Garth Brooks Live Stream Concert Tonight – When is Yours?

Watch on Facebook for the Garth Brooks live stream concert tonight.  And if you’re an indie musician, take notes.  After all, if you haven’t already started, you should be live streaming too.  A lot.

Will you pull in the massive audience that he and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, are likely to attract?  Of course not.  However, that’s not only an apples to oranges comparison because he can perform in a football stadium whereas you’re doing shows at smaller venues, but there are different intents.  Brooks is likely doing this as a goodwill gesture.  During this pandemic, people need something like that as a temporary mental escape.

You, on the other hand, should be live streaming to get some cash coming in.

While it’s true that just yesterday I saw an indie musician posting on social media about the overwhelming number of their colleagues who are doing it, consider the alternative.  You can go get hired at the local supermarket, since they’re one of the few places admittedly taking on new employees to keep up with all the panic shopping.  But then you’re going to fall even further away from your music career.

The phrase “out of sight, out of mind” might never have been more applicable than here and now.

I’m thrilled to already be seeing many past guests that I’ve had on “Now Hear This Entertainment” doing live streams.  Posts about such have been put on social media from the likes of Nicholas Wells (Episode 204), Grace Pettis (NHTE 280), Jackie Venson (NHTE 126), Jessica Meuse (NHTE 263), Alisan Porter (NHTE 316), and Hope Cassity (NHTE 258 and NHTE 13), to name just a few.

But are you doing it too, and, are you doing it regularly or was it just a one-time thing?

Here’s the upside.  Do it five nights a week.  Proceed like it’s your job you’re going to, not unlike if you were leaving to go play a gig.  Throughout the live stream promote the music you have for sale (directing people to the spot where you stand to make the most, meaning, not Spotify), promote merchandise you have for sale, and tell people how they can tip you electronically (PayPal, Venmo, CashApp, etc.).

I also strongly suggest you don’t charge people something up front to access it.  Consider that Garth Brooks is doing it for free when he probably could charge – almost any amount he wanted.  And before you tell me, “He’s Garth Brooks – he doesn’t need the money,” go back up a couple paragraphs to the handful of past NHTE guests I referred to and know that they’re all not charging up front and so lots more like them aren’t either.  Which do you think the public is going to gravitate towards more?

Keep in mind too that there are LOTS of streaming platforms out there, from Facebook Live to YouTube Live to Instagram Live to Periscope to StageIt.com and still others.

I’m going to practice what I’m preaching here and very soon you will see an announcement coming on Now Hear This social media about something in line with what you’ve just read about above.

[REMINDER: I am also still offering a 50% discount on the eBook series in order to help musicians use this downtime to invest more time into growing their career that way, when there aren’t the demands of live shows to go perform at night after night.  Click here for more details and the coupon code.  The offer is only good for the remainder of March.]

Talk about this blog with other indie musicians, past NHTE guests, and more in our Facebook group!