Live Streaming

Can you make a living from your music through live streaming?

Live off your music? Forget the live streaming or give up; otherwise, how do you make more money with your music?

This is what we’re going to see here!

The Problem with Live streaming

This article is in part a mouthful dedicated to all musicians who can only do one thing: complaint.

They complain about the majors, the music industry, the government, etc. and they complain about the live streaming platforms and the low revenues obtained through this distribution method. For them, it’s unfair, even insulting.

So, how many musicians will tell you that it’s shameful, that it’s always the same people who take advantage of you and make you a Facebook status or a blog post to tell you that they have earned barely 50€ thanks to Spotify and that is why their career does not take off?

They are far too many, and each time I have the same reaction to this observation :

Okay, live streaming doesn’t pay, so what?

Instead of writing cobbles to be shared by all the other musicians in the same case, wouldn’t it be smarter to focus on what we can improve today’s business model?

Do these musicians realize that the stream is surely not the best way to promote his music?

Attention, I’m not saying that the model of the live streaming is perfect and that nothing should be blamed. Of course, we could have more transparency and better sharing.

Everybody says it, everybody knows it, so what do we do? Do we keep protesting in the wind or do we start moving? My opinion is that we have to adapt and stop focusing on useless things.

Everyone can now sell their music with Daft Punk and Adele in just a few clicks, but if you start thinking that in your case, this could be the heart of your business model? Not at all.

It must be recognized that live streaming is easy and contributes greatly to the independence of all artists. But I have a secret for you: what’s easy is rarely what’s most cost-effective.

So do not complain if you do not have hundreds or even thousands of euros of passive income that falls every month thanks to live streaming.

And even if the platforms changed the distribution and gave you twice as much, it would still be anecdotal, as long as you don’t do hundreds of thousands of streams.

This is the case for many more or less famous artists, but it is necessary (as you will have understood) already to have a strong fanbase. Without this, online music platforms are just discovery tools to attract potential fans, which is good enough.

Therefore, if your fanbase is still too limited, I ask you to forget the live streaming and consider other sources of income in the construction of your business model.