The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

The virtual concert-goer: audience perspectives on remote music performances

The virtual concert-goer: audience perspectives on remote music performances
The virtual concert-goer: audience perspectives on remote music performances

Our work explores how audiences perceive and engage with remote music events. The shift to digital platforms has transformed the live music experience, leading to the rise of remote music performances. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, platforms such as Twitch have been repurposed and surged in popularity as meaningful outlets for live music dissemination. Concurrently, novel platforms specifically crafted for music events have begun to emerge. Understanding the preferences and challenges of remote music audiences is crucial because it guides the development of platforms that answer effectively to varied user needs, which could enhance overall engagement and shape the future of music consumption. For this, we employed a qualitative multi-method approach, including a survey, interviews, and event observations, to start mapping the design space of remote music performances and capture a wide spectrum of audience perspectives. Our findings reveal audience engagement patterns in remote music events across different digital platforms, highlighting unmet needs, desires as well as opportunities for future HCI work in this area.

audiences, concerts, live music, live-streaming, music, performance, remote events, users
Ppali, Sophia
4c5f6b21-7277-4318-a82a-ee819b983ff2
Branch, Boyd
bbb7087d-b430-43a1-b17e-2dcc56644525
Boem, Alberto
03ffce77-fff9-4c75-916f-50f286445c78
Ppali, Elena
1d2a8f4e-d875-493d-806b-1c78366036bc
Scorer, Max
1d5b6d6b-6bc9-49e1-917d-3a6b231f0fda
Ang, Chee Siang
3265a50c-1a26-459a-996f-5228edd2619b
Turchet, Luca
fc3491f9-616f-4dda-b034-54e623a7f27f
Covaci, Alexandra
351d23f7-1172-40cf-acf6-9abcf3bc0664
Ppali, Sophia
4c5f6b21-7277-4318-a82a-ee819b983ff2
Branch, Boyd
bbb7087d-b430-43a1-b17e-2dcc56644525
Boem, Alberto
03ffce77-fff9-4c75-916f-50f286445c78
Ppali, Elena
1d2a8f4e-d875-493d-806b-1c78366036bc
Scorer, Max
1d5b6d6b-6bc9-49e1-917d-3a6b231f0fda
Ang, Chee Siang
3265a50c-1a26-459a-996f-5228edd2619b
Turchet, Luca
fc3491f9-616f-4dda-b034-54e623a7f27f
Covaci, Alexandra
351d23f7-1172-40cf-acf6-9abcf3bc0664

Ppali, Sophia, Branch, Boyd, Boem, Alberto, Ppali, Elena, Scorer, Max, Ang, Chee Siang, Turchet, Luca and Covaci, Alexandra (2025) The virtual concert-goer: audience perspectives on remote music performances. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 9 (7), [CSCW250]. (doi:10.1145/3757431).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Our work explores how audiences perceive and engage with remote music events. The shift to digital platforms has transformed the live music experience, leading to the rise of remote music performances. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, platforms such as Twitch have been repurposed and surged in popularity as meaningful outlets for live music dissemination. Concurrently, novel platforms specifically crafted for music events have begun to emerge. Understanding the preferences and challenges of remote music audiences is crucial because it guides the development of platforms that answer effectively to varied user needs, which could enhance overall engagement and shape the future of music consumption. For this, we employed a qualitative multi-method approach, including a survey, interviews, and event observations, to start mapping the design space of remote music performances and capture a wide spectrum of audience perspectives. Our findings reveal audience engagement patterns in remote music events across different digital platforms, highlighting unmet needs, desires as well as opportunities for future HCI work in this area.

Text
3757431 - Version of Record
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (20MB)

More information

Published date: 16 October 2025
Keywords: audiences, concerts, live music, live-streaming, music, performance, remote events, users

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 509258
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/509258
PURE UUID: 97c22430-5103-49cf-a0c5-0acf897b0d47
ORCID for Boyd Branch: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3166-4358

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 16 Feb 2026 17:49
Last modified: 17 Feb 2026 03:14

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Sophia Ppali
Author: Boyd Branch ORCID iD
Author: Alberto Boem
Author: Elena Ppali
Author: Max Scorer
Author: Chee Siang Ang
Author: Luca Turchet
Author: Alexandra Covaci

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×