Stream Me, Baby!
By Glen T Brown
What about licensing songs, or any collection of music from local artists, for performance via streaming at a certain venue, for a certain amount of time, with patrons paying per play?
It is my understanding that performance rights are non-exclusive, meaning that an artist is free to enter into a particular licensing agreement for performance of their work, over and above any prior arrangement with SOCAN. Correct me if I’m wrong. Even if some performance rights are allotted to SOCAN, I doubt this would be an exclusive arrangement.
Most local artists will never earn any significant royalty on the big-boy streaming services. Spotify, YouTube, iTunes are paying artists on their platforms fractions of pennies per play. Only artists with tens of thousands of plays are getting anything substantial, and it still is a paltry sum in the grand scheme of things. So, let’s accept that most of the performance rights streaming agreements are basically useless and a waste of time.
But that doesn’t prevent an artist from figuring out new ways to have their digital products played and earn better money. It actually forces them to think hard about it.
So with the assumption that an artist is free to enter into a separate agreement to allow their music to be streamed in a venue, I want to throw an idea out there.
My idea is a way for today’s musician to get their digital products earning them some income.
By digital products I mean excellent quality sound recordings, and excellent quality visual information in high definition. Not necessarily video, but images that capture the listener’s attention.
After all, it’s about gaining attention, isn’t it?
Think of THE BIG SCREEN. This is “whitespace.” By that I mean unused audience space. Whitespace is screen time for placing content. In the eternal battle for audience (consumer) attention, musicians need to think about claiming the screen attention of people who are sitting in a restaurant or pub.
Sports has ruled those big screens long enough, I say!
What a shame that so many local restaurants, coffee shops and pubs have got only sports. Or local news. Or some trivia game. Or some other drivel.
Musicians, we can do better! We can create custom programming that combines our big screens in our venues with matching streamed music. And the cool twist is that it can be uniquely local content. A particular venue can create a “local music night” or host a “local music week” or whatever, and the patrons can select what is playing.
This is a revival of the Jukebox concept, and adds the big screen and a healthy dose of “buy local” into the equation.
Let me explain.
The idea is that you create a pool of musicians who are offering for their listeners a good quality recording of their song. A particular license agreement will give permission to publicly perform their song at a particular venue (or group of venues) for a particular period of time, with the condition that a minimum amount of $$ would be paid each time it is streamed. Their music would not just be submitted as a digital audio file, but as a video, which would play on the venue’s big screen, such as an animation, a slideshow of images or the actual music video that they may have created to go with the song.
Not every artist has a high quality video. But they probably have a high quality audio file.
If the artist doesn’t have the visual component, they would be given a tool or a service where they create the visual that goes with their song. A service they are given for free, or for a nominal cost. The result is a multi-media “venue-streaming” track. It is playable. The tracks are uploaded to a secure streaming server, and playable in a standard web browser, but securely accessed by the sponsoring venue. Payment is activated by a patron’s paid request.
So each patron has a tablet, or there’s a kiosk, or they can login on their own smartphone. They can view the playlist that the venue has available. They can browse artists, and songs, and pick what they want. They can click through to other artist information, find out where the artist’s next live show is.
There is a displayed playlist on a big screen somewhere in the venue, so everyone can see the upcoming songs: Now Playing, Up Next, Backstage, Green Room, etc. (Designers, think of colourful ways to display the next three, or ten upcoming songs. As the song gets closer to being heard, its colour changes. Wouldn’t that be too cool!)
The playlist is activated by the patrons in the venue through the paywall using a local wi-fi connected interface. Maybe iPads on the tables, or in a couple of key locations. The paid playlist is displayed for all to see. Everyone knows what tune is next. If they want to bump a tune, they can kick in more cash.
Let’s say you have 20 artists on board with this idea. Paperwork all signed. Audio and visual “venue-streaming” tracks ready to go. They essentially are part of a local pool of talent that is “now playing” at a local venue. The venue is advertising the fact that these local artists are “now playing.” The selling point is that there is no middleman. The musicians are being paid per performance. (A streamed digital play to an audience fulfills the definition of a performance.)
A custom built app makes all these things possible.
