Playing the World From a Basement

Albanach writes "Singer songwriter Sandi Thom is one of a growing band of new musicians using the internet to circumvent the traditional and traditionally expensive tour circuit. Thom described her free online concerts as a Web Tour, saying 'A web tour is basically what you do when you have a lack of money and no car.' Services such as The Streaming Tank have grown to satisfy the need for broadcast services and the figures are impressive. Just 74 people watched Thom's first concert on February 24th. The concert on March 2nd drew 62,138 viewers."

Link to her website, maybe?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.sandithom.com/ [sandithom.com]

Re:how

[kebes]

How different is it (live webcast) from a recorded viewing?

Actually apparently these are not even live. They are recorded daily and rebroadcast. From TFA:
Thom uses a webcam to record a nightly performance before broadcasting it on the net later in the evening. (Emphasis added.)

So actually this is just drumming up support by webcasting performances you do in your basement. Still a good idea, but as you say this is no substitute for going to a live show. Sure you save the costs of going on tour, but real music lovers will be much more willing to spend money on a live show, as compared to a low-resolution webcast.

A more interesting concept would be an actual live webcast with some measure of user-feedback. Maybe pre or post online chats/interviews with the band members? Maybe the band could take live requests? Maybe the band could adjust their performance based on the number of viewers and the demographics? ("I see alot of people logging in from London... welcome! This one is for you...").

Re:The real question is?

[advocate_one]

YES!!! [sandithom.com]

Re:Who?

[Red Flayer]

Hopefully, absolutely right.

I checked, she's signed with Legacy, an indie in the UK. I don't know what her contract terms are, but she's been getting airplay there...

Re:how

[Reapy]

There actually are some things like this in Second Life. A few musicians play weekly concerts in the game. They set up a streaming server, get a location in world, and people show up with the avatars and listen to person playing, who is also present in world. Often on the stream they will comment on the chat between songs and take requests.

Granted the quality and flavor is that of a local bar rather then a "profesional" concert, but I found the experience to be quite unique.