@rrhoover@patricklu10 It was only a matter of time until we saw a "Twitch for music," actually I think some have been tried. Which is not say that it isn't an intriguing idea; I believe it is, but I also think it presents its own set of unique challenges that don't exist in the Twitch gaming community.
For example, music is different than gaming in that live-streaming of it will occur on a drastically different schedule; concerts, shows, and even small bedroom sessions may not have the same ability to capture the content as is possible when simply live-streaming gaming. Live concerts in particular are tricky because there are the possible legal and contractual hurdles with and venue or management which might be putting on the show. There is also the added challenge that many musical artists are in bands; that is to say, multiple people, whose schedules need to be coordinated, etc.
I certainly think there is a big opportunity in this space for something like this, simply considering certain obstacles which would need to be met and surmounted. I think that live-streaming (and indeed the live dynamic as a whole) is different in music than in gaming. Because gaming doesn't really have the "live show" thing (big demo events excluded), the "live interaction" within the gaming community isn't centered on the same touring aspect as it is in music.
In the latter though, especially in the exploding market that is independent music, the live touring factor is key in understanding and capitalizing on how communities are built and leveraged. Therefore, what might suffice in gaming for community cultivation (in this case: live-streaming) may not translate in a similar way to music. Live is only one aspect of community cultivation in music; the others--distribution, discovery, radio, analytics, social, etc.--are equally important in building a holistic platform model.
This is interesting though. I'm glad to see people experimenting in this space, and excited to see how new products like this evolve over time! Cool job. :D
@rrhoover@patricklu10 Hey Ryan! When we think of a "place" for gamers, Twitch immediately comes to mind. People can broadcast themselves playing games, and more importantly hang out with their favorite gamers, play games with their favorite gamers, and interact.
And when you think of music, there's currently no place like this.
One of our early focuses is connecting fans with artists they love. I was just at a music festival where we fans stood in line for hours (and sometimes in the rain too) just for a 30s meet and greet with our favorite artists. Artists love the interaction as well as they can get to know their fans better and build a deeper relationship with them.
By building this "place" for music, we believe that we can provide an experience that is much more in depth than a 30s meet and greet. We're early on and still learning how artists use our platform, and audience use our platform, but we've already seen some really engaged sessions.
@adammarx13@rrhoover@patricklu10 Hey Adam, "Twitch for music" has definitely been tried before. A couple of ones that we saw were Krue (still going?), StageIt, and even UStream.
What we're really focused on though is not live concerts. Through our initial early usage, we've seen that live concerts are actually the weakest material on our platform. There's no engagement.
Our current focus is really Twitch-esque -- optimizing the experience for people playing music in their bedrooms and stopping to engage with their fans by answering questions, taking song requests, talking about their own lives.
And this goes to big bands too. We think of our platform currently as an extended meet and greet on steroids. Imagine talking with your favorite band and getting them to play a song that you personally requested!
I get the livestreaming vertical thingy but this one will be incredibly hard to nail down. Livestreaming works when a/ content is engaging and has potentially massive reach, b/ there are low technical skills involved as a broadcaster, c/ there is an actionable opportunity to acquire new skills as a viewer. I'm curious to see how they're going to deal with all three barriers. The most obvious answer is through specialized features (which is often what a vertical is about).
@wilhempujar Hey Wilhem! We are really focused on part (a) right now. We're trying to nail down a format for musicians that is engaging and has a big reach.
What we think right now is the right format is an extended meet and greet concept like I've said above.
In terms of (b), I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean it's easy to put up a broadcast, or low technical skills in terms of making music?
(c) We're seeing in a lot of Q/A formats that's going on, our viewers are asking a lot of technical questions, motivational questions, and advice questions from our artists. So there are a lot of learning opportunities.
@patrick_lu Hey Patrick (It's WilhEM by the way :) ), by (b) I mean it's easier to play a game/code/eat than making music. I'd be curious to know your addressable size of broadcasters... Regarding (c), that's what I saw when I visited your website. Lots of learning opportunities but currently lacking the dedicated tools to leverage these opportunities... For instance, imagine a Shazam-like feature that outputs a music sheet. Win.
@wilhempujar Ah my apologies! Edited :)
And yeah (b) is one of our biggest issues as a music focused platform. Making music is harder than the things you've listed. But we also believe that musicians are not used to the concept of live-streaming yet. Musicians practice hours a day, and there are opportunities for streaming practice sessions mixed in with engagement. Having musicians convert to streamers will be one of the hardest things.
(c) We're still really early as a platform (a couple of months old), so we're still learning about what features will be amazing to have. We're watching our artists and as they request features, start doing some of these things themselves, we will build the features that make a big impact. As well as test some of the ones that we think would move the needle of course :)
@mike_lin@wilhempujar We have seen those platforms and they are definitely ahead of where we are! Especially younow. For now we're ignoring this, and we're catering towards our artists and building a platform for our artists.
Even with those other platforms, we've found a small space for now in the market and have artists excited to play on ours.
🙌 cheers for the @chewofficial shoutout @whammes!
We were the live streaming platform for music before we focused on DJs - there've been a few who've tried music as a whole (rather than niches/ verticals) but not many have stuck it out. Fingers crossed @patricklu10 + team are successful!
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