Performing at Syncspace.Live

This information is for artists performing at the syncspace.live virtual venue as part of the concert series produced by syncspace.live.

For Sidepeople

If you’ve been asked by the leader of a gig to appear with them in a show at syncspace.live and you’ve never played on the platform before, here’s everything you need to know.

You do not need to be a subscriber to the platform to perform in a show at our virtual venue. Many leaders on gigs at our virtual venue do happen to be subscribers to the platform but if no one in the group is a subscriber, we’ll provide a syncscape for two weeks before the performance so the ensemble can rehearse.

Adrian Cho (syncspace.live founder and a musician) is happy to work directly with any professional artists onboarding onto syncspace.live. Please use the contact page to contact him by email or phone.

Getting Setup

You need a decent Mac, Windows, or Linux computer, a good Internet connection, an Ethernet cable to plug your computer directly into your Internet router, an audio interface, and a microphone, and a webcam (a cheap 1080p webcam from Amazon is often better than most webcams built into computers). More detail about requirements are here.

For professional artists, we want the experience to be as good as possible. If you are well setup it can be an amazing experience and you can play even very fast music together and even between cities. We regularly have bands appearing in our concert series with musicians spread between Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and even Antigonish.

Internet connection

99% of the professional players on syncspace.live who are in Ontario or Quebec are using Bell Fibe. You can read all about Bell Fibe here including details about a discount for switching to Bell Fibe.

If you have fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) provided by Bell Fibe you are already set. If you have any other connection, the first thing you’ll want to do is test to the closest servers listed on this page. For professional performances we ideally want people to be getting a network roundtrip latency of less than 10ms.

Audio interface

If you don’t already have an audio interface, the one we recommend is the M-Audio Air 192 | 4. These are $149 CAD from Amazon or Long & McQuade. These are preferred over the Focusrite Scarlett as they have more clean gain (helpful for quiet mics), large controls that are easy to quickly manipulate, and when used with a Mac they don’t require the installation of any software.

For Leaders

You do not need to be a subscriber to the platform to perform a gig at our virtual venue. If we engage you for a performance and you don’t already have a syncspace we will provide you one to rehearse in before the performance.

What We Need From You

If we’ve booked you for a date, here’s what we need in order to get tickets on sale and start promoting your show:

Show Name and Description

A list of the musicians. We need full names and the instrument(s) they will each be playing and links to musician’s websites. We also need photos (ideally at least 1920 x 1080) of each musician.
A one-line title for the show. Come up with something that is both engaging and descriptive.
A one-paragraph description of the show. Feel free to add additional paragraphs if you think they will help.

Promo Video

We want to create at least one promo video giving people an idea of what the show might be like. If you will be rehearsing for the show, connect with Adrian and we can record a session in syncspace and take a 60 second clip from that which we’ll post to YouTube and Facebook along with a link to the event which you can then share to your social media networks.

Show Format

Performance Location

Every performance needs to take place in a syncspace. That’s where you and your fellow performers will perform and where your broadcast engineer will broadcast the performance from. If you already have a syncspace for rehearsals for the performance then feel free to use that or let us know if you need one. Regardless, for the performance, we’ll usually supply coordinates to a dedicated syncspace.

Streaming Location

Each show will be streamed to an unlisted stream on YouTube as well as into our virtual venue. People can watch live or later in YouTube or live in the venue..

Duration and Number of Sets

All shows are a single set typically between 60 and 75 minutes.

Pre-Show

We open the stream fifteen minutes early so people have a chance to test their audio and video. We normally run a countdown timer during this time so that people know when the show will start and those joining during the pre-show don’t get worried that we already started.

Show-Time

Audience Interaction

One major selling point of this format is that the audience can interact live with the artists. We encourage the audience to watch the show live and to post in the livechat and even to post questions to the musicians.

We recommend that you do not try to read the livechat during the show. Let Adrian scan it for you and if there’s anything important he’ll let you know. Usually if there’s a comment we want to highlight and discuss with the audience, Adrian will put it up on the screen for everyone to see as he announces it. However, if you feel comfortable reading the livechat and dealing with it yourself, that’s fine too!

On-Screen Elements

We have the ability to throw text, graphics, or even run video clips on screen or picture-in-picture. Usually we use the titling to help with the introduction of the musicians and we can also show song titles if you want. If there’s anything else you want up there, just let us know.

We are also able to show looping video backgrounds behind the video feeds of the band. Consider this to be somewhat like lighting on stage. It can sometimes help to add something to the visuals.

Post-Show

At the end of the show Adrian will come on screen to say thanks to you and let people know about the next show. We’ll then run some kind of credits. Let us know if there’s anything you to show during the credits.

Finances

Tickets

Standard ticket prices are currently $19 but this flexible and up to you and Adrian to figure out.

Tips are a big part of the take and typically account for between 35 – 40% of the total take for each show.

All tickets are sold from syncspace.live and GST/HST is applied for Canadian residents.

Tips

Every event page will have a link to pay tips. There are no taxes for tips.

Payouts

There are no hidden fees. The payout is simply the total revenue from all ticket sales after credit card processing fees and any taxes. As payment processing fees can vary depending on how people pay, we calculate fees at a flat 6%.

The venue takes an equal share of all tickets and tips based on the number of performers but this is capped at 25%. For example, if there are four musicians the venue will take a 20% share as if it were a fifth musician. If it’s a trio, the venue takes 25%. However if it’s a duo, the venue still only takes 25%.

Unlike some brick and mortar venues, we have no minimum fee and nothing for you to pay up front. For performers there’s basically no downside and tons of upside with no limit on audience capacity and a potential global audience. This means we share equally in the risk and reward. This also motivates everyone to work hard at promoting an event.

Audiences can buy tickets and tip for a show for up to one week after the live broadcast after which we close down all ticket sales and tips for that show.

We will then payout as follows:

For duo gigs, we’ll pay both performers each from the payout.
For trios and larger, we’ll send the payout to the leader.

Subscription Fee Refunds

If the leader of a performance is a syncspace.live Professional Artist subscriber, we will refund their monthly subscription fee in full.

For duo gigs, we refund 50% of the monthly subscription fee for whichever musicians are Professional Artist subscribers.

Refunds will take place after subscription fees for that month have been charged.