Twitch for live music performance

[Angstrom]

You probably know what Twitch is (I'm just slow) in short it's a place where gamers broadcast themselves playing games while talking over the top, then viewers pay to subscribe to gamer channels and also drop tips like it's chaturbate.xxx , or something.

I hadn't paid close attention, but I now realise there are a LOT of people subscribing to lots of gamer channels and dropping tips just to see a guy talk strangely about a game.

The interesting thing about this for musicians (who may be mourning the death of the old industry) is - we could stream ourselves messing about in our studios and talking about it, and then charging subscriptions and tips for people to watch us adjust kick drum compression and tweak a hihat for 8 hours. IE: a normal day.

It may be that this is a good new avenue for music makers to explore. At least it's another way for musicians to potentially get paid, and for an area which typically never paid : IE - the messing about scratching your head part. I may give it a try at some point in the future. Just to see what happens. I'd probably be more productive with someone looking over my shoulder !

Twitch learned that more than 80 percent were interested in seeing live music as well. The recent performance by Steve Aoki drew more than 250,000 unique viewers who exchanged over 182,000 messages during the concert.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/13/59983 ... -copyright

[pencilrocket]

Famous streamer in twitch, they correspond to some of these options. *Streaming since early day of twitch. *Good personality. *Cute/Sexy looking. *Dedicated to single game(e.g. WoW). *Pro gamer. *Good at game. *Who can stream his life like reality TV show. *Hard working (e.g. Stream more than 6hrs every day).

And if you're going to start streaming you'll need base viewers at least 10+ (family, friends etc.) you'll have a hard time getting viewers if your streaming is 0 viewer.

[TomViolenz]

The interesting thing about this for musicians (who may be mourning the death of the old industry) is - we could stream ourselves messing about in our studios and talking about it, and then charging subscriptions and tips for people to watch us adjust kick drum compression and tweak a hihat for 8 hours. IE: a normal day.

As a broadcast medium for live performances this sounds interesting. I don't care much for explaining compressor use or other technical aspects though.

Is this medium add free? I don't want my art tainted that way.

[TomViolenz]

*Good personality. *Cute/Sexy looking.

Cool! That seems to be tailored to me

[Angstrom]

Famous streamer in twitch, they correspond to some of these options. *Streaming since early day of twitch. *Good personality. *Cute/Sexy looking. *Dedicated to single game(e.g. WoW). *Pro gamer. *Good at game. *Who can stream his life like reality TV show. *Hard working (e.g. Stream more than 6hrs every day).

And if you're going to start streaming you'll need base viewers at least 10+ (family, friends etc.) you'll have a hard time getting viewers if your streaming is 0 viewer.

That's true, but I'm not concerned with Twitch itself, but the methodology, which is more applicable to musicians than it is gamers.
A musician who already does gigs, has a small local audience, and has sold a few thousand songs and a few tshirts ... is in a very different position than a lonely Starcraft player.

Musicians are already outgoing performers with content, we are already comodified and used to merch and product, we are already used to representing something to fans. Or we ought to be. We already have a "product" (ourselves), which is more suitsble for this kind of marketplace.

To me the low-level gamers who are broadcasting are dull as hell, just some adolescent voiced dudes playing GTA and trying to over-amp every sentence is painful to watch, either that or an average looking woman doing a sub-porn wiggle. YET it is succesful. That dull content with no background in merch is enough to do passsably well as a business model.

I suspect that a commodified musician on a more dedicated site with a similar model could do quite well.

[Angstrom]

The interesting thing about this for musicians (who may be mourning the death of the old industry) is - we could stream ourselves messing about in our studios and talking about it, and then charging subscriptions and tips for people to watch us adjust kick drum compression and tweak a hihat for 8 hours. IE: a normal day.

As a broadcast medium for live performances this sounds interesting. I don't care much for explaining compressor use or other technical aspects though.

Is this medium add free? I don't want my art tainted that way.

I dont think you need to do tutorials, think of it like a Studio Hang Out Cam. I'm sure it would be a distraction a lot of the time, but I have been thinking that this sort of audience involvement thing needs to happen a lot more to bring music into the current century of social interaction.

Music is still too Producty, still too opaque, it's not social enough in the creation stages. Audiences cant tell if you are just triggering garage band loops like they could do, or are you actually a genius?
Once an audience see you toiling and somewhat understand the effort which went into any particular song, and they can recount the tale of watching you come up with that riff, then they are more invested in the songs, because they have a meaning for them now. They were "there"

Some friends of mine in a different entertainment industry (burlesque) do something similar when they broadcast themselves making costumes and their audiences get very much more involved and invested when they have been witness to the creative process. These audiences often ask promoters to book a particular act/performer because they feel somehow part of it now and want to see it.

I've been wondering how to accomplish this with music, and this seems like in future it may be "a thing"

[Matt_Quinn]

Really interesting idea. Slight variant, I've always wished that when I'm out seeing electronic music live that there was a way for the artist to stream what's happening on their computer so I could see it on my phone. I mean, I can *see* what a guitarist/drummer etc are doing, not so much with computers.

[tedlogan]

Interesting indeed. I'd certainly have a look to see what other people are up to. Always something to learn, and I've still got a lot of that to do. Not that I'm necessarily referring to tutorials - just watching others perform, record, write and so on.

Sadowick, for example, does a similar type of thing on his channel on YouTube. Different model etc of course -seems to be mainly exploring new controllers or software.

[TomViolenz]

The interesting thing about this for musicians (who may be mourning the death of the old industry) is - we could stream ourselves messing about in our studios and talking about it, and then charging subscriptions and tips for people to watch us adjust kick drum compression and tweak a hihat for 8 hours. IE: a normal day.

