Nothing Quite Like The Real Thing

Picture this. You’re at home, inside an Internet café, or library laced with WiFi, and you hear – through an email notification, an IM, etc. – that there’s a concert going on someplace. It’d be great if you could see it live. But you can’t, for a myriad of reasons. Would you then opt for a virtual sit-in of sorts?

Some businesses, many of which sprouted due to the success of the Web experiment that placed the worldwide Live 8 music festival in front of the eyes of computer users in 2004 (5 million sets of eyes, according to AOL’s estimates; AOL provided the outlet for the Live 8 stream), believe you would.

I don’t.

I do admit, there is something really wonderful about getting hold of a live stream of a live musical performance, particularly when a visual element is added to the blend. Though it must have been a gruesome experience for many people to sit through repeated buffers of the Live 8 festival on their desktops and laptops, straining to enjoy pixilated footage constrained to a small three- to four-square-inch window, it must also have been captivating all the same for some to travel through a real-time sequence of concerts held ‘round the world.

Live 8 was an exception, however. I see entities like ManiaTV and Linden Lab’s Second Life trying to grow virtual viewerships of streaming concerts following the Live 8-AOL one hit wonder speculate as to when they’ll realize their efforts are wasted. The reason they’re wasted: webcast concerts are at best tolerable.

Concerts – the truly live variety – are popular because they offer an experience CDs, DVD, and digital downloads cannot. The instrumental improvisations; the greetings from the stage(s) to the masses on the grounds (and in the grandstands); the feel of low frequencies through the body; the temporary (and sometimes permanent) deafness that befalls the listener after an hour or more of sonic excess; the face-to-face “social networking”. All of these benefits are what command ticket prices which are often greater than the performers’ already-recorded material.

With webcast concerts, what of the above is offered? Little, really. They’re certainly alternatives that some people appreciate for being around, but given the option, most anyone would rather journey over to a concert hall or arena to see a performance first hand. And that is because live performances have no parallel.

The managers of Second Life may arrange as many virtual concerts as they wish, and companies like ManiaTV can stream performances all they want. None such efforts will prove worthwhile, for anyone involved. As “connected” as the MySpace generation is, and as invested in virtual worlds as online gamers are (think World of Warcraft), there’s no escaping the fact that concerts today are successful events for the same reason the concerts of yesterday were successful events: They’re the only venues in which Average Joe and Average Jane can get relatively up close and personal with their favorite artists.