Marketing in The News

The streaming platform Twitch has started to become a strong outlet for artists around the world.

With Covid 19 still affecting the world when it comes to gathering, artists have looked towards Twitch to market themselves

 

 For this weeks post I chose to speak on something very interesting to myself because it involves two things I enjoy quite a bit which are music and Twitch. Music has always been a big part of interest to me because I enjoy going to concerts and listening to music in general. I also tend to watch streams a lot because most of my time is spent at home on my computer when I am not at work. With most concerts and festivals being shut down or cancelled because of the virus, artists have now and recently started to use Twitch as a way to market themselves and their music to their fans. 

With the article I read from VICE, it is directly speaking about streaming somewhat "replacing" clubs or concerts for artists overall. While I do believe this is a great new way to reach fans, I do not think this will ever completely replace actually going and seeing someone in person live. There have been many streams done by artists and companies that normally host festivals, showcasing DJ's or other artists on this platform since covid started. In this article it talks about how some artists have been able to reach entire new fans from streaming just from the ease of the platform in general, since all it takes is making a free account and then clicking on the music section to browse and find some of these live streams. Another large point I took away was the amount of money these artists were losing from not having live shows, but also the amount of new money they are making on the platform of Twitch now. With this being a new outlet for some artists, it is also creating issues for the platform itself and its DMCA laws, which basically are rules against streamers playing music that is owned by large music production companies such as Interscope Records. From a marketing standpoint, you'd think having many new people hear your song on a streamers stream they watch often would be a good thing, but to the companies this is them losing money every time a song is played. These artists have taken to the platform in order to market themselves outside of the large companies trying to gouge every penny and cause issues on the platform. 

 VALUE

From a general marketing viewpoint, what these artists are doing is very smart, simply because since they cannot play their music from a live event and are attempting to still get their music out and make some money as well. Going to a live event costs money in many different forms such as travel and ticket costs, but when you can just log into your computer from a free service and listen you are able to get some sense of live music from the comfort of your own home. The value proposition I believe lies in the attempt to do something new within a field that is and will always be dominated by live events, with getting new music out and acquiring new fans online, the opportunities are endless essentially.

Challenges

When it comes to the world we live in, everything tends to be or feels challenging and this comes for even people with some success. These artists have been so used to just going and performing live for most of their careers, and with this new world we live in they are having to adapt just as everyone else is. Using a platform that isnt new while creating something new is the main challenge for them. As a fan there is nothing like going to a live event, but again, with the world we live in now getting any part of live music is a breath of fresh air. I think whats most challenging is just for these artists attempting to navigate Twitch as a platform and trying to reach new fans. 

Critique and Suggestions

This to me has been something very refreshing personally because I miss going to live events incredibly. It was a way to hang out with friends and simply just enjoy myself because I thoroughly enjoy live music quite a bit. There have been a few larger streams even last year from big music companies putting these on with many artists hosted and they have been a joy to watch. I think the hardest part for these companies is still attempting to add in the actual feeling of being there with production value and other things of the sort. I think the best option if these continue is to keep working on the production value and to see what else they can do to up that value for the consumer. It was very interesting learning about all of this even after seeing some of the streams first hand, the business aspect behind all of it is going to be very intriguing going forward as we continue to work through the pandemic and the after affects it will have on many industries, including the music one. 

 

 

 

The link to the article I found is below and you can head over to Twitch in the music section of the site to check some of these streams out for yourself! There are many different genres, including those that are not just DJ's from what I tend to enjoy, the music section on twitch includes many!

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj8dav/can-djs-on-twitch-replace-clubs-it-depends-on-whos-paying