With much of the concert industry grinding to a halt due to coronavirus concerns, a Twitter search for the phrase “Couch Tour” offers reassurance that live music has already found one comfortable way to exist outside physical venues.
Over the last decade, the Couch Tour phenomenon—where fans join together online to experience performances in real time—has proven itself as both a business model and community builder.
Grown from the jam-band scene, where taping and trading have been part of the culture since the early 1970s, a small but expanding tech-music industry now supports a regular daily schedule of audio and video streams from performers stretching far past the jam-sphere.
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