Market Your Livestream Performance

So you’ve decided to livestream your next performance. You’ve setup your show, now it’s time to start selling your tickets.

But how do you even go about doing that? Well, here are a few ideas that’ll help get you started!

Give Fans A Taster Via Youtube

Youtube, in my opinion, is the most underutilized tool available to musicians. If you already have a Youtube channel with subscribers on it, why not post some taster footage of what to expect during your livestream? Give viewers enough that they get excited about what’s the come, but not so much that they feel like they’ve experienced everything.

Be sure to leave calls-to-action both during the video and in the description. By simply asking people to sign up, your sign-up rate will generally increase. Sometimes people just need that small nudge in the right direction.

Pro Tip:

Be sure to use keyword friendly headers and descriptions to maximize the chance of you getting found via Youtube search and their suggestion engine. Mastering keywords is too big of a topic for this blog post, but you can see more details about it here. They talk specifically about keywords for music licensing, but many of the mentioned tactics are still relevant to selling gig tickets via Youtube too.

Create Hype With Your Existing Audience

It’s not enough to simply tell your existing fans that you’ve an upcoming show; if you want to increase ticket sales you really need to get them excited about it.

Present your show as something bigger than just a livestream. Maybe create a theme around the show and make it about more than just you and your music.

For example, right now in the UK there’s a big government campaign around supporting the NHS. If you’re from the UK, you could always have an ‘NHS support show’ where you’re playing some of your best songs to support and raise awareness of the work these doctors and nurses are doing. You can also let ticket buyers know that a portion of their ticket fee will go directly to the NHS.

Consider trending topics right now and see if you could take advantage of any to increase gig attendance.

Consider Paid Ads To Promote Your LiveSteam Performance

If you have a relatively small (or non-existent) fan base but still want a good number of people to join your show, you may want to consider using paid advertising.

This isn’t a route I’d typically recommend for your first live stream due to the steep learning curve and likely expensive cost per attendee while you’re still experimenting. That said, if you’re willing to risk losing money upfront to increase your attendance, this could be an option.

I’d generally go for Youtube ads as they’re more personal and connections can be built easier, but you can also advertise on Facebook and Instagram as well if you choose. A simple Google search will provide you with guides on how to use each platform.

Alternatively, you may get better results approaching established musicians in your genre and paying them to let their audience know about your upcoming show. While you’ll likely get higher attendee conversions using this method, often working with musicians one-on-one like this can be slow or unreliable. But it can give good results when you get a reliable influencer.

Remember, It’s Down To You…

When you put on your own show, it’s 100% up to you to get attendees.

The above tactics should give you a good head start, but if you have any other marketing strategies you want to try, there’s no harm in giving them a go.

So what tactics have you used to promote your live stream shows? Let us know in the comments friend.

Other Resources

MyAfton Livestream Virtual Performances

Are Shows Still Being Booked?

Local Shows

The post How An Artist Can Market Their LiveStream Performance Show appeared first on Afton.

Live streaming is not a new thing, but Covid-19 has exploded the demand for these types of services like never before. Here at Afton, we are adaptable and scrappy; as the music industry requires. The day our first event was canceled because of the corona virus, we began the planning and development of our Afton LiveStream platform.

But WHY use it? WHY trust our platform is the best to serve your needs as an artist? Here are some key reasons:

• Like all of our myafton.com software, creating a LiveStream show is FREE to the artist!
• Our LiveStream is fully integrated with our myafton booking platform, so set up is streamlined and easy!
• When you work with Afton, you get 1-1 email support from your booking rep.
• Our staff has created tutorials, FAQs, and videos to help you create the perfect LiveStream from start to finish! Teaching our artists best practices continues to be a priority for us.
• Our staff handles 100% of your fans questions or customer services needs when purchasing their virtual ticket
• Afton LiveStream PAYS the artist MORE than any other company out there
• We offer Live Chat so you can connect with your fans in real time during your set
• We offer a virtual tip jar so you can make more money while you perform
• Before your set you will have the opportunity to do an advanced sound check so that you can create a professional sounding LiveStream everytime
• With developers on our team, we will be adding and creating features our artists want on a regular basis – we always welcome your feedback!

So with absolutely NO RISK to you, what are you waiting for?! Create your first LiveStream today and join us in once again revolutionizing the industry for independent artists!

Other Resources

MyAfton LiveStream Virtual Performances

Why Afton Shows is Primed to Lead

Local Events

The post Afton LiveStream: Built by musicians, FOR musicians! appeared first on Afton.

Afton has been producing live concerts since 2004. Founded by Musicians, for Musicians – Afton’s passion has always been to support and empower independent bands, rappers, and musicians. Today, we are the largest booker of independent artists in the country with shows in 70+ U.S. and Canadian cities, over 250+ music venue partners, and millions of fans who have attended an Afton Shows event.

But 15,000+ shows later, COVID-19 suddenly and without warning brought live events to a dead stop. Live events cannot happen anytime soon, and the uncertainty of what the “new normal” will look like for live events has many music venues, artists, promoters, and booking agents wondering where to go from here.

As soon as our first show was canceled due to COVID-19 in March 2020, co-founders Ryan Kintz and Amy Kintz began the pursuit of finding a solution for the 240,000 bands and rap groups on our MyAfton.com booking platform.

