2020 may well go down in the history as the year that truly defined livestreaming from home as the huge platform it has become.

With everyone at home and concerts cancelled for the best part of the year, livestreaming has become a huge way for people to connect. Artists around the world have taken to streaming performances from home to their audiences at home to great success.

YouTube director of Black music and culture, Tuma Basa, has revealed just how huge live streams have become on YouTube alone this year. Speaking at Music Ally‘s Sandbox Summit Global online conference he shared the news that views of YouTube livestreams have grown 200% since the start of 2020.

Basa continued, revealing that 9 of the 10 most watched livestreams ever on YouTube have all happened this year. They talked about how popular a single livestream can be, using Japanese artist Reol’s stream as an example which made £130,000 thanks to YouTube’s monetisation features for streamers.

YouTube have now signed up huge Colombian musician Camilo for a live concert stream. It shows that YouTube sees the potential in these streamed performances enough that they aren’t just settling with hosting them, they’re now organising and paying for them to happen.

Outside of YouTube, many platforms have become a haven for artists in this difficult time. Artists can now list virtual concerts on Ticketmaster and Songkick to make their online gigs a ticketed event and Spotify have even started listing them on artist pages for listeners to discover.

The potential for livestreaming performances is of course incredibly resonant right now whilst we’re mostly unable to perform or attend concerts. But I envision this popularity lasting.

The ability for an artist to perform to audiences all over the world at the same time… The option for fans to see their favourite artists play from the comfort of their own homes, no matter how rural they are or where the nearest venues are? That’s a sure fire route to virtual success.