20 June,2010 01:42 PM IST | | Lalitha Suhasini
Don't want to brave the dusty, pot-holed suburbs of Mumbai for the biggest Indian rock fest? Watch metal heads slug it out live in your living room. A UK-based website streams live music every day from a Mumbai club, and last week millions made a virtual trip to the 700-acre Great Stage Park in Tennessee to watch Bonnaroo live. Sunday MiD DAY logs on
Stadium superstars just fell into your lap. Bono and company caused servers to crash across seven continents when U2's sell-out concert in California was streamed free and live on YouTube, last year. Just last week, the Bonnaroo music festival that draws over a million music fans annually to the multi-stage 700-acre farm in Tennessee, America, reached out to millions worldwide. The entire festival featuring close to 100 acts, including Jeff Beck, Dave Mathews Band and Norah Jones, was streamed live.
Get your bandwidth powered up for the 25th anniversary Independence
Rock's live stream this August
Closer home, the wheels are turning to heave one of the most-awaited rock contests of the country onto cyberspace. Independence Rock (IROCK) founded and organised by Mumbai rocker Farhad Wadia will invite international bands from US, UK, Canada, Australia, Asia and Europe to lock horns in its 25th anniversary year.
u00a0
"We did a trial run last year. This year, the need to stream live is critical since global audiences will get a chance to actually vote for their favourite bands online," says Wadia.u00a0
So if you are sure you'll trade sweaty bodies, dusty grounds and surprise downpours for the warm, familiar confines of your home, the idea of music festivals being streamed live was cracked just for you.
Live in India
About three weeks ago, UK-based Awdio, a three year-old web network that streams live music from over 150 clubs across the world including high-brow Paris lounge Collete and Berlin's uber hot nightspot Cookies, hooked up with South Mumbai music hub Blue Frog. "They got in touch, they invested in the set-up and for us, it's about the experience more than anything, to be up there with all these international clubs," says Emmanuelle de Decker, head of music programming at Blue Frog.
As recently as last year, live music has been making some noise online in India too. "This is the medium of the future. We've had no less than three concerts streamed live online. The online live streams are a sign of things to come and have bands thinking about how to market shows like these as well. Maybe there will be paid webcasts soon. Who knows?" says Jishnu Dasgupta, bassist for Bengaluru-based folk rock band Swarathma, referring to the second Twestival, a volunteer-driven charitable festival organised by Twitter users across the country, Virgin Mobile's Rockathon and a tribute gig at Bengaluru night club Opus.
In September last year, Bengaluru's second Twestival (the first Twestival hosted a short quiz and was held in February) coordinated by 30 year-old software professional Hrish Thota featured Swarathma. The entire concert was streamed live on Ustream, a free-for-all lifecasting platform, and the ticketed event that also included a stand-up comic act raised Rs 30,000. The funds were donated to Dream A Dream, a Bengaluru-based organisation working with underprivileged children.
Live vs Virtual
The old argument still holds good. It's difficult convincing audiences to attend live shows in India, so drawing big numbers to view live online streams is far-fetched.
Oranjuice Entertainment, which has been hosting the One Tree Festival for the past four years has managed to draw a maximum of 5,000 blues fans every year regardless of the calibre of artists, whether Buddy Guy or The Allan Parsons project.
"It'll be a while before these live online streams will take off in India but I think there's definitely scope. For event organisers like us, the cost of streaming is really high and sites like YouTube require a minimum guarantee of at least 50,000 views to allow us to stream a festival online," says Owen Roncon, founder, Oranjuice Entertainment.
IRock founder Wadia pegs the cost of streaming the rock contest online at about Rs 10 lakh.
u00a0
Could mean boom for brands
Besides charitable causes, live events are also great marketing tools. Virgin Mobile organised Rockathon in Bengaluru and streamed 100 hours of live music, including performances by the likes of the Raghu Dixit Project and Galeej Gurus, on its website. The live music is roughly estimated to have snagged two lakh online viewers.
"We had about 50 college bands performing at Rockathon, which meant colleges would have watched their own bands perform. The Rockathon was held purely to engage and connect with the youth. Live music streams are not about making money for brands," says Shankar Sundaraman, head, direct 2 consumer marketing, Virgin Mobile India. The brand also has plans to stream an 18-hour rockathon headlined by an international brand, slated to be held in Goa in October, live.
"We definitely have audiences who want to enjoy music festivals from the comfort of their homes without paying for the ticket. To refer to Chris Anderson's long-tailed principle, there will be takers for niche concepts such as these.
