In the age of digital streaming, don’t forget about the importance of live music.

Perhaps most notably, the 1969 music festival “Woodstock” featured more than 160 artists and had over 500,000 attendees. In the mid 20th century, live performances, vinyl records and word-of-mouth were the primary methods of discovering new music artists. Woodstock set the bar for what live music can do and how it can influence society.

Since then, digital streaming has taken over much of the musical world.

The Internet has modernized the live music field; fans of big artists wait in queues for varying amounts of time, and once they reach the checkout screen, are finally able to buy tickets in just seconds. Eager fans rush onto Ticketmaster and Seatgeek for presales of their favorite artists with ticket prices ranging dramatically.

This exciting chase, however, calls into question the careers of up-and-coming artists who still linger in the early stages of stardom. Ticket sales for up-and-comers are, by no means, guaranteed.

At the Community School of Davidson (CSD), some student musicians like Mary Anne Byrd (‘26) believe that digital streaming services create a pathway for artists to be recognized. Whether the obstacles are financial or geographical, digital streaming can be a lot easier to access than live performances. However, live performances create a connection with audiences in ways that digital recordings of their music cannot.

“It’s hard to have reputations like that [of performing at larger venues] without streaming services,” Mary Anne Byrd said. “But for people that are huge fans of bands there’s nothing like hearing them live.”

Even at small schools like CSD, live music has a place. CSD has an annual “Open Mic Night” where students sign up to showcase their passion, hobby or talent for singing and/or playing musical instruments.

This year, attendance for the fall event reached a peak that it hasn’t reached for years.

Jen Chaffman, CSD Media Productions teacher and organizer of the “Open Mic Night,” emphasizes the importance of support and connectedness that comes with these smaller, more intimate live performances.

“[CSD supports] any event that finds a way to bring people together and helps kids find their niche,” Jen Chaffman said. “At the open mics particularly, I’ve never seen a more supportive group. When you come to them, it doesn’t matter who’s performing or how they sound, everybody is there and they’re all in and they’re listening and they cheer them on no matter what. It’s a really low stakes way for kids who might want to perform but are afraid to perform to get to do it without having to audition for it. I don’t think anything could beat that.”

Chaffman believes that though live music holds its own unique place in the musical world, it can work well together with streamable music.

“There’s nothing like when a performer talks to the crowd. I don’t think streaming music can replace that, but I think that they can work really well together [because] having access to more music to hear would probably make you want to go see artists in person that you might not have ever known existed before,” Chaffman said.

A February 2024 article by Neuroscience News’ Rita Ziegler attributes this appeal to the brain’s emotional response to live music. The study discussed in the article, performed by the University of Zurich, measured the brain’s responses to live music in comparison to recorded tracks of the same songs.

The study gathered that live music is drastically more stimulating to the affective and cognitive parts of the brain, and that these results cannot be replicated by recorded music. Sometimes, live recordings of songs are released on various streaming services. This allows listeners to listen to either the studio or live recordings, or even both.

All forms of music have forever acted as a universal language that has united many, having appeals that go far beyond simply listening.

A January 2024 article by the University of Michigan’s Journal of Economics attributes the downfall of physical media in the music industry to the rise of these mass-streaming companies. They say that the sales of live music are quickly declining for music artists of any popularity. For the last decade on Spotify, each stream of a song has paid artists between $0.003 and $0.005 cents.

Although many musicians retain the notion that live music yields happiness that can bring people together, their positions sometimes differ when it comes to the future of the streaming versus live music worlds. Some of them think that fans of live music are declining as more of them navigate towards digital streamers. Others, like James Randolph, Berklee College of Music Student Musician from Mooresville, NC, believe that discovering an artist digitally ultimately benefits their live turnout.

“Streaming has made it incredibly easy to find new artists, which upon listening to them, might influence one to buy a concert ticket,” James Randolph said. “The purpose will only grow stronger as these live shows can provide much-needed breathing room between all of the digital media happening around us.”

Byrd agrees with this perspective, and promotes the idea that digital streaming not only gets artist’s names known but also contributes to the genuinity that live music performances have.

“All of these platforms are incredible resources for not only getting your name out there and getting signed in some industries, but it gives everyone an opportunity to enjoy your music,” Byrd said. “I think that just makes live music feel so much more real, and so much more authentic. When you hear it live, it becomes a whole new ballgame.”

A decade after Woodstock, both Band Aid in 1984 and Live Aid in 1985 raised awareness about the famine in Ethiopia that took place in the mid-80’s. These concerts raised funds and awareness and were packed with famous artists of the time, which resulted in a high turnout and raised about $150 million.

Similarly, following the 2024 devastation of Hurricane Helene, whose impact was even felt near the Community School of Davidson, the Concert for Carolina held at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC, on October 26, 2024, garnered almost $25 million towards Hurricane Helene relief for western NC. More than 82,000 attended while millions streamed the event live globally.

“I really hope that live shows will remain a special, almost sacred way of immersing yourself in music to the fullest extent,” Randolph said.

Despite the varying anticipations of the future of live music, the distinction between digital recordings and live music still remains clear. Live music performances provide emotional, connective experiences that can be transformative for both the artists and their audiences.

“I think that streaming music can never replace the connection that you get from a live music performance, whether you’re the performer or the audience member, everybody is feeling that ‘effervescent moment’,” Chaffman said. “There’s no way that streaming music could ever replace that.”