There is a list on the app, or displayed somewhere, of what is available for playing, with some degree of description. Maybe an iPad at each table. Patrons browse the “now available for streaming” list. Perhaps an image alongside. Genre? Reviews? Customer quotes? Quick artist stats? You pick your song. Time to choose your medicine. Clicking “add to local playlist” takes you to the paywall. When you pay you kick your song up to the playlist. Or maybe some people will just have fun and pick “I’m feeling lucky.”
Five plays for five bucks? Think of a room with 40 patrons. Each one has five bucks to spend. Over the course of an evening, you’ll have 300 minutes (5 hours) of playing time. At 4 minutes each song, that’s 75 songs.
There is an iPad at each table or at a certain spot where people can go and pick something they want to hear. “Hey I like that song!” or “I’ve heard of those guys. They’re badass!” For each tune played there is a minimum cost. But if two people select a song, they both pay, and the song gets bumped up the playlist. (Option: This song is already queued up. Do you want to play it twice, or kick it to the front of the line?)
It’s like a local talent jukebox. Battle of the bands? Steeplechase? Auction? The whole program for the night on the big screen is these local music performances. Finally the artists get to see their digital products earning them some fucking money!
The venue owner could organize and promote this however they wanted to. For example, Tuesday would be Roots night, Wednesday is Electro-Pop, Thursday/Friday is Rock or Punk. You’re building a business model with the express purpose of cultivating a local audience, a local group of fans who are committed to supporting a local artist. Your business model supports the creation of high quality digital products that are usable on every platform to the artist’s benefit. Your business model supports the local venue that is interested in promoting the local music economy. And you’re creating a set of playlist data that everyone can benefit from. For example, if Band X is being played time and time again at Such and Such Venue, then maybe they should consider arranging a live show in the near future.
This is like the visible give. It’s like Patreon in real time, in a real place. The artist could say, “My music is playing at such and such venue for the next two months. So go in and check it out and pick my tunes. The money you kick in to play my tunes goes right into my pocket.”
So if a musician tells 100 fans in their news blast or on their Twitter to go down to such and such venue and “stream me, Baby” then it’s a total win-win for the artist, the venue, and the fan.
This brings the venue owner into the middle of the relationship. The venue owner has a significant stake in bringing those people the music they want, which helps them develop their brand around music, if that’s their desire. Venue owners will be more comfortably positioned as supporters of musicians, with less risk. And they benefit because of the bodies in the seats.
This strategy, if put into practice, gives the artist the ability to create additional revenue from their digital products that would never be gathered. The artist doesn’t have to be there. It brings the artist’s MUSIC into play, it honours the artist’s PERFORMANCE, and puts music right where it belongs: at the centre of a gathering of happy friends.
- Maybe you don’t want to commit to the whole night to go hear your favourite artist perform.
- Maybe you don’t want to spend three or four hours at the venue waiting for your favourite band to appear.
- Maybe you don’t want to commit at that level all the time and you feel like you’re letting your artist down.
- Maybe you don’t want to do a late night. Hell, many live shows don’t kick in until 1 am.
Here’s a “case study”:
You’d like to be able to support a local jazz player. You’ve heard from their Facebook that for the next two weeks their music is on the playlist at Such and Such Venue. So you make plans to go there for dinner and drinks with some friends, and you’re going to have some fun streaming your jazz artist’s music while you’re there. It will cost you just a couple of extra bucks, but it’s cool because you like that guy’s music! You like that the money is going to the artist.
The app will allow you update your social media status accordingly. Maybe some more of your friends will be motivated to come on down and join you, so you share it on your social networks.
You’re going to help contribute to the atmosphere within the room by choosing your favourite jazz musician’s music. Maybe you’ll even win over a couple of extra fans for your favourite artist. People will be looking, seeing and reading what is on the screen. It’s a great outreach opportunity for any artist, and could help them to win some new fans and followers.
There’s also an opportunity for the venue to add their own branding and announcements to what’s on the screen. “Such and Such Venue is proud to support the music of Band X. Thank you for playing their music and filling our room with awesome sounds!”
We need to be able to put the digital products the artist has created into the place where they can earn the artist income.
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In Hamilton, Ontario we are moving towards a revolutionary business model that honours the work of our local musicians and leverages new technology. As a City of Music in Canada, we will get there!
