How Important is Live Performance for Music Producers

This post is to generate some conversation about the importance or lack of importance for Music Producers to do Live Performances.  Often Music Producers may work alone as they build up their songs.  They may work with other musicians to build up their tracks, but, all too often the music creation process is a solitary endeavor for many EDM Producers.  Why would you want to get out of the studio to perform it live in front of other people?  Unless you are just making music for your own entertainment, the whole idea of producing original music is for other people to listen to it.  So, while you may create something that people may listen to in a playlist they create in Spotify, the best way to get feedback is to play it in a setting where other people are enjoying the music as you intended it to be.  In other words, a concert or a dance.  It is electronic DANCE music after all.  

Before you get stage fright and stop reading this post, let’s talk about we mean by Live Performances.  When talking about playing live the best way to look at it is you are sharing your music with others with you being there with them to interact with them.  In other words, a Live Performance doesn’t mean you have to “play live” it just means you are sharing your music with others in an interactive way.  You want to connect with the people you are sharing your music with to get some kind of feedback from them.  You are doing this to get feedback and too hopefully pick up a few fans because they can see that you are passionate about creating music.

A Live Performance needs the following ingredients.  It needs your music, it needs a place to share it, it needs an audience, it needs a way to interact and it needs most importantly “YOU”.  Keeping this in mind here are some ideas of ways to share our Music Productions with others as Live Performances. 

• Music:
  • Play it live.  If you are an EDM producer this means that you have formatted your music in sample loops that you can bring in via some type of controller like Ableton Live, Sonar Matrix, DJ Controllers, etc.
  • DJ it.  Play your songs as recording and treat your songs as a DJ would treat them.  Play them, add some effects if you want to better interact with your audience by taking cues from what you are noticing with the crowd.  Are they bored (add some effects to wake them up), are the energized (keep the tempo up and choose songs to keep them going), etc.
  • Deep Cut Plays.  Play your songs, but, have some kind of interaction going on with the crowd getting feedback where you are talking/chatting about the make up of the song, your inspirations for the song, music in general, etc.  This approach is a more cerebral approach to reaching out to your audience.  
• Venue
  • Physical places like a club, park, living room, etc.  This has been more challenging with the advent of social distancing, but, still an outdoor concert is not out of the question.  Think about what street musicians do with “busking”.  Do something similar at a park with a portable DJ setup.
  • Virtual Spaces.  We have blogged about this previously at Live Streaming Blog
    • Virtual World Clubs
    • Facebook Live
    • Youtube Live
    • Twitch
    • Stage It
    • Zoom
• Audience
  • This is the toughest.  You need to get people to come listen to you.  This means unless you have a huge group of friends this may be the hardest to do.  You need to spend time promoting.  A good rule of thumb is if you are going to play for an hour you should at least spend twice that amount of time promoting it.
    • Be sure to invite your friends
    • Join communities and be active in them.  Go see other artists play and be active interacting at their performances.  They may come see you play or at least feel guilty about not coming to see you …. lol.
• Interaction
  • Hopefully people are dancing or at least listening.  You will probably want to interact with them through voice if possible.  If it is virtual sometimes chat might be better for real interaction.  Various genres have unwritten rules about how much you interact although feel free to break them because you are doing this to PROMOTE YOURSELF!
  • It is always nice to give things a way to people that are attending to keep them engaged and also to garner some support.  Giving away some of your music or any kind of merchandise (real or virtual).  
  • Engage with your audience.  Don’t just talk about you and your songs.  Ask them about the kind of music they like.  Remember they are more important than you when it comes to a Live Performance.
•  You
  • Always approach it like this is the last time you will ever play your music live.  Give it your all.
  • Try to establish a “stage presence”.  What do you want people to remember about you?  
  • Be Friendly and Open.

If you are interested in sharing your music with Live Performances please reach out us at mymusicoasis@gmail.com  We are a group of creative people from various virtual worlds that focus on building venues, streaming, programming tools and promoting music producers, artists, and DJs that dare to “go Virt(u)al”.  Where U are the focus!