With free-to-use platforms popping up everywhere, live streaming has become an affordable yet effective way for music producers to connect with new audiences. And while you could use live streaming to promote your latest songs, the platform is best for building a constant stream of loyal followers. This could improve your exposure, which means you could potentially attract new clients and make more sales.
Here’s what goes into using live streams to successfully grow your audience.
Keep it interesting
Go beyond sharing a new song you produced and try out other interesting ideas that your audience would love. Livestream your creation process, for starters, so people know exactly what’s going on behind the scenes. You could also do a home studio tour, a walkthrough and/or review of your gear, an interview with someone influential in your industry, and anything else that your audience might be interested in.
The electro-pop artist HANA, for instance, uses Twitch to live-stream remixes and an entire album-making process. But she also regularly streams her conversations with friends and personal commentary on different topics. She currently has over 21k followers on Twitch and 96.6k followers on Instagram.
Perfect your set-up
As a professional music producer, you probably have a pretty sweet set-up already. After all, you have to produce top-notch music that speaks volumes about your expertise. But don’t forget that you’re not streaming just your music to your audience. Your live streams should also look great as you have to visually engage your audience.
Consider investing in a tripod to hold your smartphone or camera steady while you stream. Plus, think about your background, angles, and lighting so your live streams look visually appealing.
Collaborate with other creators
One of the best ways to attract a new and relevant audience is by featuring other artists and creators in your live stream. You could interview them, feature their work, collaborate with them on a production, and more. The idea is to bring their following to your channel and hopefully win them over as new followers.
In particular, you could partner with beatmakers and fellow producers and composers to come up with something extraordinary.
Record producer and songwriter, Kenny Beats uses Twitch to live-stream “beat battles” with other artists. Taking a competitive approach is a great way to collaborate with other music creators as it helps keeps things interesting for the audience.
Follow a regular streaming schedule
A one-off streaming event may be great for promoting one song. But if you want a consistent stream of viewers and to grow your audience, you have to be consistent yourself. That means following a regular live streaming schedule so your audience can depend on you and know when to tune in.
Consider scheduling your live streams at least once a week on a specific day and time. For even better audience engagement, set up live streams several times a week.
Get your fans involved
What better way to engage your fans than making them feel involved and included? Make room for audience interactions so the live stream isn’t just one-sided. Acknowledge their comments, answer their questions, and take requests if possible. If it’s too distracting to do all this during your performance, you could also set aside a few minutes for audience requests and Q&A sessions.
For electronic dance music producer Jauz, his “Demo Roulette” live streaming sessions offer the perfect way to get his fans involved. He uses these sessions to critique fan-submitted tracks and provides tips and insights to make them sound even better.
Promote your live streams
If you want to get more viewers on your live streams, you should be promoting them well ahead of time. Don’t forget to share news about an upcoming live stream through other social media channels like Twitter and Instagram. The goal is to make sure that more people hear about the live stream before it starts and that they are ready to tune in when you go live.
Ready to go live?
We’ve highlighted some of the essential steps that will take your live streams to the next level and help you grow your audience. Remember that relevance is everything, so make sure you focus on topics and approaches that would intrigue your audience. Most importantly, don’t forget to check out other music and audio talent on Fiverr and collaborate with other standout producers for upcoming projects and live streams.
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