As a broadcast medium for live performances this sounds interesting. I don't care much for explaining compressor use or other technical aspects though.

Is this medium add free? I don't want my art tainted that way.

I dont think you need to do tutorials, think of it like a Studio Hang Out Cam. I'm sure it would be a distraction a lot of the time, but I have been thinking that this sort of audience involvement thing needs to happen a lot more to bring music into the current century of social interaction.

Music is still too Producty, still too opaque, it's not social enough in the creation stages. Audiences cant tell if you are just triggering garage band loops like they could do, or are you actually a genius?
Once an audience see you toiling and somewhat understand the effort which went into any particular song, and they can recount the tale of watching you come up with that riff, then they are more invested in the songs, because they have a meaning for them now. They were "there"

Some friends of mine in a different entertainment industry (burlesque) do something similar when they broadcast themselves making costumes and their audiences get very much more involved and invested when they have been witness to the creative process. These audiences often ask promoters to book a particular act/performer because they feel somehow part of it now and want to see it.

I've been wondering how to accomplish this with music, and this seems like in future it may be "a thing"

My performances will be kinda like live improv, and I would be quit interested in the audience being able to intimately observe. But I'm not interested at all in them seeing me prepare for this with all the uninteresting nitty gritty adjustments and hours spent to find the right settings. It would distract me and I find it distracts from the art as well, as it only becomes that once I determine it ready for disclosure.

I'm all for new streams of income independent of megacorps, but I will not become The Learning Channel in order to do so.

[H20nly]

Since it can work for video games, then I'd wager you're right and it will work for music... although there's probably a lot more WoW players than Live users

the problem I see with it is; then music production goes to the 'who's the coolest' factor like it leans to with pop music... it's a product, and therefore is sold, so this has value... but how long before this becomes a cool kid vs. talented kid thing as music production continually gets watered down?

[Angstrom]

Since it can work for video games, then I'd wager you're right and it will work for music... although there's probably a lot more WoW players than Live users

the problem I see with it is; then music production goes to the 'who's the coolest' factor like it leans to with pop music... it's a product, and therefore is sold, so this has value... but how long before this becomes a cool kid vs. talented kid thing as music production continually gets watered down?

I'd guess around 2 million active Abletonlive users, based on an outdated Ableton statement about selling a million copies way back when.

However I wouldn't think of a Twitchcast style studio channel as catering to "ableton users". I'd think of a channel as catering to people into a genre, like EDM. How many EDM enthusiasts are there? The people tuning in aren't there for protips, they are there for the hangout, to rub up against it. It's not about lessons OR even about performing music, it's more about inviting people into the creative process.

Picture this:
a bald man is transmitting - he is just tweaking a kick drum and 303 somewhat aimlessly, adjusting the pattern length, it slips into 13 steps

Chat message "titbag9000: I love dat", "arsecandl3: thats it bro" , "racistname99: dis da beat now homes"

Bald man resolves to leave 303 on 13 step, seeing as the audience likes it. He adds a clap and ukelele sample.
Chat message "titbag9000: Needs a drop man",

Bald man turns a channel off and on using a full body knob turn.

Chat message "arsecandl3: totally buy dis banger" , "racistname99: uke massive drop! take mi monies"

Bald man sells what he is cooking before its even baked and high on a wave of 3 person adulation he resolves to postpone killing himself for another day.

-----

It's the modern dream!

[beats me]

Deadmau5 had a live stream of his studio once. As a producer you can imagine it was hours upon hours of nothing interesting happening – finding sounds, tapping away at a minimal groove, and applying edits and effects that aren’t discernable because they help with the total mix.

I think something like that should be standard viewing for a noob producer instead of just watching rehearsed 10 minute tutorials that make them think they will be kranking out the hits within a half hour.

[H20nly]

fuckin Angstrom... I never grow weary of your hypothetical scenarios.

And yes... I see your point clearly

[TomViolenz]

Picture this:
a bald man is transmitting - he is just tweaking a kick drum and 303 somewhat aimlessly, adjusting the pattern length, it slips into 13 steps

Chat message "titbag9000: I love dat", "arsecandl3: thats it bro" , "racistname99: dis da beat now homes"

Bald man resolves to leave 303 on 13 step, seeing as the audience likes it. He adds a clap and ukelele sample.
Chat message "titbag9000: Needs a drop man",

Bald man turns a channel off and on using a full body knob turn.

Chat message "arsecandl3: totally buy dis banger" , "racistname99: uke massive drop! take mi monies"

Bald man sells what he is cooking before its even baked and high on a wave of 3 person adulation he resolves to kill himself the next day.

-----

It's the modern nightmare!

T,ftfy

[sporkles]

Some friends of mine in a different entertainment industry (burlesque) do something similar when they broadcast themselves making costumes and their audiences get very much more involved and invested when they have been witness to the creative process.

I can't help but wonder if that whole burlesque scene lends itself a bit more easily to voyeurism than some dude clicking his mouse and twiddling a knob here and there. I don't think a corset would help too much either.

In my opinion, such a studio stream would only be yet another opportunity for procrastination (from a viewer's perspective) - endlessly watching tutorials on YouTube would pale in comparison. Skrillex or Deadmaus would of course get a ton of viewers, but for the rest of us ... nah!

I think it would be a lot more feasible if the streamer would step into a much more clearly defined tutor role, where viewers would make specific requests for tips and tricks. But live streams are already possible on YouTube, so I think going the Twitch route might make it harder to reach an audience.