Luckily, it’s always been hard to make money in the music industry. So we’re no stranger to overcoming obstacles and creatively solving problems. With a lean staff (we’ve been able to keep all full-time staff onboard) and an expert in-house team of software developers that have been with us since the beginning – we have been able to pivot quickly and build the MyAfton LiveStream platform.

Our vast experience in booking live concerts, dedication to music artists, our knowledge in promotion and marketing, and our ability to build enterprise level software are the core reasons we are able to so quickly provide this essential new MyAfton LiveStream platform to every musician, no matter where they live or what level of their career they’re at.

We will continue to focus on helping musicians and innovating new features, solutions, and tools to ensure that MyAfton LiveStream shows are some of the most rewarding and profitable shows our musicians have ever played.

The post Why Afton Shows is Primed to Lead the Industry in LiveStreams for Music Artists. appeared first on Afton.

Recently, artists of all sizes have ramped up their free livestream performances on Facebook for donations only. But what if you could design a unique, special, and interactive LiveStream performance that you could sell virtual pay-per-view tickets for? How much more money could artists be making to help support their music career if they used their marketing skills and existing fan base for a pay-per-view LiveStream plus tips/donations?

This is the big question the Afton Shows and MyAfton founders, Ryan Kintz and Amy Kintz, asked themselves when COVID-19 hit in mid-march.

“Suddenly, within 3 days, all of the 250+ music venues we work with started contacting us to say, “our state is forcing our venue to cancel all live concerts for 2 months or longer due to COVID-19. We had to reschedule almost 200 shows,” recounts Amy Kintz.

In addition, there are serious ongoing talks that live events could NOT come back until December of 2020. With major concerts/tours postponed into 2021. Or even worse, a 2nd or 3rd wave of COVID-19 outbreaks when concerts resume that forces live event industry to shut down again.

So how can independent bands and rappers support themselves financially while staying connected with fans? How can artists satisfy the innate desire to perform live and share their music with the world?

We believe the MyAfton LiveStream platform is the answer.

The MyAfton LiveStream Platform launches soon, and artists can join the rapidly growing waitlist below for the chance to be some of the first performers.

MyAfton LiveStream Offers the Highest Artist Payout.

We made the decision to give a lion’s share of the revenues back to the artist for LiveStream.

MyAfton LiveStream offers artists 70% to 90% of LiveStream revenues, plus artists keep tips and donations after the card processing fee. It is our goal that the higher payout tiers are easily reached by the local acts we book.

With the starting MyAfton LiveStream payout tier at 70% (a majority of the revenue to artist), it only takes 20-34 virtual tickets sold for a 75% payout, 35-49 virtual tickets sold for an 80% payout, 50-74 virtual tickets sold for 85%, and the top tier of 90% comes in at 75+ sold. This means the average local artist’s fan base can easily make that artist 75% to 85% of revenues (the artist picks the ticket price).

This is great news for independent musicians, considering that other platforms such as Twitch are taking 50% of revenues, and the starting payout tier for Stageit is only 63%.

However, to reach even the next payout tier on Stageit of 70%, an artist has to sell $1,000 worth of tickets, breaking down to either 100 tickets at $10, or 200 tickets at $5 – which is out of reach for many local musicians.

Wait, So What’s the “Catch?”

There is no catch. Sign up to the MyAfton.com platform is completely free, membership is free, and it’s free for artists to setup and create their LiveStream performances.

For LiveStream, there are no ticket requirements. An artist can choose to reschedule their LiveStream at anytime if needed. We even provide 1-on-1 support with a Booking Rep, promo tips and strategies, and marketing advice to help our artists succeed.

How Does it Work?

Once you have a free MyAfton account and have setup your Artist Profile, you simply click the Create LiveStream Gig link from inside your account.

You set the date and time for the LiveStream and you set the virtual ticket price.

We handle all encoding, bandwidth, the technology, the virtual ticket sales platform, your sound check portal, and provide you with a dashboard to track your sales.

When it’s time to LiveStream, you login for the final sound check and go live. During your performance you can live chat with fans.

How Much Money Can I Make?

Let’s use a few examples. Remember, the more virtual tickets you sell, the more Fan Tips you’re going to get. Historically, we see that Fans tip generously during online checkout for our live shows. Plus, with LiveStream Fans can tip/donate during your performance.

Local act sells 21 virtual tickets at $7.99
Artist takes home $88.20 + Tips

Local act sells 50 virtual tickets at $6.99
Artist takes home $297.07 + Tips

Local act markets their LiveStream like crazy and sells 110 virtual tickets at $5.99 each.
Artist takes home $593.01

The possibilities are endless. Established local/regional acts with a large fan base could be making $1,500 or $2,000+ per LiveStream with 200-400 virtual tickets sold depending on the ticket price they set.

How Do I Get Started?

Head over to www.myafton.com/livestream and create an account or login to your existing account. Setup your account and start creating your LiveStream gigs.

We can’t wait to put you virtually “onstage!”

Other Resources:

Are Shows Still Being Booked?

So Shows Aren’t Happening… What Now?

Local Events

The post MyAfton Live Stream Virtual Performances Can Help Artists Make Money During COVID-19. appeared first on Afton.