Five Thoughts on Live Webcasting (and Soulja Boy)

Soulja Boy is certainly now etched into the history of the internet for sparking a “viral” video phenomanon with his little dance and he continues to be a viable recording artist and live performer.

Like a few other web pioneers (i.e. Snoop Dogg), Soulja Boy has been doing some live webcasting and is all amped up about having made the switch from the increasingly obscure justin.tv to the surging UStream.tv

Now, this is all well and good, but why are all of these celebrities wasting such a valuable opportunity on such terrible content?  Sure, it’s kinda fun to wake-n-bake with Snoop but the numbers don’t lie and neither Snoop nor Soulja seem to be attracting more than a couple hundred viewers for each live session.

This would be surprising until you see that there is nothing compelling about the content and even super-fans are quickly losing interest.

So, here are a few ideas for Soulja Boy, Snoop Dogg and any other celeb looking to really maximize live webcasting:

1) Get a decent webcam.  Honestly, there is no reason to look like a low-rent camgirl.

2) Have a real reason to go live.  Let your fans know that you’ll be singing parts of a new song or sharing some never-before-seen picture of you as a little kid.  Anything, really, that makes the live webcast an event.  It’s nice for it to be a small thing, geared toward super-fans but they need a reason to turn up.

3) If you are going to be live, engage your audience.  Answer questions.  Even better, ask questions.

4) Tell your fans that you will be calling one live viewer during your webcast.  They’ve got to be viewing you to be chosen.

5) Play some music live.  Seriously, you’re musicians, right?

Ashton, Snoop and Other Stars Hot on Live Webcasting. Why?

This has been a big year for live webcasts and especially for UStream, a site that seems to have a dominant position at the moment.

Live webcast’s big moment came late last year with the sensation that was the Shiba Inu Puppy Cam.  Tens of thousands of people were tuned in at any given moment to the six little puppies and it is thought that the total number of viewers was over 20 million.  Not bad for some puppies.

Now, it seems, live webcasting is moving beyond puppies and live camgirls to include a growing number of celebrities.  I’ve already discussed Snoop Dogg’s “Wake-n-Bake” show and Kevin Pollack’s chatter and now comes word that web-happy celeb Ashton “1 Million Followers” Kutcher has plans to do a live version of his chestnut “Punk’d” for UStream.

The question is, why this new interest in live webcasting?  It is hard enough to drum up an audience for an original webseries without the added pressure of forcing people to tune in at a specific time.  Even network TV is finding a drop in appointment viewing.

My minimal research (checking out each show a couple of times) indicates that only a few hundred people are interested in either Snoop or Pollack when they are live.  It will be interesting to see if Ashton has the kind of pull needed to make a live show a true hit on UStream or if the only thing we really want is more puppies.

Smoke a Blunt with Snoop Dogg on UStream

As far as I’m concerned, the internet is the gift that keeps on giving.  Today’s gift comes in the form of Snoop Dogg’s incredibly lo-fi new live webshow that I think he is calling “Wake and Bake with Snoop Dogg.”

The, um, show, streams live most late-mornings (West Coast time) and tends to feature Snoop sitting in front of his webcam listening to hiphop and smoking blunts.  Sometimes he sings along.  Sometimes he just nods his head and smokes.  At any given moment it appears that 300-600 people are enjoying the vibe with him.

Sure, this is a far cry from that average 30,000 viewers that were watching the Shiba Inu Puppy Cam last year but when else in history could one be given such a wealth of viewing options?!

Check out Snoop live for yourself:

Online video chat by Ustream

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Take Shrooms with Josh Freese (and get his album)

While the record labels struggle to figure out how to make money selling music that is increasingly freely available, the actual artists making the music have figured out that the real value to fans extends way beyond what they can load onto their iPod.

Josh Freese, a wunderkind drummer of The Vandals, Devo, NIN and a host of other bands, has released a solo album and put together an impressive lineup of ways his fans can both support and interact directly with him.  From $50 for a five-minute phonecall to $75,000 to have Josh join your band, take drugs with you and basically rock your world.

Here is the whole list of offerings (via):

$7

• Digital download of Since 1972, including 3 videos

$15

• CD/DVD double-disc set
• Digital download

$50

• CD/DVD double-disc set
• T-shirt
• “Thank you” phone call from Josh for buying Since 1972. You can tell him what you like about the record that you purchased, or what you thought sucked. Ask whatever you want, like “Is Maynard really THAT weird?” or “Which one of Sting’s mansions has the comfiest beds?” or “Are Devo really suburban robots that monitor reality or just a bunch of dads from Ohio?” or “Why don’t the Vandals play more stuff off the first record?” It’s your 5 minutes to yack it up. Talk about whatever you want.

