Artists Find Success Playing Online Shows Through Concert Window

For many artists, the hurdles which must be overcome in order to successfully book a tour can be quite intimidating. Hosting an online concert series, however, is a much more straightforward process, and also has a significantly reduced price tag.

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Guest Post by Chris Robley on The DIY Musician

Are you interested in taking your live show online?

Online concerts can be a great (and profitable) way to deepen your relationship with fans.

For attendees, there are far fewer barriers. No traffic. No overpriced drinks. No crowds. All they have to do is turn on their computer. 

For you (the artist), playing a series of virtual concerts can be a healthier, thriftier, more manageable alternative to touring. No long drives, no motel rooms with burnt carpets, no 4am Taco Bell runs, no sound engineer sleeping at the board, no bouncer who pockets your cash (to say nothing of the weeks and weeks of planning you’d put into booking a tour).

If you’ve got a decent computer, a microphone, a set of awesome songs, and an extra hour or two every month, you have everything you need to host an online concert series.

We’ve heard from a number of CD Baby artists who’ve had success using the service Concert Window to host their online shows. Here are some of the details from just a few of those artists:

 (Kickstarter Celebration)

During her recent Kickstarter campaign, which just successfully raised $21k, Anna did a Concert Window show to thank her community and push the campaign towards the finish line.

The show was free to view, and Anna played songs and chatted about making the record. During the show, fans contributed over $500 to her Kickstarter campaign.

Here’s what Anna said afterwards: “Today has been incredible. we made over $500 during the Concert Window show last night (thank you!) and today passed the 95% mark on the campaign! We also just flew by 300 backers: amazing!”

Ellis Paul (Monthly Shows)

Artists like Ellis Paul and Liz Longley are doing monthly shows as a kind of “fan club.” It gets everyone in one place, deepens the fan-artist connection, and makes good revenue each time. For example, on Ellis Paul’s last 10 shows, each one has averaged 318 viewers (over 1 minute), $1667 in revenue — which is $5.24 per viewer.

Noel Paul Stookey (DVD release)

On Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, Concert Window hosted a two-night DVD release event for Noel Paul Stookey (“Paul” of Peter, Paul & Mary). It consisted of a live broadcast his DVD and his fans came and hung out.

Above the video, there was a button to buy a copy of the DVD. Of the 276 people who watched the stream (for more than 3 minutes), 55 bought DVDs. That’s 19.9%. Pretty good!