afford to pay someone else to do it?
Some new model will emerge over time. We figure things out. But in the near term, revenue for playing live music performance music is almost guaranteed to be zero.
I just read that earning a minimum wage in the U.S. by streaming a song on Spotify requires about 2-3 million streams. Earning the same on YouTube requires more than 10 million. Those numbers are surreal to most musicians. Especially if you're old, ugly and have no stage appeal. If you're streaming with video, you'd better look good or else!
Could be the whole concept of "live performance" disappears. With streaming, people want it when they want it, not when someone else offers a scheduled time. As in-person becomes history, streaming consumers may start to think of a band's product as a song that was played "in one take" versus "pieced together in a studio and mixed to perfection."
With the rise of AI, it's literally becoming difficult to know if what you see in a video is real. People are jaded about "fake news." I believe forces like this will influence attitudes toward streamed live music performance. It's very difficult to predict how it will eventually play out.
For sure: live music performers will need to get comfortable with the idea that after draining your emotional energy into a playing a song, instead of hear the swell of applause and appreciation, the only sound heard will be silence.