$250 (limited edition of 25)

• Signed CD/DVD and digital download
• T-shirt
• Signed drum head and drumsticks
• Go on a lunch date with Josh to PF Changs or The Cheesecake Factory (whatever you’re into)

$500 (limited edition of 15)

• Signed CD/DVD and digital download
• T-shirt
• Signed cymbal and sticks
• Meet Josh in Venice, Calif., and go floating together in a sensory-deprivation tank (to be filmed and posted on YouTube)
• Dinner at Sizzler (get your $8.99 steak and “all you can eat” shrimp on)

$1,000 (limited edition of 10)

• Signed CD/DVD and digital download
• T-shirt
• Signed cymbal, drum head and drumsticks
• Josh washes your car OR does your laundry … or you can wash his car
• Have dinner with Josh aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif.
• Get drunk and cut each other’s hair in the parking lot of the Long Beach courthouse (filmed and posted on YouTube, of course)

$2,500 (limited edition of 5)

• Signed CD/DVD and digital download
• Get a private drum lesson with Josh, or for all you non-drummers, have him give you a back and foot massage (couples welcome)
• Pick any 1 member of the Vandals or Devo (subject to availability) to accompany you and Josh to either the Hollywood Wax Museum or the lunch buffet at the Spearmint Rhino
• Signed DW snare drum
• Take 3 items of your choice out of his closet (first come, first serve)
• Change diapers and make bottles with him for an afternoon (after hitting the strip club)

$5,000 (limited edition of 3)

• Signed CD/DVD and digital download
• T-shirt
• Josh writes a song about you and makes it available on iTunes
• Co-direct a video with him for the song about you and throw it up on the YouTubes
• Josh gives you and a friend a private tour of Disneyland
• Get drunk together. If you don’t drink, we can go to my dad’s place and hang out under the “Tuba tree”
• Stone Gossard from Pearl Jam will send you a letter telling you about his favorite song on Since 1972

$10,000 (limited edition of 1)

• Signed CD/DVD and digital download
• T-shirt
• Signed DW snare drum from A Perfect Circle’s 2003 tour
• Josh gives you a private drum lesson OR his and hers foot/back massage (couples welcome, discreet parking)
• Twiggy from Marilyn Manson’s band and Josh take you and a guest to Roscoe’s Chicken ‘n’ Waffles in Long Beach for dinner
• Josh takes you and a guest to Club 33 (the super-duper exclusive and private restaurant at Disneyland located above Pirates of the Caribbean) and then hit a couple rides afterward (preferably the Tiki Room, the Haunted Mansion and Tower of Terror)
• At the end of the day at Disneyland, drive away in Josh’s Volvo station wagon. It’s all yours … take it. Just drop him off on your way home, though, please.

$20,000 (limited edition of 1)

• Signed CD/DVD and digital download
• T-shirt
• A signed drum from the 2008 Nine Inch Nails tour
• Maynard James Keenan, Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo and Josh take you miniature golfing and then drop you off on the side of the freeway (all filmed and posted on YouTube)
• Josh gives you a tour of Long Beach. See his first apartment, the coffee shop on 2nd Street where his buddy paid Dave Grohl $40 to rip up tile just weeks before joining Nirvana. See the old Vandals rehearsal spot, the liquor store he got busted at using a Fake ID when he was 17 (it was Dave from the Vandals’ old ID). Go check out Snoop Dogg’s high school. For an extra 50 bucks see where Tom and Adrian from No Doubt live. For another $25 he’ll show ya where Eric from NOFX and Brooks from Bad Religion get their hair cut.
• Spend the night aboard the Queen Mary and take the “Ghosts and Legends” tour. (Separate rooms … no spooning.)
• Josh writes 2 songs about you and both are made available on iTunes and appear on his next record (you can sing back up on ‘em, clap, play the drums, triangle, whatever)
• Drum lesson OR foot and back massage (once again … couples welcome and discreet parking available)
• Pick any 3 items out of Josh’s closet

$75,000 (limited edition of 1)

• Signed CD/DVD and digital download
• T-shirt
• Go on tour with Josh for a few days
• Have Josh write, record and release a 5-song EP about you and your life story
• Take home any of his drum sets (only one, but you can choose which one)
• Take shrooms and cruise Hollywood in Danny from Tool’s Lamborghini OR play quarters and then hop on the Ouija board for a while
• Josh will join your band for a month … play shows, record, party with groupies, etc.
• If you don’t have a band he’ll be your personal assistant for a month (4-day work weeks, 10 am to 4 pm)
• Take a limo down to Tijuana and he’ll show you how it’s done (what that means exactly we can’t legally get into here)
• If you don’t live in Southern California (but are a U.S. resident) he’ll come to you and be your personal assistant/cabana boy for 2 weeks
• Take a flying trapeze lesson with Josh and Robin from NIN, go back to Robins place afterwards and his wife will make you raw lasagna

If Josh sells out of his “limited edition” offerings he will bank $156,250 – not bad for a first solo album…

LINK

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