From The Editor: Moving To Webcasts

While there are plenty of Pros for selling webcast subscriptions, bands also have to take a few Cons into consideration. Most webcast production teams contain at least three cameramen. That’s three extra people on the stage, possibly squashing the vibe. For bands that are wary of having cameramen in their grill, they can just webcast the audio. First and foremost fans want to hear the music, the visual is just a bonus. Also, it’s possible that offering webcasts can hurt ticket sales. I can’t stand Terminal 5 and I’d rather pay $10 for a webcast of a band playing there rather than pay $50 to stand in a crowd with no view. But in general, I’d always rather catch the show live in person than watch it over a computer and I think most would agree.

For the past decade or so, artists have started selling recordings of their concerts both at the gig and on the internet after the show is over. At this point nearly every major touring act sells official recordings of their shows, so it must be a profitable venture. Yet, as soon as a major act puts a recording up for sale it goes up on the major bit torrent sites and hundreds of copies are pirated by rabid fans. Because so much of the thrill of watching a webcast is experiencing the concert live, there’ll be tons of initiative for every hard core fan to purchase a package. When a webcasting company sells a subscription to a series of webcasts they give the user a login and password. Once you login and start watching the webcast no one else can use your login information to watch the feed.  Pirating isn’t nearly as big a problem for webcasts as it is for live downloads.

Let’s say your favorite band decided to sell webcasts of every show. How much would you pay per show for a high quality webcast? Would a webcast subscription ever stop you from going to see a concert? Fill us in on what you think about webcast subscription packages by leaving a comment below…