Right now, the Covid-19 pandemic is impacting musicians in pretty severe ways. Many musicians who relied on live performances in order to make ends meet are now being left with little in the way of an outlet for their performances, so what’s the answer?
Well, it seems to increasingly be the case that musicians are turning to live performances online via live streaming platforms and it’s not hard to see why. They offer musicians the chance to carry on performing to their audiences all over the world without breaking any lockdown rules, while they earn some money at the same time. If it’s something you want to do, here’s how.
Promote Your Plans
First of all, you need to make sure that your plans are being properly promoted because if people don’t even know what your plans are and what you’re looking to do in terms of your live performances, you’re obviously going to have issues going forward. Promoting your plans via social media and ensuring you communicate your plans well in advance is key. You don’t want to finalize things late and then let everyone know at the last minute.
Make the Details Clear
It also needs to be clear to your audience what they need to do in order to join in and take part, and this will be dictated by how you’ve chosen to plan out your performance. It might be the case that people need to pay a fee to take part, or maybe you’re streaming it for free so that anyone can join in. All of these details need to be as clear as they possibly can be in order to avoid any confusion that’ll lead to problems later.
Set Your Financial Expectations
It’s important to have a set of expectations in place for how the finances of this are going to play out. At the very least, you’ll want to make sure that you’re covering any of the costs that you’ve incurred to make this whole process possible. If you don’t set your financial expectations carefully, you’ll likely be disappointed. As mentioned above, fees can be charged or you can simply encourage donations via the livestream as most livestreaming platforms offer this function.
Find the Right Microphone
You’re going to need to have the right equipment in place if you’re going to make the most of your musical performances. Finding cheap microphones and camera equipment will be key if you’re doing this on a budget. However you go about investing in this equipment, you’ll need to have it all in place, set up correctly and understand how to get the most of it before you start your first streamed performance.
Set Up Your Camera
Setting up your camera is something that you’ll definitely need to work on beforehand. You’ll want to make sure that you’re always in view because this performance isn’t just about the audio. People tuning into a livestream of you performing your music will want to be able to see you clearly, and that means seeing your face. It might not be something that comes naturally to you, but it certainly is important.
Stream Via Different Platforms At Once
As a musician, you’ll have the chance to livestream your performances on a wide range of livestreaming platforms. These include but aren’t limited to Twitch, YouTube, Periscope, Facebook and more. Ideally, you should look to stream simultaneously to as many of these platforms. This will allow you to maximize your audience because different people in your audience will have different preferences regarding the sites that they enjoy watching this kind of content on.
Engage During the Performance
When you’re performing and you’re in front of the camera, it’s obviously a very different feeling and atmosphere to the one you get when you’re on the stage in front of hundreds of people. That’s why it’s important to engage the audience in some way and break down those barriers that are in place. It’s not easy to start with but as your audience gets into it and you find your rhythm, you’ll find that it all becomes a lot more organic-feeling.
Right now, the world is in turmoil and the live music circuit is pretty much on hold. For now, no one is able to perform live in front of a big audience, so performing via livestream as discussed above might well be your best bet in terms of practicing your live performance and earning money as you do so.
