TL;DR Everyone is online whether you're streaming or not...and you're not going get fans by not streaming.
Musicians have been dabbling in live streaming since it became available, but it has not become a mainstream, consistent practice for artists. Now, live streaming is a necessity for artists if they want to continue performing for a live audience during these extraordinary times.
There are three main things to consider when thinking about live streaming:
- Entertaining existing fans
- Attracting new fans
- Generating revenue
Entertaining Existing Fans
Entertaining your existing fans will have a profound impact during times of social isolation. People are looking for connection, entertainment, and joy —- all things that their favorite artists can provide via a live stream. Hosting regular live streams will have a noticeable impact on converting passive fans to active fans and active fans to super fans.
Where you host the live stream, and how you present it, depends on your fan base. For existing fans, it’s best to not force them onto an unfamiliar platform (unless there is a compelling reason to do so). Hosting a live stream on the social media platforms that they are already on will lead to increased engagement.
Facebook and Instagram
If your fan base skews older, Facebook live could be a good venue. If your fan base skews younger, Instagram live is a great option. Based on your social media engagement on each platform, you can make an informed decision about which platform will be best for your fans. Both of these are well-suited for unannounced live streams as notifications will go out to engaged fans,) as well as letting your fans know ahead of time when you will be streaming.
Instagram has a feature that allows other people to join your live stream as guests. This feature enables artists to speak directly with fans, talk with friends and other artists (more on that in the Attracting New Fans section), or even invite an opening act to play on your stream.
For both Facebook and Instagram, fan engagement takes place in the form of comments either on the post (Facebook) or within the stream video (Instagram). Make sure you monitor and reply to these during the stream!
YouTube
YouTube, while skewing younger, is a platform that nearly all age groups are comfortable using. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, YouTube offers several revenue-generating features and scheduling tools.
YouTube offers revenue in the three ways: pre-stream and in-stream ads, donations, and merch sales. Pre-stream and in-stream ads require a certain amount of scale (high number of plays) for this to equate to meaningful revenue, but they are an important step towards making money on your streams. Learn more about this here: YouTube - How to Monetize Your Live Streams
Fans can also donate via Super Chat and Super Stickers. These are animated stickers and chat messages that fans pay to have highlighted in the chat box. The default donation is $2, but fans can donate anywhere from $1 to $500 at a time. To enable this feature, your channel has to reach certain requirements: Super Chat and Super Sticker Eligibility
YouTube also has an integration that allows channels to show their merch below the video player. Here’s how to set that up: Selling merchandise from your channel
YouTube will notify your followers when you go live. More importantly, it allows you to schedule a live stream ahead of time and create a link to where the live stream will be held. This lets fans sign up for notifications that announce when the stream is live, and you can promote the link well ahead of time.
To live stream with guests on YouTube, check out: Zoom’s YouTube integration.
YouTube also has a chat feature for viewers to ask questions and interact with the streamer.
TikTok
TikTok allows live streams for accounts with over 1,000 followers. Revenue generation on TikTok live streams is similar to YouTube, where viewers can purchase stickers and a portion of the money is donated to the streamer. On TikTok these purchases are made using “coins.” Coins start at $0.99 for 65 coins and go up to $99.99 for 6,697 coins. In turn, users can buy stickers, called “Virtual Gifts,” for anywhere from 1 to 100 coins.
Attracting New Fans
While the above platforms are great for engaging with your existing fan base, they are limited in their effectiveness in introducing your stream to a new audience.
Twitch
Twitch, the popular video game streaming platform, has a huge amount of users on their site (as many as 4 million viewers at once, according to TwitchTracker) and actively encourages discovering new streamers.
The platform has a “Music & Performing Arts” section with 2.3 million followers, where the music ranges from metal to violin covers to singer-songwriters and is generally more diverse genre-wise than more mainstream platforms.
Twitch streamers get paid when new subscribers follow them and viewers donate to the streamer. Many streamers use new followers and donations as mechanisms to unlock new content or segments. Some will take requests at certain follower count or donation levels, others run merch giveaways, or give followers access to exclusive content.
For many musicians, Twitch may not be the best platform for their existing fans, but it is a great platform for finding a new audience that generates revenue.
As artists stream more regularly on Twitch, they will develop Active Fans that follow them on other social media platforms and become a part of their overall fan base that buys merch and attends shows.
Instagram’s ability to have friends join the live stream opens up a big opportunity for cross-promoting artists. When the friend joins the host streamer, the friend’s followers are notified that the user has gone live. So, if two artists are on the same Instagram live stream, both of their audiences will be notified.
This is a great opportunity for having “opening acts” or involving artists’ friends in a similar way that you would on tour. Due to lag, performing with friends is very difficult, but trading songs and stories would entertain both fanbases.
Generating Revenue
As mentioned above, there are several ways to generate revenue from streams:
- Twitch followers and donations
- YouTube ads, donations
- Merch sales
However, these are only part of the possible revenue streams from the increased engagement that comes from live streams. One of the biggest opportunities is in subscription revenue. More on that in the next section.
