What’s missing from the modern, downloadable, online music industry? We’ve got virtual distribution (iTunes, Amazon, etc…), there’s virtual radio (live365, MacIDOL) and MTV (You Tube), you can generate a virtual buzz (MySpace and facebook) and virtual concession stands. (Cafe Press) See what’s missing from the modern music industry?
Virtual touring! An artist still has to tour to reach an audience, sell CDs (or even downloads) and get hard core fans wearing t-shirts. To have a successful tour you need loads of gear, just like the bad old days of the pre-internet music industry.Touring is expensive, time consuming and exhausting. There is no alternative… Or is there?
What about using a system like Skypecast? What about taking something like Icecast or Shoutcast and making it two-way, with video? Skypecast is promoted as an online lecture tool, but a lecture happens in a hall, just like a concert. Yeh, it’s lower bandwidth than what most would consider using for a broadcast stream, but how many rock venues are hifi listening?
My favourite pub, The Republic, in North Hobart, has an OK PA, a bit of a crappy room, 50 or so people trying to shout conversations between powerchords or DJ Scratched brass hits and the sound of breaking glass and cash registers from behind the bar. By the time my ears have filtered all this out, I’m probably getting an AM radio DX quality signal, but I don’t care, I’ve got a skinful, the band is great and I want to party.
So, we take a Skypecast channel as a venue (er, Skype, bring Skypecast to your Mac client, please - It’s been more than a year since you broke this, jeez), plug a band mix into the hosting client, feed the return path to their foldback and have a PayPal “Donate” button handy nearby. People throw parties with Skype playing through their stereo all over the world, the band rocks on and nobody notices the 24kb channel because they’re at a concert… FROM HOME! How cool is that?!
Take it to the next level. Make Icecast or Shoutcast two-way from the reflector server and mix the return channels on the server and feed them back to the band in their bedroom. Then the only limiting factor is the reflector server’s bandwidth. The audience return path is a theoretical possibility that needs programming, the broadcast path is here now, it’s how internet radio works.
It’s not expensive, either. Sleepy Engineers have stream hosting from US$10/month with up to 50 listeners and 25GB of bandwidth - enough for a 1 hour gig each week with a cafe/pub sized audience.
So, I hear you say, “Crunchy, you may have hit upon something, there, but don’t make a noise, make money from it!”
I intend to, but this only works if loads of people have different niches for different live performing products. It’s something that works for the small “virtual live music cafe” linked with a small music community, or for a band owning their own stage, or a giant megalith equivalent to You Tube. There’s market space for anybody, and money (or recongnition/reputation) for all.
So, get yourself an Icecast transmitter client (or just use Skypecast if you have a Windows PC - then you get live, moderateable audience feedback), find a stream server in your budget, link them up, plug the mix from your desk into the ‘puter and perform to the world!
Oh, publicity? You still have to work MySpace and Facebook.
