Traffic, work or plain old laziness — there’s always an excuse for not making the effort to go watch that music performance you’ve wanted to attend in the city. But those could start thinning now, with the advent of live streaming from venues. While international music festivals like Coachella and Glastonbury have recently offered live online streaming options for people who can’t make it to the festivals in person, venues in the city are picking up on the trend.
Supriya Lahoti, who manages a cafe in the city that organises weekly musical performances, says that live streaming their events has garnered much appreciation. “Technology’s made it really easy, so you can set it up without any hassle. We’ve had people from the UK watching the performances and the response has been quite good! It’s exciting to know that someone sitting in a different country or city can watch your events,” she says.
Adds Sanjay Batla, a restaurateur and event organiser, “For any event, people want to watch it live and if they can’t be there for it, this is how they can. It does certainly help the venue as well, especially when there’s anything new in the city. It helps get people of similar interests together so that’s a nice thing.” But what really adds value to streaming events is the fact that it helps promote artistes, and not just venues and events themselves. Teja Prasad, a music event promoter says, “Suppose there’s a new talent or a relatively unknown artiste performing at a venue, people won’t know about him or her unless they go online and research about them. They won’t want to travel so much for a band or performer they’ve never heard of. So this adds publicity for the bands,as well as the venues as well.”
And the technology could be seen at many more venues in the city as well. Says Gris Acharya, who manages a bar in the city where musical performances are held regularly, “Sure, why not? Live streaming will help promote not just the artistes but the music scene in Hyderabad as well. People will be able to see that there are actually venues where live bands are playing. That can be done easily.” as well as the venues as well.”
