You don’t need a periscope to know that the new wave of livestreaming apps presents a big challenge for musicians.
Not that they were able to monetize fan-recorded YouTube videos in the past, but now ticket sales may be truly impacted with Meerkat-ing and Periscope-ing fans livestreaming large portions of events.
One solution is Stageit, the four-year-old Hollywood-based company that puts the (streaming) power in the hands of artists. The platform enables musicians to stream concerts from a webcam and determine how much they want to charge viewers – on average, performers are able to keep 60%-70% of what they command.
Last April, Yahoo and Live Nation partnered to stream 365 concerts of a year-long period, but Stageit CEO Evan Lowenstein feels that his platform provides a different, better, experience for fans than traditional concert livestreams: “With Stageit, I felt that there was a larger opportunity in the smaller moments, the ones the fans wouldn’t otherwise get to see,” Lowenstein told us. “By streaming intimate experiences, artists are able to engage and interact with their fans, which doesn’t happen when you stream a concert from a venue.”
Sara Bareilles, Common, and Jimmy Buffet have each streamed shows on the platform, and thousands more unknown artists have been able to stream Stageit concerts. Unknown artists can build a fan base, and virtually set out a tip jar as though they were performing in a coffee shop; as much as a livestreaming platform can have, Stageit performances as a whole have that coffee-shop aura.
Artists on Stageit are tasked with producing their own shows, but part of the fundamental appeal of Meerkat and Periscope is that users are the ones doing the recording. We asked Lowenstein about this:
There’s no reason a fan couldn’t do the exact same thing via Stageit. However, we’ve found that what makes Stageit unique is its ability to create a meaningful connection between the artist and fans. If viewers are watching a stream of a concert on Meerkat or Periscope from someone’s phone, then there’s no interaction with the artist at all and that’s a lot less interesting to us. Additionally, most of the moments seen on Stageit are created by the artist exclusively for fans viewing the broadcast. These experiences often take place in very intimate settings where an unauthorized broadcaster wouldn’t have access anyway.
Stageit does not have the mass appeal that Periscope and Meerkat acquired in just weeks, but the company has to some extent found a solution that pays artists and gives them the power to control recordings and distribution. This is a similar marketing approach that Jay-Z’s new music streaming service, Tidal, is taking.