For musicians right now, an in-person gig is definitely not an option any longer given the current COVID-19 pandemic scenario. So what can you do? You can live-stream your performances and connect with your fans! But how do you ensure that after sincerely rehearsing your music, setting up your gear and going live on social media, you have fans that show up to listen to you?
Well, there are methods you could use to promote your online gig and make sure that your fans log in for your online live show.
Live Streaming Tips for Musicians
Come Up With Teasers and Promotional Content
As a musician and performer, you need to create and build hype around the live streaming of your performance. For this, you need to create content in the form of teasers, posts, graphics and videos and you need to share it with your fans and followers on social media in the days before your live stream. You also need to ensure that you have given a specific time and place to your followers and subscribers to join your livestream.
Promote your gig on all your channels that include your marketing and social media networks. If you are planning to stream on Facebook, make sure that you share the teaser and promotional material on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and even Tik Tok. In fact, if you have access to your audience’s email, it is best to fire out emails to your subscribers as it is a direct way to reach them. It is no point really to just go live instantly without giving prior notice to your subscribers even if you have a huge number of them.
Connect Your Song to Spotify
What is not commonly known is that artists can promote their virtual live stream events on their Spotify artist’s profile. All you require to do is to create a Songkick account. Next, you need to list your upcoming live streams and link your Spotify Artist Pick to them. You can
this option in Spotify for Artists account. You can link here any event you are planning to host across Instagram, YouTube or other social media. Once you have done this, your forthcoming live streams will show up in the concerts tab of your Spotify page.
Make Your Live Streaming Event More Than Just a Gig
An excellent way to attract more people to your live streaming event is to add more elements to it than just limiting it to your live set. For instance, you can incorporate a question and answer session with your fans. Or maybe you could provide a sneak peek of your latest track or even play from a fascinating and unique location.
You need to do something to make your stream a lot more engaging and exciting. The key is to try different things and gauge what has the maximum impact on your audience numbers.
Make It a Point to Begin Streaming Early
In usual circumstances, audiences are not always going to be on time. The reason why you need to go live at least ten to fifteen minutes prior to when your stream is supposed to begin. Perform your best bits only after a while of the scheduled time of starting. This gives your fans some time in advance to see that you are live so that they can tune in. And even if they are a little late they would not have missed much.
It is wise for performers to incorporate a kind of countdown timer for viewers to understand when the artist’s set is really going to get going. That way even if some of your followers tune in early and see nothing much happening, they won’t just log off but be more likely to wait around.
Share Your Link Before Time
Ensure that you have shared the link of your livestream performance with a specific time, date and place ahead of time across all your channels. Encourage your followers to save or bookmark the link. Live streaming your show into people’s homes will bring great joy and accolades.
It is always wise to promote and plan for livestream performances in advance. However, do not be discouraged if there are fewer audiences initially. Just keep giving your best and you will see the number of your followers grow.
