The Problem with Music Live Stream

#10

Yeah I remember the feeling of community around chats too, these days I just feel so jaded when I see the comments cascading down. It’s be cool if streaming DJs could make it more of a show, or at least a visually pleasing thing rather than them alone at home or at the decks with the same clones surrounding. Feels vacant.

#11

i think the best guys to do this yet are Open Pit, who have done a trilogy of virtual music festivals on their Minecraft server, earliest being two years ago. somewhat big names have played (100 gecs & a.g. cook come to mind, charlie xcx even appeared during the a.g. set) and its not only the obv audio componet but the whole virtual visual camp grounds, simulating actual stages and art exhibits. and i have “been” at all three of them, and i kinda love it but, my two major problems was

  1. wasnt my kind of music. most of the festivals was full of memey mashups and crazy fluffy bubblegum bass and happy hardcore, and while im friends with some djs and staff there, and i dig the very queer and very colorful aesthetics (and even more so the money they have raised for queer support non-profits), i hate that this is the only kind of music tied to it usually, as a transfem queer myself. but ofc this is just my own taste, im glad they happy with their music, and im sure someone else can make an industrial techno and dnb festival in minecraft in the same vein :stuck_out_tongue:
  2. i still feel a nagging isolation with this somewhat. like i still cant convince myself im at a real festival when im moving myself using my hands pressing buttons and clicking things inside my room, and i can obv see outside the screen area. maybe once i get a vr headset and try minecraft with that this wears off, but even then, i couldnt like, cuddle with a friend there rlly? so idk
  3. the noisey article i linked warned about video game companies and major labels and other brands looking at this community run nonprofit event and making a corperate soulless version of it, and not long after fire fest, marshmello did his infamous “performance” in fortnite, heavly promoted by epic games with official marshmello digital merch for sale. and now that is leading to this

jfc

#12

Really interesting to hear about the Minecraft festival. While I do not play the game, the concept itself is intriguing. The experience of course would be more immersive if we had a slightly more advanced VR technology. I believe what we have right now still has limitations in terms of realism and the seasickness it causes.

It seems that Marshmallow is really involved in terms of doing ‘virtual’ events. I always see his name pop up.

It would be interesting if virtual social games would pop up again since we’re all sitting at home. Like a place you can go to just to meet and talk to people. I think that would definitely be interesting right now.

#13

Another person that is doing it right in this moment, for me, is Erykah Badu. She’s done two concerts from home, the second tonight, and fans can vote on songs, what room she should move to, which bands she should play with, etc. She also has friends and family doing jokes or magic between songs. It’s obviously been a massive undertaking for her to mobilize this within a week of everyone losing their gigs and being put on lockdown. But of course shes the Queen…

Here’s a link to a behind the scenes she shot that gives insight to what it took to pull off. The first concert cost $1, the second $2. She’s pioneering a new post-Corona model for artists to connect directly with fans by providing real, intimate value and connection. No promoters, venues, labels or festivals. It’s possible, when you get to a level like she’s on. And possibly on other levels too, as I hope we’ll see in the coming months and years…

https://vimeo.com/404349057

#14

literally a day after i posted all that, open pit announced a new event, and this lineup, omg

#15

Great topics. Obviously the viability of some of this stuff is being tested heavily at the moment. i have been having the same thoughts, here’s where i’m at:

  • Not interesting: listening to a “radio show” where someone pre-records the mix and sends it to the station. it’s not live, and i might as well just listen to the recording on my own time.

  • Not interesting someone pointing their cameras at their decks and going at it. (agree w/ @spiro )

  • Yes Interesting: someone getting on the microphone, getting in the chat, and selecting and mixing records live and talking about them. Mixing Mistakes, people coming and going in the room, people in chat influencing the discussion etc. That’s what’s exciting about traditional/pirate radio and that’s what’s exciting today. (sounds like what Questlove is doing and @nickecks is backing)

  • Not interesting: archiving/recordings. I wish these radio stations wouldn’t bother archiving. We don’t need these mountains and mountains of recordings. Who cares. Electrifying Mojo created this whole shit and there like a handful of recordings of that. We don’t need 70TB and 300 hours of a regional house DJ – nobody is listening. Tune in live or you miss it.

similar discussion here:

#16

Not interesting: archiving/recordings. I wish these radio stations wouldn’t bother archiving. We don’t need these mountains and mountains of recordings. Who cares. Electrifying Mojo created this whole shit and there like a handful of recordings of that. We don’t need 70TB and 300 hours of a regional house DJ – nobody is listening. Tune in live or you miss it.

