online show platform

November 12, 2020 12:55 PM

I'm in the very early stages of planning a show for these strange times - meaning it will be online only. I'd like to emulate a little bit of the "event" quality that live shows have, in the vein of a watch party.

What are the best platforms to put such a show out into the world? I feel like the options have exploded over the past year and I am way out of touch with what's out there.

In the most ideal of scenarios, it would be possible to:

- pre-record the show rather than livestream
- sell tickets/charge for entry
- react/see others' reactions in real time.
- accommodate an audience of approx 1000 without crashing

As this is in the preliminary planning stages, the format may change to several shorter episodes vs a one-time longer show, in case that informs any recommendations. It may also take the form of one or two shorter episodes released for free, with subsequent episodes being paid content.

posted by lizifer to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Best answer: I recently streamed a show via Zoom; the show itself was preproduced, but it was "appointment viewing" -- i.e., you had to be there at the specified time to watch it, along with everyone else watching it. I was going to do it via YouTube Live, but ran into some last-minute tech snags that got in the way. However, I plan to rebroadcast the show at some point via YouTube Live. The problem with Zoom is that, unless you pay a significant fee, you'll only be able to accommodate 100 people, and the event will end after 40 minutes.

I have watched a few live music shows this year via YouTube Live, one of which required a paid ticket to access. It seems like a good platform for this sort of thing. There's a chat window below the video window on a YouTube Live page, so there's an opportunity for real-time reactions from viewers.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 1:03 PM on November 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

These two things seem incompatible:

pre-record the show rather than livestream
react/see others' reactions in real time.

Am I missing something?
posted by nosila at 1:27 PM on November 12, 2020

Check out what Second City is doing -- they were early to Zoom shows. Audience participation/reactions/chatting is via Zoom chat (maybe fb too, not sure), and was so-so as an audience member.
posted by amtho at 1:28 PM on November 12, 2020

I “attended” a Mountain Goats show via Noonchorus. It was pre-recorded and became available for 48 hours or so. People watching it when it first premiered had access to a live chat alongside the concert, but I didn’t look at that bit. If you were using this and it was pre-recorded you could join in the chat & it could be fun, even if you couldn’t take requests. Living in New Zealand I’m overjoyed at the opportunity to buy tickets to acts that rarely make it over here. I also watched Nick Cave’s “live/prerecorded” show but that one got absolutely overwhelmed by its own audience traffic because it was “on” at a particular time.
posted by slightlybewildered at 2:06 PM on November 12, 2020

Response by poster: To clarify: being able to see reactions would be during the broadcast of the pre-recorded show. Seeing how others are reacting feels less isolated than watching a video alone at home.
posted by lizifer at 3:29 PM on November 12, 2020

I went to a workshop about putting events on online and they said that eventbrite.com worked well for ticketing.

It sounds like you'd want to do a Zoom webinar if you need to accommodate 1000 people and want to record, but hooooo boy, that's a lot of money.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:23 PM on November 12, 2020

Best answer: As far as liveness/low barrier to entry, Youtube with live chat honestly seems like the best option. You could have it unlisted and only send the link to folks who've purchased a ticket?
posted by stray at 8:33 AM on November 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You could host 1000 people on a BigMarker webinar on a monthly plan for significantly less than Zoom's annual fee, sell tickets, and air the pre-recording while participating in the live chat. That's basically what we're doing with our weekly L.A. history webinars, though we're going live with some prerecorded content that we interact with.
posted by Scram at 8:37 PM on November 14, 2020