Live Online Music News and Articles

Written by Marjorie C. Applewood, May 2003, an online live music enthusiast.
Taken from an online forum and reprinted with permission from the author.

Pretty bleak and dismal actually. The online listening community isn't getting it at all or at least they are not letting on that they are, neither is the offline physical world. They're extremely slow to catch on to what these live online performing artists are doing and giving to them.

Online artists are happy, they're in their realm, they're doing what they love to do for the reasons they truly love to do it, from an environment that inspires, encourages and supports. They're at home with their families, they're staying in and living in their own communities not out wandering the planet playing in inhospitable unsafe environments. They're home, they're safe. They are where they are most creative and most comfortable, they are where their time is best spent.

The online musicians following is for the most part not in the offline world, they're seldom known anywhere else, their following is online from every corner of the globe. People are enjoying a live performance right now, safe in their own homes and not appreciating or supporting it. The online listening community is into live online music or they wouldn't be their day after day, night after night listening, they're not in their local nightspots, clubs and theaters, they are not listening to the radio, they are at home right now listening to some performer somewhere around the world sing their heart out live online directly to them right now and turning around and not purchasing anything in support of them, this is the state of affairs today. The online listener is participating right now in a live interactive environment with the artist, a far more intimate setting than they will ever get in the physical world.

The online listeners aren't living in the moment, they are not appreciating what they have in their midst. They put off supporting the artist for another day always expecting that someone else will do it. They are always wanting the online performer to be something else, do something else, go somewhere else with their music, play on the radio, selfishly wanting them to play live physically for them in their town when for the average musician this isn't possible or even realistic but it is a darn good excuse for not supporting the live online artist.

Performing in the physical world is not what the live online performer is all about. They are not about to select one town over another, to travel the miles to one town for a few people who have never heard of them who don't appreciate live online music for the wants of one or two avid fans. Consider for the moment how many artists could be supported online doing what they love to do if the online listening community used the money that they propose to use for all those touring, travel and hotel expenses for supporting the live online artists right now where they are at. How many live online concerts could be booked with that money, CDs and live online merchandise purchased to support and feed the individual artists, not the airline and travel industry. How many people from around the globe would have the opportunity to hear them if these live concerts were openly shared with others and promoted on a global scale. How many concert halls, night clubs and folk clubs could set up live interactive feeds into their establishments, bring the live online artists live in concert to their patrons in the physical through the marvels of the internet, artists that they would never get to hear otherwise in a million years. The travel money could be better spent on upgrading audio and visual equipment, advancing online technology and supporting the online artists.

Live online artists are about sharing their music with the world in a safe nurturing environment for all. For some there is the physical world, for others there is the internet, priceless. There is more than enough room for both. It is time the world caught on, got out of themselves and their old ways of thinking. It is time the online listening community embraced their artists instead of pushing them out the door to do and go elsewhere, it is a total insult to live online artists, to what they are giving and doing right now with their music.

(Many thanks to Marjorie, I couldn’t have said it any better than this...NANCE)