I can’t really agree with this, there are quite a few sets, mainly from rinse but also other random stations, I used to rinse (ha) that I wish I could go back and listen to from like '07-'13 that seem to have just disappeared off the internet. This was before Soundcloud/Mixcloud had taken off and filled the gap so they were just uploading mp3’s to their site

Actually just went looking for one I would play constantly for months and found it, I would hate to not have this available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5sPoIP2-7M

#17

Mat Dryhurst’s take made me lol

#18

yeah agreed, the archive is one of the better things for me as well. i mean even fisheye lens camera at decks and radio shows are amazing if the content is good. all that matters is the music or the story/show/new use of the medium that is now our new normal. lots of people are going to suck at it, and they should be ridiculed.

#19

resident advisor just launched a listings page for live streams here: https://www.residentadvisor.net/events/streamland

#20

Holy shit that’s interesting. It will be crazy to see the scene get flattened like this temporarily. It seems like clubs (like Nowadays NYC), radio stations (Rinse), charities, etc are positioning themselves as platforms and booking DJ’s, but for the first time they’re all in the same list.

#21

woah. yeah thats crazy. the new normal, everybody is boiler room.

#22

With all this garbage being thrown at us at the same time, why don’t they do another Redbull Academy type content since that stopped and many people liked it? I’m sure we’re all sick of seeing the same DJs DJ for an hour in front of a camera. I would really love to hear some of the stories of how people got into music and where they are today specially from the newer generations.

#23

Totally, let’s get some lore and stories rather than just “here’s what I put together this morning, I’m stressed you’re stressed let’s heal”

#24

I already feel overwhelmed with the amount of livestreams to choose from. I think people in this and the radio thread have made a really good point in that the ones that stick out the most are where it feels live and in the moment and there’s some sort of dialogue between people at home and the person doing the stream. The Badu thing was great in that it had the feel of a private concert round her house, but it’s difficult for everyone to get this atmosphere.

I could really take or leave a webcam pointed at some decks with someone bopping behind it, at this point.

#25

@nickecks @spceboi

Willie Burns has you covered on the interviews front. For me, has been a perfect compliment to the RBMA archives and the timing could not be better:

Edit: and the parallels between the discussion points between willie and his guests and the “scene is not worth saving” thread is insane. they are having the same discussion; that basically a real scene revolves around IRL social networks and relationships and networks or promoters, peoples houses to stay at, record stores, etc.

#26

To me, I think this might be the actual issue. It’s more of a content overload issue in general. Livestreams exacerbate it because they are low effort compared to composing an album or recording a mix, posting it with art and a description, etc. Like @spceboi alluded to here:

Livestreams (and the recordings thereof) allow people to dumptruck hours and hours and hours of mostly meaningless reconfigurations of the same tunes onto the internet with very little resistance. It’s exhausting.

There feels like there is a threshold of how many releases, mixes, and livestreams a person can be expected to keep track of much less actually listen to/consume. IMO we are WAY beyond that threshold at the moment.

#27

Anyone care to enlighten an old man, what a boiler room set really means these days?
First time I heard it, I just guessed it meant just that. A set played on shitty gear in the middle of the party where you where at. (an old boiler room) Guess it speaks for being too old, but thats how I remember most good parties, either behind the decks or blazing in the corner . . .

Now boiler room points to a brand?
(mainly the one popping up everywhere with the lame logo?)

#28

Yeah, basically. Started off as a loose group of friends in tiny club spaces/rehearsal rooms/etc in London just doing it for fun with a webcam pointed at it, and got moulded into an international brand with a huge Youtube presence that is present at pretty much every festival nowadays.

#29

the other day i streamed a set over silent footage from the first bionicle movie for a local collective and it was just rlly fun! get abt twenty ppl watching on twitch & u can have a nice little chat, i recommend it