How to Live Stream Music Concerts? A Complete Guide

In this digital era live streaming has become a new trend be it cricket matches or music concerts or online classes. Live streaming concerts is an effective way to let the audience watch your performance irrespective of their locations, and connect with them easily. According to a recent market research report, the global music streaming market is set to grow at 17.8% CAGR through 2027 from its US $20.9 billion benchmark in 2020 and live music streaming holds a significant part of it. So, if you are into music it’s high time to utilize it!

In this blog we will guide you to live stream your music concert and discuss A to Z of how to get started and make it a huge success!

How to Live Stream Music Concerts? All You Need to Know

Live streaming gives you the chance of broadcasting your music concert live to your audience. And starting from budding artists to the biggest ones like Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber, or Taylor Swift, all have leveraged the perks of live streaming their concerts multiple times! Wondering how to get started? We have the guide ready for you-

• Keep Your Video and Audio Capture Devices Ready

The first and foremost step to make your live streaming flawless is choosing the proper video and audio capture devices. These are the primary equipment to provide a quality experience to your audience. You need to plan beforehand according to the-

• Duration of your concert
• Expected quality of video and audio
• What other equipment will you need like lighting, camera set ups etc.

Remember, every tiny detail matters to bring out the best. A few tips while choosing your video and audio capture equipment-

• Always go for a video capture device with HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) or SDI (Serial Digital Interface) output. SDI is a standard for the delivery of digital video with coaxial cable and HDMI is an all digital audio-video interface that transmits uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from the HDMI-compliant source devices such as video projector, computer monitor, display controller etc. Ensure that your camera can send a clean signal over HDMI, check your camera settings and do the required adjustments if needed.
• No doubt that for music streaming, audio is the most vital part and you don’t want your audio quality to be unclear, noisy or interrupted. You can use multiple microphones with frequency response of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz of cardioid pattern to provide your audience with noise-free experience. 
• Use a good quality audio mixer to mix up audios- both voices and instrumental and video mixer or multi-camera switcher or encoder to mix up video media, graphics etc.

• A Top-notch Live Streaming Platform- Can do Wonders!

Once all your equipment is ready, there comes the crucial stage of choosing the right live streaming platform. Unless your streaming platform is a good and efficient one, all your hard work may go in vain. Some go-to tips to choose a quality streaming platform-

1. Built-in CDN

A built-in CDN can bypass all the hassle of developing & handling a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and provides buffer-free streaming experience to your audience. Some pointers to ensure the CDN of the live streaming platform does justice to all your hard work and content-

• It is backed by scalable CDN for distribution of various static and dynamic web content like .css, .js, html etc. through the data centre networks across the globe.
• Any CDN and new technologies can be adapted easily.
• Multiple CDNs can be integrated.
• Ensures high speed content delivery.
• Offers high end security to your streaming platform at both network and application levels.
• Have good scalability to handle any video or audio workloads swiftly.

2. DVR-enabled Live Streaming

DVR-enabled live streaming implies that the viewers will be able to rewind, pause, and continue your live streaming. For instance, if they pause at a certain time stamp of your live streaming, they will be able to continue watching it just from where they paused. Always ensure that the DVR feature of the live streaming platform is supported across multiple web and mobile (Android and iOS) platforms so that the audience playing it on various devices can get this facility.

3. Social Media Integration

You just can’t ignore the potential of social media platforms when it comes to audience engagement. For instance, study shows that Facebook videos earn the highest engagement rate of 6.09% among all types of content on Facebook, while Tweets with video draw 10 times more engagements than those without videos. And in order to unleash it fully, the streaming platform must be smoothly integrable with the major social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and others. A small tip if you want to live stream your music concert simultaneously on different social media platforms- opt for a live streaming platform that provides a simulcast video streaming solution!

4. Easy HLS Links Generation

Now, what is an HLS? So, HLS or HTTP Live Streaming is a media streaming protocol for delivering audio and video media live through the internet to the viewers. You need to create and manage the HLS links and handle the HLS feeds from the live streaming platform in order to live stream your music concert across various apps and websites. And wait, it’s not even a complex process or requires in-depth technical knowledge but can be achieved through a few button clicks provided you have adopted the right live streaming platform!

5. Recording Live Streams & Offline Viewing

You must want your music concert to be a memorable one for the audience, right? And that is why your live streaming platform should have the solution to auto-store the recordings in the cloud and provide on-demand download options. Furthermore, a soundive streaming platform has the perks of allowing multiple streams recording concurrently!

6. Security

As you are streaming your content over the internet, you can’t overlook the security factors that include-

• Server level security
• SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate to transmit content via encrypted code to protect it from cyber threats
• Multi-DRM to have anti-piracy protection to your content
• PCI compliance for secure online transactions like booking the online concert tickets, V.I.P passes etc.

7. Analytics

Be it your fist virtual music concert or second or third- analytical reports are mandatory to have insights on the important factors such as-

• The overall stream health including audio & video quality, buffering time, users’ watch hours etc.
• Thorough analysis of users’ location, age, time and respective engagement patterns
• Generated revenue over a certain time period, audience growth & retention, chat rates and other parameters

And the good news is you won’t need any additional tool if your streaming platform is a top-rated one!

• Don’t Forget Final Rehearsal!

Practise makes a man perfect and no matter how experienced you are in this field, a final rehearsal with the full set up will never go in vain! In this way you will have a fair idea of how your live concert will turn out and have time to correct the possible loopholes if any. 

• Consider the Time Zones

If you have targeted the international or global audience for your music concert and not from a single region, then don’t forget to consider the different time zones. It is recommended to have a thorough research on what time the audiences of various time zones are most likely to engage and optimize the time and duration of your music concert accordingly.

• Create the Hype

It is not new that the required marketing for your virtual music concert should be started way before the actual date and not just one/two days prior! You can simply capture the highlights of the concert and promote it over various channels the audience are active on. Also, don’t forget the marketing strategies like offering discounted ticket price for first few bookings, complimentary passes and others.

Wrapping UP,

While live streaming your music concert is definitely a good idea to leverage the growing potential of online streaming, at the same time it has become more challenging due to the increase in competition. However, if the basics are done right as mentioned above, half the task is accomplished. Always remember, the live streaming platform has the leading role in turning your live streaming into a success and you should never settle for less!

Muvi Live, the enterprise-grade live streaming platform, not only ticks off all the above-mentioned requirements but comes with exclusive perks like ultra low latency live streaming, lead nurturing, multiple monetization models, restricted access, streaming from the nearest server, and many more! Also, Muvi Live is 100% white labelled to help you build your own brand and fan base.

Yet to try it? Take a 14-day free trial now (no credit card needed)!