Liam Brook, musician
I'M a singer-songwriter with more than 16 years of experience and have found a strong passion for playing music in a somewhat unconventional way: streaming music live to an online audience on a platform called Twitch.
Set up as a means to stream video games, since the launch of Twitch people have found ways of pushing the boundaries to benefit their own craft, including art, graphic design, podcasts, travelling, and, of course, music.
One of the things I love about streaming is that someone who's just starting to learn an instrument can come into your stream and ask a simple question about how to get started, and I can give someone guidance or information based on my experience.
I was 12 or 13 when I was told about a local samba drumming group that was looking for members. I reluctantly went along and almost instantly fell in love. I progressed from Brazilian drums to a drum kit, then a bass guitar to electric guitar, until I got to the point now where I play around 17 instruments in some fashion.
I hadn't been playing live music for a considerable amount of time due to a back condition which required surgery in 2011. Then it struck me that it may be possible to use Twitch as a platform to still play music without potentially damaging my back.
One of the first biggest hurdles was having a good amount of songs to play. The audience have a lot of control over what happens during streams, and to keep people's attention you need to have an extensive list of songs available to be played at any given moment.
During streams I use bass, acoustic, and electric guitar, piano, synth, and a drum pad sampler. These are all used through a loop station so I can build entire songs on my own, live and quickly. I have songs which incorporate swing, pop, and even metal; all genres are explored.
Between songs you can answer comments or spark up a conversation with people on a more intimate level, whether you're talking about the song you're about to play and how it came to be written, or asking what they had for dinner. It's a more personal experience.
It's also entirely free for people to come to your channel and watch you play music, much like it's free to watch a busker. You can earn revenue from streaming, similar to busking, if they appreciate what you're doing.
I release music on Spotify, Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, and YouTube, and having an online presence to get people talking is great for business. I've already been able to travel to great places such as Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland because of Twitch. My Twitch community also raised $1,313 (£1,007) for the Movember charity.
The biggest audience during my time playing live events was an estimated 12,000 people. Twitch has an average concurrent viewership of 953,000 people. That's a worldwide audience at the click of a button.
I think doing gigs in person is amazing, but that said, Twitch music is only at the start of its life and I can't wait to see what opportunities come with playing on this platform.
Visit twitch.tv/rndmzd
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