Broadly speaking, some of art’s founding principles are communication and interaction. In this post I’ll focus on one of the most popular art forms, which is music. Performers of various genres try to interact with listeners by conveying their emotions through sounds. The process of interpreting a piece is also a vital part of experiencing art, and with all the modern technology available these days, being able to reach out to an artist in order to show appreciation or comment upon their work becomes increasingly important for both parties. With that being said, let’s take a look at some of the applications of live chat in the music industry.
I’d like to start by saying, that one great thing I find about live chat when it comes to utilizing it in the music industry is that there really are no limitations in terms of genres that can make use of it. I thought about it for a minute, and sure, there are types of music, whose fans might not be extremely tech savvy, but then again, I don’t think there’s a genre with fans solely offline.
There’s no denying that Twitter has become the social platform of choice for many music artists. It’s personal, dynamic and allows for a certain degree of interaction with fans. However, what may escape some of the musicians is that they often don’t have a platform for their fans to interact with each other. Having live social chat installed on your website is a great way to build a community of followers and become a part of it by contributing from time to time as well.
The music industry is steadily evolving because it’s become so intertwined with technology. In this post, I’m going to discuss three main areas, where I see possible applications for live chat software and will try to provide you with some specific examples. Let’s get down to it.
Using live chat on music industry websites
By music industry website I mean anything, from a page devoted to a certain genre to actual music biz networking site. In any case, the goal is to build a community and provide it with a tool to stay engaged and interact with each other.
To keep my promise, let me give some specific examples. Certain artists have followings on a never before seen scale. The fact that those groups have their own names speaks for itself. There are Justin Bieber fans – the Beliebers, and Beyonce minions call themselves the Beyhive. The majority of these fans are young and tech savvy people who are familiar with and willing to communicate using modern technologies like live chat.
Apart from artist fan clubs, there are phenomena in the music industry like K-pop (Korean pop) for example, which keeps growing outside of Asia. Plenty of people all over the world are prowling the web daily in search of other individuals who share their interests.
Music is an excellent concept to bond over and form long-lasting relations because it’s such an emotional creation. People who meet online using live chat can get to know each other better and then kick it up a notch by organizing a one-to-one meeting or a local get-together.
The possibility of meeting like-minded individuals should definitely be viewed as a benefit by people who frequent your website. Think in terms of usually the younger generation which is obsessing over their favorite music artists and how and what for are they using things like chat rooms. By coming to your page, they may have the opportunity to meet other fans, trade stories and even link up with them to go for a concert of their idol.
Artists using live chat
This might be the most fertile ground when it comes to applications of live chat in the music industry. Like I said earlier, fans want to not only experience the art created by their favorite musician but also get to know them better on a personal level.
A concert can constitute an occasion to do just that, however, due to economic or purely geographical limitations not everyone can attend them. So, let’s see how a solo artist or a band can become more accessible to fans without having to compromise a lot of their privacy.
Speaking of concerts, streaming one online is a great way to please more of your fans. There are plenty of live stream services available online and the whole process of launching a gig is fairly simple, so it’s not much of an effort on the artist’s end. While you’re at it, make sure you provide those fans gathered online with a tool like live social chat to interact with each other and enhance the experience.
Another, similar way to engage you fans and deliver something they may not have seen before in the music industry right to their screens is to throw a live online listening party. To make myself clearer, I’m talking about streaming your new album and letting your fans discuss it using live chat. This way you can create some early buzz before the official release and maybe even introduce some late changes based on recurrent reactions of your fans.
Keeping things strictly music-related – why not make your fans a part of the creative process and ask them to write some ideas or maybe lyrics for your new song? There are surely talented souls among them, who wouldn’t mind an opportunity to let their creative juices flow. A freestyle or improvisation session, where fans shoot ideas at you and comment is another fresh idea you could polish up and put to use.
To finish up this section, let me go back to what I said about getting to know the artists better. You can do all of the above things utilizing some live streaming service. You can also add to it an Ask Me Anything (or Us, for that matter) session and let your fans and maybe other people aspiring to climb up the music industry ladder ask you questions via live chat. Spice things up by holding a contest and giving out autographed merch or early album copies.
Using live chats at radio stations
Despite what people may think, the radio isn’t dead. And as long as there’s music to be played, it’ll be an integral part of the music industry. What has changed, though, is that new stations have cropped up online, and some of the traditional ones have also made the transfer to the virtual world.
Now, there are still people forming loose communities around radio stations. It’s not a bad idea at all to make a platform available for them to interact with one another, as well as with the station itself. Live social chat may prove to be especially handy for smaller, local stations, which usually cater to tighter communities.
Among the things that listeners could use live chat for are requesting songs, asking DJs for shoutouts for their family and friends or interacting with periodic shows’ hosts and guests. The community-building factor stemming from having a chat room on a station website is not to be denied either.
Other remarks on using live chat in the music industry
Right, so let me mention a couple more things, which may not exactly fit in the broader categories discussed above but I feel are important to the music industry nonetheless.
No matter how you’re planning to use live chat, be active in it too. Don’t just passively observe what’s happening but show you’re listening and try to drive the discussion, especially if you’re an artist. Also, make sure that netiquette is observed by having admins monitor the activity in the chat room as often as possible. Various moderation, filtering and banning options, along with being able to use chat on mobile devices are things you need to pay attention to when looking for live chat software.
One last thing – let’s be honest, the music industry is a business too. Having great online presence and being approachable can improve album sales and draw more listeners to attend concerts. It might be difficult to assess this precisely but it’s the publicity and the image-building process that are important here.
Conclusions
As you can see, due to the nature of the music industry, which is heavily reliant on the Internet these days, as well as most of the fan groups, having live chat installed on your website can prove to be very beneficial.
Its most important functions are building communities, creating relationships between people who share similar interests and, most of all, allowing fans to get to know their idols better. Live chat platform is a tool with applications in various sectors and the music industry is no exception. It’s been praised by business owners and clients alike, and is most likely here to stay and be used by a growing number of netizens.