The numbers might be few but as a collective it will be a significant number. Bandwidth isn't an issue in major Indian metros. I think alcohol brands, which sponsor most of these events, and youth brands will leap at the opportunity to advertise online," says Navin Kansal, creative director, digital, Ogilvyone Worldwide.
Hooking up
"Live event streaming is still new and unfamiliar to Indian audiences. Unless it's a major mainstream event (Bollywood based/reality show based/cricket), backed by big marketing money, it's unlikely to get much traction in India," says Arjun S Ravi, editor, Indiecision.com, a two-year-old website that tracks India's indie music scene. The popular music website that also hosts post event videos has received as many as 50,000 cumulative views for December 2009's Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons India tour. "However, for Indian bands, the average is a couple of thousand views per live video," he adds.
Of course, nothing can come close to the real headrush of being packed into a stadium with thousands of screaming fans. Coldplay at Glastonbury on your Macbook is as exciting as watching England lose a FIFA match on TV -- you'll never stop wishing you were there.
The BIG FIX
Farhad Wadia, founder, IRock
We did a trial run last year. This year, the need to stream live is critical since global audiences will get a chance to vote for their favourite bands online.
Navin Kansal, creative director, OGILVYONE
We definitely have audiences who want to enjoy music fests in the comfort of their home without paying for the ticket. Alcohol and youth brands will leap at the opportunity to advertise online.
Arjun S Ravi, Editor, www.indiecision.com
Live event streaming is still new and unfamiliar to Indian audiences. Unless it's a major mainstream event backed by big marketing money, it's unlikely to get much traction in India.
Trend forecast
Live streams on your mobile
Paid webcasts and live streaming on your mobile may just be the next big thing to hit music fests. In August 2009, Apple streamed its first live concert of Brit electronica band Underworld free onto an iPhone. Virgin Mobile has a second rockathon coming up this year, which will feature an international band that will headline the 18-hour show, slated to be held
in Goa.
Some popular streaming sites include
https://www.qik.com/, can be used to stream videos on mobile as well
https://www.ustream.tv/ - you need a webcam or via mobile
https://mogulus.com/ (also known as https://www.livestream.com/)
https://www.stickam.com/
https://www.kyte.tv/
Ustream, stickam, kyte.tv and mogulus offer infinite bandwidth and storage space to broadcast your live video stream over the Internet with no audience limits.
The handbook
How to stream live online
>>Sites such as Ustream are great options to start streaming free unless you have your own website. Networking websites like Facebook also allow for video uploads. The cost of streaming your gig online depends on the quality of the audio-visual set up, the scale of the gig and the audience you are reaching out to.
>>Arjun S Ravi, editor, Indiecision.com does the break-up for us. The entire cost with a single camera set-up will come to about Rs 50,000. The one-time cost comes to Rs 35,000. A one-camera static set-up will cost about Rs 30,000 for an excellent HD camera (you can get video cams for as low as Rs 5,000 as well, and as high as a couple of lakhs. A good HD camera for gig streaming online will roughly cost anywhere between 15 and 40k).
>>Then there's the line-out from the mixer from the sound and the sound set-up, which won't cost you more than Rs 10,000. Plug it in to a laptop, with hi-speed internet (include broadband cost), and stream using an existing online service. >Alternatively, you can stream a live acoustic performance from your living room for free, using your webcam and broadband at home. It can be incredibly cheap.
Webcertsu00a0kicking offu00a0this week
Artist Aloud.com will host its first live web concert called WebCerts on the website, on June 24 between 4 pm and 5 pm. The gig, featuring vocalist Shibani Kashyap will be held at Xtreme Sports Bar. The monthly Webcert series will feature acts by Parikrama and Avial soon. "We are hoping to tap the office audience who's surfing most of the time anyway," says Soumini Sridhara, GM Artist Aloud.
Last week, from Tennessee
Music fans spread sunshine and sunscreen at the Bonnaroo music festival that draws over a million music fans annually to the multi-stage 700-acre farm in Tennessee, America. Last week, the fest featuring close to 100 acts, including Jeff Beck, Dave Mathews Band and Norah Jones, was streamed live.
Last month, from Mumbai
Kutle Khan performing with Rajasthan Roots at South Mumbai club Blue Frog. This was one of the gigs streamed live on https://www.awdio.com/ this month. The website has live streams from clubs across the world and hooked up with Blue Frog three weeks ago.
