A band called RedBoxBlue calls itself "the first band in the world to stream gigs live from their Facebook page." The technology to do this has been around for a while, and other bands have appeared live on MySpace, but their claim to be the first to stream a show on Facebook appears to be accurate.
New shows are scheduled to appear on the band’s Facebook and MySpace pages for the five days starting Wednesday. The band webcasts each day at live 8pm London time (3pm EST), but whenever you tune in, you’ll see their latest performance.
Thursday’s video begins with dead air from an undisclosed location in London that looks like a band’s studio. Watching it initially feels like you’re watching a 24-hour webcast, in which human characters may or may not appear. But then, after about two minutes, the band shows up and starts playing the first song in the 22-minute webcast.
RedBoxBlue’s songs are decent enough in a retro sort of way, andwell-performed. They only used one camera, but someone is panning andzooming it — otherwise, viewing it would probably feel like watching a band perform for closed-circuit television.
This was accomplished with the help of KyteTV, a video webcasterthat specializes in streaming video to social networks and mobilephones. The site has produced streams for 50 Cent and other artists, although those didn’t appear on Facebook.
RedBoxBlue’s shows are viewable on the band’s Facebook page each day this week. If watching it converts you into a fan, you can embed the video player app for the band’s "Five Nights on Facebook" tour on your own Facebook page, so visitors can watch new shows as they appear.
The audio quality and video framerate aren’t that great, but that’shardly the point. As the technology for live video streaming continuesto improve, and advertisers look for new sponsorship opportunities, I expect to see a lot more bands to stream shows on Facebook and everywhere else.
Update: Here’s the latest video:
