GaryVee’s Livestream Producer: The Indie Artist Livestreaming Blueprint ft. Courtney Knecht

In a world where AI is becoming more and more prominent, I think live streaming is the most authentic avenue to reaching your audience. If you're a music artist trying to cut through the mountains of noise and slap in 2026 and build real fans who trust and support you, the most underpriced move for you right now is live streaming. So we brought in the expert. I work for Gary Vee, Gary Vaynerchuk. I'm his, like, official live stream producer. That was Courtney Connect, and she's about to hand you the ultimate live streaming blueprint. Things like, what are the best streamers doing? Authentically showing up. How to pick your platforms. Twitch is more of a platform for depth. On TikTok Live, for example, that's like more discoverability. How to get paid. TikTok Live, the gifting function from Twitch perspective. Subscription. Practical tips for keeping people watching. Calling people out by name when they join the chat. If someone calls me by name, like you have my attention. The super complicated and expensive setup you need to start. Anyone who has a mobile device that they're listening to this podcast on right now, they can literally start streaming on that phone.

For all of you constantly fighting the content creation monster, going live is a cheat code. Don't focus on trying to be live for as long as you can. Just make one hour, two hours like as impactful as you can, as intentional as you can. Put those long form streams into opus. It's gonna spit out 30 to 40 clips. The bottom line is this AI is up, trust on the internet is down. Spending time with you live is the bridge between fans who stream your music and fans who actually root for you. And even though some of the biggest stars on the planet are live streamers, the space is still on the come up. The live streaming wave is rising, and you can still be early enough to build the type of momentum that can fundamentally change your music career forever. Download a few free apps on your phone and connect your accounts and go. We got Big Court on the podcast. Henry, let's go.

Turn the sound effects. up. Let's f***ing go. All things live streaming are coming your way, folks. We're so excited about this one. Live streaming just is something that we know is important. We have started to try and do it. Everyone should be trying to do it. It's the future and it's the now. The biggest stars these days are live streamers, guys. In case you're not paying attention. For sure. So obviously bummed that we have to do this virtually. You were just in Atlanta. Just schedules couldn't, you know, align. But yeah, I mean, so you were in town. It looked like helping Cam Newton set up his live stream, which again, like that's why Court is the fucking GOAT, y'all. When Cam Newton calls, Court shows up. Yes. But how did that even how did that even happen? Like I just you were like in Atlanta with a client, maybe on Friday, and we were like, okay, cool. It was like super, you know. And then Cam Newton on the story. Yeah, and then Cam Newton's on the story. So how did that come to be?

And what were you doing? Yeah, for just a little bit of context. Um, I worked for Gary V, Gary Vaynerchuk. I'm his like official live stream producer. I've heard of him. We're big fans. work on his podcast as well. But I guess that Gary was on Cam Newton's podcast over Super Bowl weekend while they were um in the mix together on Radio Row, and a conversation came about of like Cam just being curious about live streaming, wanting to get into it, just wanting to learn. Or he had already been into it. He's been streaming on Twitch, but um, he just had a few things that he wanted to bring to life, like a few ideas, and uh needed a few different features and programs and things installed, and so um just wanted to help him out as much as I could and and flew down there and um got him all sorted out and got his new show live on Twitch, Caller Number One, which is uh super exciting, and um yeah. Hell yeah. Wow. No, that's what I said. I mean, like if you need help live streaming, this is the fucking girl to call, y'all. Very fortunate to have the connect on the pod.

Yeah, so like Henry said, I mean, people have their opinions on live streaming and like streamer culture in general, right? Like some people think like streamers are corny, and then some people think streamers are the most influential people on the fucking planet, right? So I feel like I want to just set the stage for like how big is this shit really? Like how important and influential is live streaming the the ecosystem as a whole, just so we set the magnitude here up front. Totally, totally. Um, I think that's a great question. I think that the importance of live streaming, especially in a world where AI is becoming more and more prominent. I think live streaming is the most authentic avenue to reaching your audience because when we're scrolling on social media, even today, like it is sometimes very hard to discern the difference between an AI video and a video that is genuinely created by a human being. And those AI videos are only gonna get harder to tell apart.

And I think um, even like you know, in the future where we will have AI generated VTubers and things like that, I think um the human side of things will coexist with that, and it will always be prominent and be the most forward thing being human because that's just who we all are naturally as human beings, and live streaming to your audience in the moment is the most authentic as it can get, you know, and the most access that you can provide. And so I think um, you know, I try to view it as just a way, like another avenue to reach your audience. And also, while it is another avenue, it's a vehicle to create content that you're already creating or you want to create. Bro, I didn't even think about the whole competing versus AI thing right now. I mean, that is gonna be threatened soon, or if it's not already now. Yeah, right now. God, can people live stream with AI? Yes.

Oh, shit. We're fucked, Henry. We're fucked. Neurosama is a VTuber who runs like strictly off of AI LLMs, like uh language learning models. So it's we're getting there, we're getting there. Yeah, Damn. it's very interesting. It's happening. Uh, because I thought that was such a good point of like, you know, well, you can't fake being live. Oh, no. You can. apparently you can. Yeah. Um, okay, so you can, you can. Yeah. So but you can also build an audience, you know, as a human being, and that'll make you stand out in a world where everyone can have it. For sure. There's gonna be a huge percentage of the population that is like so anti-AI that they'll do anything to support humans, right? Like there's gonna be that like core group, regardless of how the rest of you know the the audiences uh, you know, kind of go. But so when I say like biggest streamers in the world, like who are the top, just so everyone kind of even understands who we're maybe talking about, right, on the streamer ecosystem side, who are like the top five streamers today? Because I'm not even super tapped in, so I need I need to know.

Totally. I would say in no particular order, although the order could definitely be debated. I show speed, Kai Cenat, um, I'll throw uh Ray and Rakai in the mix there. And um I'll put Phantom just because he's a personal favorite of mine, but he's also a streamer in Kai Cenat's AMP group. And so I would say those are five of just like us a few a bunch of the streamers, like the top one quote unquote one percent of streamers out there. Um and I think you know it's interesting because uh we started off this episode talking about a moment that came about from Super Bowl Radio Row, and there was another clip that was um on the internet from Gary's content that came from Super Bowl, and it was someone asked him a question of you know who's more famous, I Show Speed or Michael Jackson. And um Gary, you know, very emphatically answers like I Show Speed is a very famous streamer and the most famous streamer on the planet, but he is nothing compared to Michael Jackson. And to even further prove his point, maybe you guys could pop up the clip here in post and you know, like show them the the context.

Sir, do you know who I show speed is? No, okay, thank you, sir. No worries at all. And Gary goes on to prove his point and say, like, if this was 1980, every single person in this building would know who Michael Jackson was. Yes. That one person that I just asked off the rip had no idea who IShow Speed is. And so, you know, I show speed has a million people concurrently viewing his stream and um just absurd numbers all over the internet, but he is still um just like he's not an anomaly, like he's an anomaly now in 2026, and in the top one percent now, but I think come 2036, come 2046, like he that'll be like the everyday streamer, like that will be normal success for live streamers just because of how the attention game may play out. I may be wrong, but I mean, it may play. We're headed there though. Okay. So far, that is the trajectory that we're on. Well, I was literally about to follow up the question or like her her uh you know comment around like what does that mean for us?

But it sounds like you're proving a point as far as we're still it's still growing. Is that kind of what your point is? Is that like even as popular as live streaming is and as popular as speed is, it's still not mainstream as as like Michael Jackson and music were in that era. Is that what you're kind of foreshadowing? I guess yeah, okay. Absolutely interesting. Yeah, so there's still opportunity to not maybe not be early, but at least get in while you know there is some more opportunity where in five, 10 years, you know, it could just be everyone with a brand, everyone doing anything could be live streaming, and then it's gonna be a lot harder to stand out. Yeah, for sure. So so what are those top five streamers all have in common? Because I just want everyone to kind of understand like what makes a good streamer, so that as our artist community starts thinking about, hey, when I'm live streaming, what are some things that I need to be at least like mindful of, right? That makes these top streamers the best of the best, you know what I mean?

Totally, yeah. I think um that the one thing that the top one percent of streamers have in common is authentically showing up, right? A lot of these streamers can go live for 30 days straight for an entire month, and they don't have to turn it on and off. They can just show up as themselves. And I think one of the biggest like intimidating factors of someone starting to live stream is that they maybe feel like they need to play the role of a live streamer or where like this preconceived idea of what a live streamer has to be. But in the end, it's really just showing up as who you are and showing up consistently and showing up as consistently as you can. And I want to say showing up every day, whether it's giving 10%, 20%, or on some days, you know, you will have that like 90-95%. Um, and those will be the great days, but just showing up even when it is, you know, like not your full self or not your full energy, but just showing up as yourself and as you are, because um that just it matters, like consistency matters and building that trust with your um audience, and that's what these top streamers have done for day in and day out for years, and it's just we're now seeing the culmination of that, the like exponential success of that. I see how like I could see how you know being yourself is definitely important and a way to like not burn yourself out.

But is there still some level of like maybe embellishing or just trying to be like a little more like of a livelier or extreme version of yourself? There's gotta be, right? There's gotta be. You can't show up, you can't show up low energy, right? Is that shit gonna work? I mean, retention's gonna die, isn't it? I mean, I don't know. Like, there's gotta be some level of like this is the job, and here are the like check boxes I need to check while I'm at work. That's what I've assumed. I don't know, that's what, yeah, that from us, that's what we always thought, and that's what when we go live, we're even challenging each other, like, yeah, we gotta be like, if we're low energy, we don't even stream. Yeah, we're like, fuck that, we're not going live because we feel like we're not ready to do it. Cause I whatever that even means, I don't know. Yeah, I think that's I think that's valid. I think my mind goes to showing up and giving 10% is like better than having zero percent on the table, you know what I mean? Like not showing up at all that day is like, well, okay, like then we didn't get our rep in for the day. We didn't, you know, we didn't prep put into practice.

We could have gotten at least 10% better today than if we you know didn't go live, or if we didn't make that piece of content or didn't work on that song or something like that. And so to me, like showing up in whatever percentage you can is better than nothing, but at the same time, like you are correct, like there are things that like people will pay attention to and people won't pay attention to. Like some days I am just in a bad mood, and people probably don't want to interact with me the same way that they do if I'm like feeling a little bit better and feeling a little bit more myself. And so, of course, like we're all human beings, and I think not everyone has to be like streaming 30 days out of the month, um, you know, for like some of these streamers do, but I think um the more you show up, the more you will get out of it. For sure. So, how much of a stream is planned out versus on the fly? Because I feel like at least like some of these big dogs, all these like theatrics that are happening and shit, like it feels almost like a TV show, and they kind of know like what's gonna happen when and how to keep it moving. But again, even taking it down levels, right?

To just maybe someone who's trying to get started streaming, how much should they think about what the plan is versus just going live and seeing what happens? Because I could I don't want to have them like overanalyze, but I don't want them to also like get on stream and it you know fail miserably because maybe they should have thought about what it is that they're gonna do. Totally. I think that they're just like there are different types of content or different formats of content, there are different um versions of a stream, right? Not every stream you have to go live and do the same thing, it's different for uh different people. So, for example, um Gary, when he streams, he does like a lot of Q and A format. So, like we know going in, we have like the basic idea of what a show could look like, but we may not have every single question that we're gonna ask him throughout the show um ready to go beforehand. A lot of the questions come from the chat in the moment. So I think just like learn watching live streams of what's happening, don't let it like confine your ideas to you have to do what other people are doing.

Kind of like take those ideas and see like, okay, how can this apply to me? What can I do to put my own spin on it? And don't be so like, oh, I have to have every minute planned from the moment I go live to the moment I'm um you know, off because even the biggest streamers in the world, I'll use DDG for example. He did a TV show production level stream where he was live and it was like this dating show. And there's moments where you tune in and you watch, and it's like completely silent, and people are just sitting around and they're like just like how things normally happen in real life. And I think that sorry, my dog is wanting to play fetch right now. But um, you know, there are these different formats, and there's moments where um things get quiet and like things aren't always happening, and just being okay with that and just like being able to sit in that and not like feel like it's oh my gosh, super awkward. I need to have like pressure to say something or something like that.

It's just like just be a human, just relax. Like everyone, you know, experiences this in real life. We're all so used to like the cut up fast version, the Mr. Beastification of content in like the internet and just everything being larger than life. And I think that's like a real beauty to live streaming of like it is just like what really happens in life, and it's the complete opposite of what most people are used to on the internet. That's huge. That's I've been thinking about that a lot in content too. Like, I think we have just got gone so far down the like ADD, every half a second something is happening kind of path that you know inevitably these things always ebb and flow, and even like cutting clips, you know. I thought like maybe we should just have some more lax like clips that kind of flow more just like the a human conversation, you know, especially in the world of more and more AI stuff. It is that like feeling like it's real is there's something special about that, even though it might inherently feel like awkward. I think we just have to look past that, you know.

I think like anything, it's probably worth trying. You know, if you had this thought, or again, if you want to try not being so neurotic about we can't pause at all on the fucking stream, you know what I mean? I think it's worth a shot to just see how it goes. None of I always try and bring us back to reality. None of this shit is life or death. Like making music, making music, releasing content, live streaming to try and build an audience, whatever the fuck you're doing. Like, this isn't open heart surgery here, guys. So, like we can all fall back a little bit and like rest easy that it's just not that deep sometimes. Like, we don't this isn't our one shot. We got one shot. Do not miss your chance. Yeah, it's like to blow. We can do this again tomorrow. Or later today. It doesn't even matter. Yeah. Um yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, I didn't I didn't think about that because I on stream when we are, we're always trying to kind of like fill it. That's the natural silence.

That's like we think it's like weird if there's dead, you know, dead space or whatever. Cause we are used to that like way that short form content is, you know, cut up usually, right? And we just think that needs to translate to a live stream, but I guess that's not the case. So um okay, so what are some of the again? I know some of the like theatrics and shit obviously plays into it, but just what are some retention hacks, right? Like how can we make sure that we when we bring people in, we do keep them around. Cause I know that is at least I don't know. I I assume that's obviously important to how like algorithms are serving your stream out to people versus serving other people's streams out. Um so any like just things that you've learned across like your own live streaming, producing Gary's streams, helping other people like Cam Newton and other people like set up their own streams and just being a consumer of it that you see people doing across the board, regardless of like genre of stream or whatever, that are just these you know retention hacks. Yeah, I think two come to mind, and I think the number one is calling people out by name when they join the chat or when they say something in the chat.

Um because when I join a stream, especially like sometimes TikTok in uh I think Twitch, it doesn't say the name when they join, but someone drops a chat or like a message in the chat, and just being like, hey, so and so, like, hey Ben, hey Henry, and it just like immediately locks them in because like if I tune into a stream, and even if it's 10,000 people in the room or 10 people in the room, if someone calls me by name, like you have my attention for at least five seconds, you know what I mean? And so it makes it real, you know, it makes it feel like real, like oh, this is alive. like they just saw me enter and they're here. There's also psychology around people hearing their own name, like it makes us feel so good. It's So weird how much we love it. That's me, you know. No, it's true, man. It's a kind of a I I want to deep dive into that whole psychology trip, but that's a good one. That's a really good one. I love that. I love that. And of course, like that leads to you know, just always staying engaged and tuned into the chat, and and then I think another big part of live streaming is it really depends on which platform you're on. Twitch is more of a platform for depth, right?

Where you're building really building community, and it's going to take more work and effort and time on Twitch to build something there, but it will be more deep and more meaningful. On TikTok live, for example, um, that's like more discoverability. People are coming in and out of the room quite often. And so, in situations where a music artist or a creator may be live on TikTok live for the sake of getting new eyes on them, just constantly being comfortable in reintroducing yourself. Like the same goes for the game of uh content, right? Like, we live in a world of like less social media and more interest media where your content is going out to people who don't follow you, but that the algorithm thinks and knows will be interested in the topic that you're discussing or featuring in your content because of how they've engaged on the platform previously, and so um I think just constantly being okay with reintroducing yourself and not being afraid to like say things six, seven times within a two-hour live stream, especially on a platform like TikTok, where people may only stay in the room for five minutes. And so you may need to reset the room every five, seven minutes and be like, hey, I'm Courtney.

This is what I do. This is um, you know, why I'm live streaming here, and I would love to get to know you. Like, let me know how your day was, and you know, just overall being human about it and just having a conversation. That's huge, bro. Little elevator pitch that you just a script you can run quickly. For some reason, that like makes me think of what I always talk about when it comes to like if you're being an opener uh at a concert and just constantly repeating your name. I don't know. It's something about like we just assume people know who the fuck we are and what we're doing here. You know, people need context. Yeah, it's like I don't know if that's like egotistical of us to just everyone they clearly entered my life. They're on my stream. They should know exactly who the fuck the one more time podcast is and why we're on here blabbing our asses off. I hope you guys are enjoying the conversation. I want to take a quick moment to tell you about our pals at DistroKid. You can't get your music onto streaming platforms without a distributor, and DistroKid is an excellent choice to handle that for you. For the ridiculously low price of $23, you can upload unlimited music for an entire year that is less than two dollars a month.

I tripped on two dollars walking down the street earlier. They have countless features to help you out on your musical journey. One of my favorites is splits. Instead of my collaborators hitting me up all the time saying, Where's my fucking money? I can input everyone's percentage when I upload the music, and DistroKid will handle it. I've personally used DistroKid for many years and can genuinely recommend them as a great tool to get your music out into the world. And if you sign up at omtdistro.com, you'll get 30% off an already insanely low price. This is absolute peanuts for unlimited uploads yearly. We wish you the best with your creating. Let's get back to it. You talked about platforms. I know you mentioned Twitch, you mentioned TikTok. So obviously, you know, our community is mainly independent artists. So kind of shifting to musicians specifically. Do you recommend one of those? Are there some other platforms where you could see like musicians actually thriving, you know, or is there one could one be better for one type than another? Um, how should artists be like selecting a platform to dive into? Yeah.

Absolutely. I'm going to pull a Gary card and say you should be on all of them. Oh, Gary, she's drinking the Gary Kool-Aid. Shout out, Gary. We love you. This is an end game, not an or game. God damn it. I don't want to hear or ever come out of your mouth. Yep. But I will say, I will say, I'll give like a brief overview of like a game plan of how a music artist could specifically use, like when I say all platforms, like here's quick hit like how you can use all platforms. Um, live stream on Twitch to build a deep community to like show like fly on the wall type of stuff, like studio sessions, writing sessions, share things, you know, like intimate moments. TikTok live. Um, that's one. Like, don't multi-stream on that platform, like focus on TikTok live when you're live on TikTok, because TikTok loves that. They want to keep people on the app. So don't get greedy and try to push people everywhere else. Use use other platforms for that.

Twitch doesn't care if you multi-stream, multi-stream the heck out of your Twitch things. In fact, use your youtube channel if you're precious about your YouTube channel because your music videos go there and like you really like high quality quote unquote high quality production content then start a live YouTube channel to put all of your VODs from Twitch uh your Twitch VODs when you stream on Twitch put the full streams on YouTube live and you're gonna use um you know whatever editing platform you like and you're gonna cut those VODs into like those streams are gonna be like an hour maybe two hours tops don't focus on trying to be live for as long as you can just make one hour two hours like as impactful as you can as intentional as you can and then cut those VODs down into when I say VODs those are just the replays of the streams cut those down into like if it's a two hour stream pick four sections where 20 minutes are um really good and cohesive and make sense turn those into four different YouTube videos 20 minute YouTube videos put it on your live channel take those that still that full stream you're gonna research this platform called Opus.pro and you're gonna put those long form streams into Opus and you're gonna it's gonna spit out 30 to 40 clips for you to go in and tweak the edit of and it's gonna take you five minutes to tweak the edits of each of them and then you're gonna post them to a clip page if you don't want to post your clips of your streams on your main Instagram because you're precious about it that's totally okay we live in a world where you can create a new account and the first video can get eight million views if it's a good video. So you're gonna create an alt handle and you're gonna post every single clip from your stream on those social media short form channels, YouTube shorts, TikTok, Reels, all of that. Then you're gonna on X, Twitter, you're gonna create a community group.

That's where you're gonna post your clips on Twitter, and that's where you're gonna post when you're going live. That's where like your Twitch community is eventually gonna trickle down into Twitter. That's like normally how the Twitch community works. That's how the top streamers carry their audience over to social. It's mainly Twitter being that bridge. And so then if you want to make a little bit of actual like bread from streaming, we do one. We do, Court. You got my attention, Court. Make sure that you're you have a TikTok page that has at least 50 followers so that you have the ability to live stream on there. That's of course the most important. And then you're gonna sign up for TikTok affiliate. And if you're a music artist specifically, find some of the equipment that you use as a music artist, maybe in your home studio. Even as a music artist, you probably use a ring light to make your videos, you probably use a tripod. And all of these products are listed on TikTok affiliate for you to go and sell in your live stream, and you don't even have to have the products in hand. These companies will send you a product for you to use to show in the video, and you don't have to have the inventory, and you can just be live making music, and in your shop on TikTok, you can have 10 products listed that other people who are tuning into your stream, they may make music too, and they may need that for their home studio, and they might just buy it from you instead of purchasing it somewhere else because they like your vibe, they like your energy, and it's just there right in front of them in the moment that they found you and they feel like they need it.

Yeah, I just gotta emphasize like people are making thousands, tens of thousands of dollars a month on affiliate. TikTok affiliate is nuts, and they really do have like so so many products available. Like a ton. You don't have to force yourself. You had to get something to try and peddle just to make it work. Like it it is you can do it naturally, and people are really killing it on there right now. I'm like trying to find a reason why I'm not. Honestly. No, that all we do on these episodes. All we do on these episodes, Court, is basically hear a bunch of dope shit. Yeah, for us. But we then remember we have to fucking do as well. Yeah. And everyone who's part of our community knows this. Yeah. We do these episodes, of course, for you guys, first and foremost. Uh we love you. But like second, a close second, honestly, is to remind ourselves what we should be fucking doing. Cause uh podcasters, content creators, artists, I mean, guys, there's a lot of parallels. We're all just slang in something slightly different, you know what I mean? And by the way, like three out of four episodes now, the alt account thing has come up. Dude, the alt account and then interest media.

Huge. People aren't understanding how alt accounts and interest media like go hand in hand. Like, we're not in the day and age where like you get your one account and everyone's gonna fucking see that, and only your followers, it's just not how it works. I think having one account on a platform is just irresponsible in the modern days. Irresponsible is crazy. Yeah, Not only do you have to be on all seven platforms. Yeah, then times three. Now you have to have a seven account. I know. Fuck, we're literally scaring people as we continue. Um sorry, but yeah, so okay, cool. So TikTok, you know, live streaming, shop, affiliates, anything else that's kind of part of just like the the playbook, if you will, for artists. Yes, I'll give the one last like missing key to that whole plan that I just spieled. And one that I think is the most slept on in 2026 by especially independent music artists is this platform called Whatnot. Live streaming on Whatnot.

We were just talking about TikTok affiliate and how you can live stream and sell products there. If you're an artist who currently has a uh garage full or a closet full of boxes of merchandise that didn't sell on your last tour or that you are anticipating to sell on your tour, you can go to this platform called Whatnot. You can create an account, apply to be a seller, and within 48 to 72 hours, you can be live streaming on this platform. Take photos of all the different merchandise that you have just sitting in the back of your tour van or sitting around the studio. Um list them and stream while you're in the studio recording, while you're writing a song, while you're eating a meal or something, and in the same fashion that you can be selling uh products on TikTok Live affiliate that you don't even have in your hand, you can also get uh you know that merchandise out to your fans in a completely new avenue. Um, and especially this works well with uh touring. You can be live from your merch booth, have you know someone who's like you know, working the merch booth who may have like some energy on your team, or maybe uh someone who just comes on tour with you, um, who's already there and is willing to you know just hang out on the stream and sell your stuff while you're performing live, or maybe they just hold the camera and show your performance at each tour stop so that your fans that um heavily exist on the internet already with you, they can enjoy those IRL moments, and also that creates FOMO so that when you do come to their city, you're top of mind and they want to buy a ticket in addition to all the merch that they just got.

Damn. Court just cooked, bro. Live shopping is real. No, just the whole game plan. She just laid it out. There it is. If y'all don't know what to do, you can, I mean keep watching the episode, but damn, I would be excited. Maybe start making like a Twitch account. I would be excited to go start. As you watch the rest of this episode. And also while you're at it, you might as well go ahead and like, comment, and subscribe to the channel for bringing you guys crazy valuable guests like Courtney Connect, guys. Come on. It was like that's like 20 plus minutes in, bro. I normally get one in earlier. Sorry about that. I mean, he he's a little, you know, a little low energy tonight. But I'm embellishing. Yeah. Um, so I can already hear the question coming from all of our audience here, right? What do I need to get started? Is it as simple as I have a computer, that's it? Is there like a starter pack that all new streamers, you know, should go uh, you know, invest in? What are your thoughts on like the equipment that we need?

I think it's wonderful if someone has you know like a little extra money to invest in things like a computer and things like that. But anyone who has a mobile device that they're listening to this podcast on right now, they can literally start streaming on that phone. You could still listen to this podcast episode in the background, but you could go to um you know the app store and download literally any of the platforms that I just said. Um, and a little extra one is this app called Streamlabs that'll let you stream to Twitch, YouTube, all of the platforms that I just mentioned at once, literally just from your phone. You don't need anything else. You can prop your phone up if you don't even have a tripod and you can just start. Of course, it's wonderful to have nice things and have nice equipment, but you definitely don't need it to start. Um, but of course, there are like next steps up, right? If you want to do like IRL streaming, um, you can actually just do that with just your phone. But if you want to stream, you know, um, in places where the internet may not be a little better, there are definitely equipment items that you can invest in, but if you wanted to start streaming right now, by the time this uh by the time you finish listening to this podcast episode, or you finish listening to that podcast episode, that is when you could uh literally just download a few free apps on your phone and connect your accounts and go.

If you do have some money, what would be your first three things to invest in? Like you really want to take this serious. I would make sure you have a laptop. Um I would make sure, of course, it I I'm assuming everybody has a phone. So laptop, and then I would go. Um, a wonderful thing that I have here are lav mics that you can plug directly into the laptop. You don't a RODECaster would be another step up, but for that first initial step, laptop, lav mics, and then if you even want to like upgrade your camera a little bit. I currently use a DJI DJI Osmo Pocket 3. And you can IRL stream with it for to like, you know, OBS and YouTube and Twitch and all of those things. Um, and that's pro like the creator bundle would probably be your best bet to like have that lav mic just come with it. Um so that that would be like the first piece of equipment. That Osmo. But Henry heard that a lot.

Did you hear what she said first? Laptop? You just need a phone, Henry. I don't want anyone thinking they gotta buy all this shit. I'm here. Because I hear the fucking, I hear it. I can't afford all that stuff, Courtney's talking about. OBS, this and you're watching this on a phone. No, bro, it's the phone. There it is. Um, okay, so if if an artist doesn't live stream, what are they missing out on, right? Like, what are the benefits for an artist when it comes to live streaming, you think? I think they're missing out on building like a true connection and relationship with their fans. Yeah. Because that's something that that's it's a type of relationship that can genuinely only be built like in person, face to face. And the only way to truly scale that, like to the level that most artists really want to get to is by using the internet, and live streaming just happens to be like the most authentic way to do that, and to do that at scale, because um, you know, going and meeting fans individually one on one, you there's only 24 hours in a day, and of course, there's only 24 hours in a day to live stream too. But those 24 hours are gonna pass, and you could reach a lot more there that those 24 hours are gonna pass anyways, and you're gonna reach a lot more people one-on-one through the internet than you are uh going in person.

You know, of course, at concerts, you're gonna knock out a lot of people, but what about on a day when you're not performing or when you're just in the studio um by yourself? You know, of course, everyone loves a little alone time, but um, I think it's just important to keep in mind that while you see a number of like you know, 10, 20, 30, maybe 400 people in the room plus, of course, these numbers can get a lot bigger than those that I just said, but um, to the person who is watching the stream, it is just a one-on-one setting. They're just watching you, and so really just keep in mind that, like, yeah, of course, you're speaking to an audience, but in reality, the way that that person is experiencing it is it's one on one and you're building that relationship. And so that's something that um live stream just gives you the ability to do that at a big scale. It's deep. And yeah, there's also a lot of people, I think, that just you know, pretty much watch streamers all day. And if you're not live streaming you and they are potentially huge fans of your music, they're you're never gonna reach them because that's where their attention goes every day. So that's the whole just maximizing as many of the platforms uh as you're on.

But then also let's just talk re just to reinforce all the free content that you're getting. Yeah, dude. Oh my god, like I don't know what to post. oh well, you can just go live for an hour or two, and you but you apparently have four YouTube videos and then posting multiple clips from those live 25 30 short form, I mean for one stream, maybe four hours or something. What about length of stream? What have you noticed about like shorter streams more often, longer streams less often? Is there like a sweet spot? No, perfect. Cadence was gonna be something I want to make sure we touched on because like you said something about hour, two hours, don't like try and be the you know, Kai Cenat that are streaming for you know hours and hours and hours. But yeah, how frequent I think is something you know people would like to know. Totally. I think like once a week is like fantastic, and that like starts to build the consistency. Of course, in an ideal world, like being live for an hour a day would make like if you go live for an hour a day for a year, like I think it would really change the course of like just like the the culture of your fan base, just because it gives people access to you and uh you just spend more time with them. Um once a week, I think is a wonderful place to start.

And of course, like if someone is like listening to this and they're like, well, like maybe I do have a an itch to scratch where like I want to try going live for 24 hours and see what happens then it's like okay go try it like why not like don't be afraid don't like it doesn't have to be one or the other I think doing like fun big live streams like that every once in a while like maybe once a month where you can really give it your all and like go hard with it and maybe you're like already locking your studio locking yourself in the studio for X amount of hours or X amount of days to work on a project and it's like okay like maybe we just be live for that and we go hard and we get an exponential amount of content and people feel like they were really a part of the process and they're just as locked in on this project um as I am as the person making it and uh so I think once a week to start but of course sprinkling in like special events where people can really tell that you're going hard. Hell yeah like a special event. So so give me like let's just you know because people struggle with content ideas so I know they're already struggling with like oh what the fuck would I do on live right so let let's get like your top five things that a musician could do on stream regardless of genre regardless of how big or small your fan base is doesn't matter what can they be doing like top five formats for artists. I think number one you could of course show yourself writing or recording.

Number two, I think one that is like super slept on is story times across the board like anybody could do this, especially music artists telling different stories of like what you experience in your life or um on tour, you know, when you come off tour and you like have a little like, oh, I miss being out on the road, go live and talk to your fans about like look, remember when this happened on tour, like maybe you don't remember because you weren't at that show, but hey, by the way, this happened, and um, you know, that's a fun format. Uh reacting to different things, things that you are inspired by. Um, so that's like three of them. Yeah. I would say also just like having conversations with like the people that are around you, right? Like uh it doesn't have to be a podcast, it doesn't have to be um anything like super like crazy thought out, but just like going live and talking. Um and then one that I also think is slept on it and would be hilarious for music artists especially to do, um, is like showing the behind the scenes of like making your content. So like literally being live, but like if you film your content on your phone, like the short form content, like be live and like make your content while you're live, because a lot of times, like I have a lot of bloopers and like I'm around friends who also record content, and I'm like, you should be filming the blue, you should post the bloopers first before you do the actual video. We've had that conversation. Than the actual video.

Yes. And so yeah, just like showing it all, like the process. Yes. That's a good one. Now that that last one is definitely a bonus tip. I like that one a lot. And then yeah, if you know, if you're on like a place like Twitch, I think you know, and you happen to like games too, right? I mean, you don't have to, it doesn't always have to be music related too. I think if you lean into some of your other interests and you find people, you know, it's all gonna inevitably come back to the music eventually. We're just trying, you know, it's the attention game. So however you can win that, you know, you're winning. Yeah. And with that too, with showing other interests that you have, it also opens up doors for other opportunities too. Like someone might tune into you because like that because you like so you like football and you're like doing a watch party of a game that's happening, and they think you're funny the way you're reacting to your team losing, and they're like, Oh, like I didn't know this person made music, but I uh they like football, I like football, and I think they're funny, and then they have like you said, it all trickles back to the music. But also, maybe in a world like someone listen, a music artist listening to this, maybe they really like a certain kind of food, and maybe they're really good at baking or cooking that food, and it's not much like they don't show that part of themselves as much, but maybe they open up and they show like they cook a meal on stream or something, and all of a sudden, like a clip of that for whatever reason, because of their personality, because of the unique like knowledge that they have around that interest, that pops off, and then maybe that leads to a side business that then helps fund the music passion that they actually have, and that builds their music career.

So I think just being open to building yourself as like more than just a music artist. Like, think of yourself as a as an entity, like you are a business, you are a brand yourself. Stay open. Kinda just stay open. There's just a million ways to get it, you know. You don't getting three tenths of a penny per stream from Spotify is one very small, not even great way to get it. You know what I mean? But it's the main one people are focused on. Yeah, I just love the idea of like w we get it, you love making music, but you do like other things. Like you have to like something else, whether it's just like talking to your friends to your point, like having a stream happening where you're just like shooting the shit with a person, doesn't have to be like official structured podcast format, but like you know, some back and forth, whatever banter, or whether it's to your point cooking, gaming, sh shooting hoops, right? Like we know Court's a fucking lethal shooter on the basketball court. Yeah, bro. I want to I want to see Court on the on the uh on the court on the court. Yeah, yeah.

I was like, God damn it. I was like, well, that sounded weird in my head after I thought about it. But um, okay, so this is something I mean everyone's like, Ben, how have you not gotten there yet? And Henry, I don't know how you haven't gotten us there yet. How do we make money, Court? Let's talk about you mentioned like you briefly were like, and if they want a little bread, like no, I want to get the fucking bag on stream, Court. What are the different ways that an artist can make money? And pull out all the stops. Don't leave any fucking stone unturned here, because we need all the fucking money we can get around here, Court. These artists need it, okay. Yeah, so I got you. And if you need to ask your special guest right there for you know, yeah. I know, I feel like they're multiplying, bro. How many dogs are back there? They just pop up occasionally, they come in. Yeah, yeah. Apparently, she's got a whole pound over there. I don't know. Um, oh my goodness. I think the best place for music artists to start making money, like just from straight up being live, is um TikTok live, the gifting function.

Like, if you don't want to sell products, if you don't view yourself as like a salesperson, which you don't even have to be a salesperson to successfully sell the products on TikTok live, but if you don't view yourself there yet, then um people can get things, it's very small amounts, but people can gift things over time, and that adds up. Um, and that's just from you being live. And TikTok does reward you for like the longer you're live, then the more people uh see your stream. And so the more uh people that you have in the room, the more of a chance people get and things like that. Um, from Twitch perspective, uh, of course, how you monetize there is subscriptions. So a way a music artist could incentivize people watching to subscribe is by having what's called a sub perk board, um, saying like five subscribers and I'll switch the beat that I'm writing on to a new beat or something like that, and uh, or 10 subscribers and this happens, a hundred subscribers and this happens, and just kind of making it like a little bit of a game, gamifying it a little bit there. Okay.

Um whatnot, I think like again, that's just the number one spot because well, I said TikTok is the number one spot because that's also great, but whatnot is something where you can start like right now, and especially like if even if you don't have merch produced that you could go and sell on that platform, it doesn't just have to be merch. Maybe some music artists, many music artists that I know are into things like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh or things like that. That's really popular on the app. Many music artists that I know are also into fashion, right? And fashion is big, and so they may have extra clothes laying around that they don't wear anymore, and they could go and list those on the platform, and there are currently probably three to 5,000 people watching live streams of other people selling clothing, and then you can have your music on in the background, or you're in the studio, like I mentioned before, and just have those things listed in your shop. Um, but those are just like a few of the uh of the avenues to to make money there on live streaming.

Hell yeah, I love that. Um, okay, so we've we've focused a lot on obviously, you know, how an artist can get started streaming, the places they should stream, like what each is gonna, you know, kind of good for, right? How can they tap into the live streaming ecosystem as a whole, right? What comes to mind is like collaborations with streamers. So, like, again, you do need to start live streaming. Henry wanted to make sure I didn't excuse people to not live stream when I brought this up. I don't want to say don't stream yourselves because this is an and game. And so we're gonna stream ourselves, and how can we tap into the streamer world to again like pull through audience, sell tickets, sell merch, sell music, right? Um, because I think there's opportunities there that people are sleeping on right now. 100%.

Um, I think the first of all, the number one way to connect with anybody on planet Earth is to show love and to just like be present and feel like um and make them feel supported. And the best way to do that is through social media and like showing up in people's comment sections or in their DMs or like sliding up on their story and just being like, yo, congrats on this milestone you just reached, and coming from a genuine place with it, right? Like not uh sending your uh clip out like in a spammy fashion just to get people to get a like and a comment. Like the like and a comment is not worth um the like sacrificing the relationship of like how it feels to someone to get like just a real sent to them in the DMs with like clearly a copy and paste message or not even a message at all, and just like expecting engagement. And so it's not just us, Court, it's not just us getting all of those people. Yeah. The bots are hitting them all. But um, yeah, genuinely showing up for people and showing love, um, especially on the internet because that's where a lot of the communication starts.

And then, of course, like to really get into some strategy on it. Um, I think a great strategy of Ben was absolutely right and Henry's absolutely right, you have to start live streaming. But when you're not live on platforms like Twitch specifically, um, a great way to get involved or to even like start a relationship with the streamer is to um go and watch their streams and not only be present in the chat, but start if you have a bit of a budget to like get in front of people's eyes, start gifting the subscribers to their chat. You know, like on um on someone's Twitch stream, there's a banner above the chat where it's like a leaderboard, and the person who is gifted the most subscribers is in that number one spot, and there are three total spots for each stream. And so this like uh little banner, it kind of serves as a billboard. Anyone who clicks into the Twitch stream is going to see those names on the banner right there with the number one, number two, number three. People are gonna see it's like basically an ad placement right there, and like a lot of a lot of companies, uh, I shouldn't say a lot, some companies have like started to work sponsorships that way where like they have a sponsorship deal with the streamer, and that sponsorship gets paid out through the form of gifting subscribers to their chat.

It works out for the chat, it works out for the streamer, it works out for the brand because the brand gets attention in a natural and organic way. Um, and so it can also that doesn't just work for brands, right? Like there was there's one specific example that I'll or actually two specific examples that I'll use because they both played out in very different ways. But um Justin Bieber, he went live on Twitch for the first time like in October of 2025-ish. And um during his first stream, I had I'm a big Bieber fan, and so I was in the chat the moment he went live. She's a believer, folks. She's a believer. Me too, me too. I'm a believer since 2008, 2009. Okay. But I um immediately like sent a screenshot of like what I just explained. I I sent a screenshot of, you know, um Justin Bieber's Twitch stream, and I circled the sub badge spot, and I sent it to our team group chat, and I said, hey guys, look like this is a spot where there could be some underpriced attention, some free attention if we move quick. Justin Bieber is the biggest artist in the world, and nobody has gifted him subscribers yet, or like I think it was like someone in the number one spot had gifted him 12 subscribers.

And that's like probably that's like around, forgive me if the numbers are wrong, but it's around sixty dollars. I don't know about you. guys, but I would pay $50 to have my name underneath Justin Bieber's face any day of the year. On his official live stream. Yeah, his official first ever Twitch live stream. He's performing songs he hasn't performed in four years. Wow. Um, and off of his brand new album. And so um I sent it in our team group chat, and Gary ended up going in the chat and he like picked up on the idea of what I was putting down and started gifting subscribers. And Gary hadn't been live on Twitch that entire month, but gained 400 subscribers, just or not subscribers, sorry, followers on his Twitch account. Um just from gifting those subscribers in the moment. And so um that's like a good way to get on board. That's a that's one example of how it can get you more followers. And I so I assume you can uh you can find other artists that maybe make similar music to you, you know, or potentially have some fan overlap and get real strategic about it and then make start making noise in those streams, and then they'll uh they'll naturally come over to you at some point. Definitely, and then you know, not only can followers come from that, but also like organic social media clips can happen from that.

90% of people who have seen Kai Sinat or a Kai Cenat clip have never watched his live stream, but they see his clips all over the internet, right? And so that's huge. That's me. That's me. That's huge. Yes, the clipping, man, clipping, so big clipping, clipping and alt accounts, yeah. But um, you know, when you when a streamer gets a bunch of gifted subscribers, they're ecstatic, they're thrilled, they're hyped. And there was one case scenario where Gary went into Rakai's stream. Rakai is a streamer um in Clover House, and uh came up like through being discovered by Kai Sinat, and um he was live to about 18 to 20,000 people on Twitch, and uh Gary jumped into his stream viewing it, and he started gifting subscribers. Gary gifted like 800 subscribers. Rakai went crazy, he stopped what he was doing on stream, he starts breakdancing and just has this like super authentic and larger than life reaction. Um, and that leads to social media clips that uh we did not produce ourselves, we did not go and edit ourselves.

Of course, we, we did like um edit a post for Gary to put on his own channel but the name of the game is getting out onto all ev all of those clipping pages that exist and so naturally these clipping pages because they're already clipping Rakai he's already an upcoming streamer he has an audience all of them were either just introduced to Gary or they just heard his name and they're reminded of Gary uh and some of those clips you know got like 50,000, 200,000 views on TikTok and that was um that wasn't content that our team even touched that was just naturally other people going and putting that content on the internet so that's just one way you can like manufacture some attention yeah so a couple of like ways that came to mind at least for me is like I'm assuming at least on on Instagram and to, you know TikTok there's like these live stream music reviews where you know people will obviously like give feedback on your music right I know that's like kind of one thing that that was kind of coming to mind for me but then also just like is there a way you know at least at the major you know uh label kind of artist status those artists are common guests on stream can that happen for like you know can we work laterally with like a streamer that's maybe on the come up I'm on the come up as an artist hey think it would be dope for your stream right like I could do X I don't know like how could that type of collab maybe come to life? Because I or is that even a good idea? I don't know. I thought it was a good idea.

Crazy. You're crazy. Yeah. Was like, I don't know. It is a good idea. It is a great idea. Because like you said, there are streams where music artists come on and like they sit down and just a lot of times just like hang out with the streamer. Like it's not it, it doesn't even feel like something that's like an official interview or anything. It's just like them hanging out as friends. And so yeah, I think that that is a great idea. And it can a lot of times start from if a streamer is upcoming and still um building their audience, you could reach out to them, like send like go find a bunch of streamers like that have 2,000 to 3,000 followers or less and DM every single one of them and just be like, hey, like I I saw your streamer, I really like what you're doing, like keep up the good work, and um don't even like really ask for anything, but just like start the conversation, you know, just like um getting to know them, getting involved in the streamer world, and seeing if they're someone that like you like individually want to collaborate with, of course, like don't just do it for the attention, like do it because it's a genuine uh feeling between you two because it'll play out better for content, like not that anything has to be played out, but it's just like people like your audience is very smart, like you're not gonna fool your audience, and so if you go on someone's stream that you don't genuinely rock with, people are gonna be able to tell the content's not gonna be that great, and it's it'll be cool that you got in front of some people, but you know, what does it really do? Um but yeah, I think just reaching out over DMs, not being afraid to you know say what's up, and then a lot of times if you want to like reach a streamer who it maybe has built up a bit of an audience.

Every one of these streamers also has producers, they have someone who is helping them make these things happen behind the scenes. A lot of like the clips that you see on the internet are like to an extent, like not like pre-planned or staged, but like they're just like set up to be in the right environment and happen at the right time and to let things naturally unfold. And so a lot of that gets like you know, started with like a conversation uh uh with a producer. So doing uh a little bit of detective work, and uh especially for the lady female artists that are or listening to this, put those detective skills to work and then find some of these streamers, producers, and uh start sending some DMs. Yeah, so do you know anything about the economics of like hey, XYZ artist is featured on like Kai Cenat's stream? Like, I would assume major labels are paying for their artists to be on these big streamers streams. Do you know anything about how that works and if it is any sort of pay-to-play thing, or I don't know, because I feel like people would be curious, uh, because I definitely am.

Yeah, honestly, like I my curiosity is right there too. I don't know a hundred percent. I would say it's probably like on a streamer by streamer basis, like it probably just depends, right? Because sometimes um people like relationships naturally happen, and like people are just like, I'll show up out of love, and it's because like I've just rocked with you and I we would hang out anyways, so why not do it on stream? But there are, of course, like some um people not some people labels really love to schedule um their artists on press stops, and that is a very like very, very, very real thing in 2026. It hasn't been like all the time. Like that's nothing new. Press stops, and so streamers have just very much become a press stop in 2026, and that's not in a negative connotation or anything like that because a lot of natural moments happen. But um it does also take scheduling and like you know, logistic things to be worked out. And so um, yeah, it's I don't know like what if there's like you know, a standard of like labels are coming to how the process works, but I'm sure, yeah, some labels are probably paying for their artists to go on stream.

Maybe some streamers are paying artists to come on stream because the artist is bigger than the streamer. There are definitely like different dynamics, but I think it's just a case by case basis. For sure. So, Henry, we would be remiss. Remissed. if we didn't ask people to like, comment, and subscribe to the channel. It's not what I was We're giving you guys a live streaming masterclass. We'll get to what you're gonna say in a second. It's just we bring you guys all this free top-notch value. We're doing It's free. YouTube is free. We are here each and every week bringing you value, and we ask you to click three little buttons. That's it, type us a nice message, and and keep watching the rest of the episode. Go ahead, man. No, I was just gonna say, I mean, I was just to say, bro. I mean, we got we got team Gary V on the podcast. Let's talk. You got Gary. We we gotta have some questions for this girl, right? About about the man, the myth, the legend himself. Like, I mean, I was at the first V con. I'm obsessed with the man for sure.

Yeah, so you know what's crazy, Henry. I before you get into a question, I did not know you were a V con one and you had those stickers on your laptop, and I saw them in a clip, it blew my mind. I was like, wow, that is awesome. Oh, yeah. Oh, hell yeah, V friend holder and all cards and a T's, all of it, man. That's my guy. Yeah. So I mean, you know, for me, I guess just like kind of cliche question, but like, what are some of the like things you've learned while working alongside Gary? Because I mean, he's just such a fucking beast at all of this content shit, personal brand, entrepreneurship. He's tapped in with music somehow, right? He's tapped in with everything, it seems like, right? But but yeah, what are just you know, some of the things that you've learned from this guy after you know ha having worked alongside him? I've I've learned a ton. I and I will definitely start off in saying like um that Gary, when when you have like genuine energy like that, you attract a lot of like-minded individuals. And so, yes, I have learned a ton from Gary himself, but I've also learned just as much from the people he surrounds himself with, right?

Like just like um there's something to be learned from Gary every single day. There's also a lot to be learned from the people around him. And so, um, but with that being said, I will say like the most important thing that I've learned from Gary is actually not even relating to attention or business or music or anything, it's more so related to life. And it's that um, you know, there's like this quote that's saying that says everybody has a little bit of I want to save the world in them. And but it's like it's okay if you don't save the whole world. It's okay if you only save one person, and it's getting kind of deep, but it's okay if you only save one person, and it's okay if that person is you, because you can't help anybody if you don't help yourself first. And the reason why you can't really that you s hold on to like anger and bitterness, and the reason that you can't um you know, like get out of your head and and put yourself out there and live stream and make the content that you want to make or put out the music that you want to put out is because um you're holding resentment and anger against other people and you can't forgive other people, but the reason you can't forgive everyone else is because you haven't forgiven yourself. That was a very long-winded way of saying that like forgiveness is the key to unlocking the life that you want.

It is the key to actually diving into the passions that you so badly want to chase, and you have to forgive yourself so that you can forgive other people around you, and that way you get out of your own head and actually fill your head with good positive things so that when you inevitably go back in your head, because I know who's listening to this podcast, I know this audience is uh full of music artists who are on the come up, and a lot of music artists live in their own head, and it's not about um getting out of your head necessarily. Of course, you don't want to spend uh each and every day in your own thoughts, but it's about what's waiting in your head when you inevitably go there. You know, it's if you sit there and you learn forgiveness and you forgive others and you forgive yourself, there's gonna be nothing but sunshine and rainbows and happiness in your own head when you go there eventually. If you sit there and you hold grudges and you never forgive anybody and you don't talk things through, or you don't put your like focus those emotions and those feelings into positive things like creating great music or creating great content, and you know you you don't see the same success that you would if you do go down that path and just like really fix what's inside before you can really become every every become who you're supposed to become, you know, who you're meant to become. So that got very deep, very fast, but it's very, very real.

We said earlier that it's okay to have you know some silence in your content. Can we all just absorb that for a second? Can we just and then you hit them with that? And then I mean it's unbelievable. That was beautiful. It's unbelievable. There's still retention on YouTube, but damn that uh yeah, man. There's um there's a lot of resentment, I think that artists are holding right now against the like state of the music business and just the world that they're having to operate in to get their music heard. Um, I mean, I posted uh like Stitch essentially to this guy's video, and he was just a classic one that's just complaining about you know having to post content every day for the rest of my life, and he's being sarcastic and funny, but the the sentiment is that like I'm so mad that I have to post every day to you know be successful in music. And I just think the quicker everyone can let go of that whole grudge against the way that music is being discovered, and and really I I quote Curtiss King all the time, man.

Of like the second we change, I have to with I get to, like you get to potentially reach fucking strangers, bro, that had no idea you or your songs existed today and then tomorrow they might. Like it's it's mind blowing that people are so mad about this. Sometimes I just get really I get really frustrated about it because I'm like, God damn, y'all. Can we just think about how amazing you can live stream and someone in fucking China can literally look at you strumming your fucking guitar and you're angry about that you have to do this because Courtney Connect told you you had to like I don't know man and then and then Gary would even go like you know the chances of even being alive like we're just so blessed to even be breathing. Holy shit as long as you and your loved ones are breathing and healthy like we got shit pretty good out here y'all so I know man yeah perspective oh man um so I know it's obviously more you know like Mike Boyd and other team members I think that live in the whole like music side of of Vayner and like Gary V's world have you ever been able to like be present for some of the like conversations he's had with music artists yeah yeah there's been some awesome conversations that have definitely taken place over um either like on live streams um or like we rich the kid come on a live stream of one of Gary's TikTok lives and then Luke Combs came into the off I mean some awesome awesome artists that like I listen to on the regular Hell yeah. She's like, dang, this is crazy. Yeah. So yeah. Some wonderful conversations happening. Yeah. yeah is is there anything that you've consistently kind of heard him tell music artists you know like just some recurring themes from Gary to musician a hundred percent um one post more content on social media and uh, and two, live shopping is here. It's not something that's gonna um be in the future.

It has already happened for the last eight to ten years on the other side of the world, and it is very much here, and um will only continue to grow and just has so much opportunity for especially independent music artists who just have like all the freedom to be creative with it and to do what they want with it. Hell yeah. So, Henry, what did Gary used to say about podcasts? He did used to say that if he convinced someone to start a podcast, I think he would be their 100th guest or something like that. Is that offer still on the table, Gary? If you're out there listening, we're at 250. Yeah, we're at like 260 probably by this. Been going very strong for many years now. We've been on the fucking grind. If you ever want to come, talk some sense into these artists about posting more content, yes, building personal brand, live shopping. Yes.

Anything you want to talk about, Gary, we'd gladly have you right here on this love seat or right there on the virtual screen, my friend. But Henry, we've been in the final segment of the podcast. Courtney. Oh shit. God, like, comment, and subscribe, y'all. I don't say it ever, but I'm saying it because you are allowed to say it too. I hope some of y'all are going to literally after this is ramp rampage is over because you're gonna stick around for that. Go start your accounts if you haven't yet. Go apply to go live on TikTok. Start your Twitch. Yes. Look into whatnot. Like, let's this is real, y'all. So, anyway, this is the Rapid Fire Rampage with Jojo Siwa. I was about to say fuck. I meant to start off the episode with this is not Jojo Siwa, but we've got the next best thing. We've got Courtney Connect. Yes. I don't have to explain it because Courtney's seen the show many times, but it is three sections. We're gonna start with some short answer questions. Let's get into it. Let's go. Court, put me onto some new music for one minute. Oh my god.

Okay, I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready. Let's go. All right. All right. I'm going Suave. All I do. I'm going Do Re Mi by Chris Patrick. I'm going Wife by Chris Patrick and Wen. Don't sleep on Wen. Rug Burn by Wen is another good one. Um, ooh, let's think. Party Alone. He makes some great music. Arden Jones is going crazy with someone new, and he's been on this podcast before, so definitely tap in with him. If you really like um 2016, Ski Mask the Slump God, XXXTentacion era, definitely listen to Sinoda. He has a great track called Double Dutch and some other great music too, like Abracadabra, you could check out. Oh, who else? Hayden Henderson. He's putting out great music, especially if you love like that teenage like angst, like uh alternate pop. 10 seconds, 10 seconds, Court. Pop type of thing. Oh, who else? Who else? Who am I forgetting? Guy from NJ? Jaybird, fresco Trey. Um, who else?

Who else? Dosie. Oh my gosh. And one more time. Let's go. Yo, we've had like three of those artists on the podcast. Three of them, I heard, yeah. I heard Suave. Suave. Arden and party alone. Yeah, age and uh party. Yeah, good stuff. Yeah, I wanted to flip the. script. And Chris Patrick, bro, like, get at me, bro. We've been trying to get Chris, yeah. He. Come on, Chris. I have to like triple text him, and then he's like, yeah, I'll think I'll be there in April. I don't know. Maybe, like, whatever. Right? Um, and then I see him here. I'm like, Chris. Yeah. Don't do me like that, bro. It'll happen. We get to do this. We will interview Chris Patrick. Oh, I meant to do that one. Anyway, moving on. Court, what are some of your favorite ways to turn lurkers into chatters? Oh, great question. I actually have a phrase for this that I use quite a bit, like on Twitch, my Twitch streams, and then when I host a V Friends Whatnot streams too. This is like a common phrase we use. But we we tell people to drop an LOL in the chat. Drop a lurk out loud.

Of course, LOL stands for laugh out loud. But I always say, I'm like, if you're lurking and and you just you know, you you don't usually drop a message in the chat, just drop one message in the chat for me. Just put LOL. Just drop one message, and then you know you get to see you get a feel for like how many people are actually tuned in. Of course, you can see the viewer number, but that gets people engaging and re reignites their attention. But it also it also makes you look extremely funny in the clip because you just have your entire chat putting LOL. They must have said something crazy. Oh my god, Court is a hoot. That is a great one. And then I feel like it kind of breaks the seal for them too. Like maybe they typed one thing, maybe now they're more likely to type another thing, and then they're typing another thing. Wow. That's so many benefits to that. Game. That was a game. Um, what is your most controversial music opinion currently? Oh I have to I have to say this. Um I was definitely keep team Kendrick in the beef, Team Kendrick all the way.

Um, but the entire beef, I do have to stand on this. There are clips of me on stream saying that um two realities do exist. Drake is one of the biggest artists in the entire world, and he had a hit number one song for a decade straight. There's no arguing the data there. Um, and so he's one of the biggest artists in the world. And he lost. Oh shit. Drizzy! I'm not afraid to put that out there. Hey, man. We've we've only gotten an Instagram share from one of those two. So I'm Team Drizzy, bro. Drizzy did share. He shared our he shared one of our clips of the story, bro. And it went fucking bonkers. I mean, until K.Dot steps up. I gotta I gotta show love to who's showing love to us, man. Six God. Anyway. Okay, not drop a story. Court, what tools or software or otherwise like, you know, third party kind of thing should we be looking into if we're trying to take live streaming seriously? Okay.

If you're trying to take live streaming seriously, um I'm actually gonna do a three for one. Stupid rapid fire, OBS. So go Google it, go ChatGPT it, stream labs, go Google it, go ChatGPT it. And then the one that I is really gonna change the game for you and is gonna solve all of your problems and it's gonna get all your big clips all over the internet is Opus. Opus Pro. Dude, she's bullish on Opus, bro. Get back in there, bro. We've tested it several times. I don't I haven't loved the results all the time, but I know it's always getting better. So we might have to I gotta text today someone else just randomly. I hadn't even talked to in like weeks. Just told me to hit up look at Opus. No, way. I swear to God. Dude, That's the gods telling you something, man. Yeah, no, we're gonna come on divine timing, bro. I know it, I know it. Court, how would you recommend a live stream artist, a live streaming artist deal with trolls? I would say meet them with love. The only thing that is gonna keep them from or that is gonna turn their negative comment into a positive one is by it not bothering you. So just keep in mind that anybody who's leaving a negative comment on the internet is in a crap place themselves, and they are much worse off than you are.

And um the only if you start headbutting with them, it's only gonna make it worse. But if you just tell them, like, hey, I'm sorry that you feel that way, you may be right. You may have that opinion towards me, but hey, listen, um, like I I know who I am, and I send you love back, and you know, that's just the best way that I've found to go about it. Henry loves to clap back at our haters, bro. I like I think maybe a moment could be made out of it, potentially, you know, without being like super negative, you know. Totally. There can always be a moment made out of it, and there are definitely case scenarios where people are acting crazy, and sometimes I do need a clap back. Thank you. Okay, fine. I'll I'll take my pointing back. Thank you. But yeah, I mean, you know, I think Henry loves the very condescending um clap back. He like, he's not like aggressive, but he like he'll make you feel bad about yourself. I'll make you question why you left that comment.

Yeah, that's my goal. I won't like insult you straight up. I'll make you feel dumb for posting it in the first place. Yeah, which like you know, usually gets our folks behind us. Yeah, I think so. moving on, Courtney, you must delete three apps forever. They just gotta go. This is a tough question. Yeah, I would honestly probably just delete apps like Netflix and like the stuff that like would normally be entertainment, just because I really only use my phone to like either make something or talk to someone I care about. So I would just get rid of the distractions. I love it. Just keep phone and messages, then email, you're good to go. Phone. Literally. I always forget that it's an app. Phone. Remember our phones are phones? Crazy. Phone. Remember our phones, our phones? It's crazy. No, I thought they were computers. It's insane. Last one of the short answer. What is your favorite curse word? Ah, fuck. Hell yeah. With the ah, like ah fuck. Ah, fuck. No. I just had to think for a second.

Sure. Okay. I wanted to make that clarification anyway. Moving on to the this or that. I'm gonna give you two choices. You just gotta pick one of them. Starting with meticulously planned out live stream or freestyled? Freestyled. Perform songs live or make songs live? Perform songs live. Sushi or pizza? Pizza all day. 15-minute stream or 15-hour stream. 15-hour stream. Recurring concepts or constant variety. Recurring concepts, but also sprinkle in that variety because you may find something new that you enjoy that can turn into a new recurring concept. Game. Pokemon or V friends. Why are you gonna do that to me? V friends all day? I was gonna say. Gary might watch this, so you know, boss man's watching. Showcase the music. Showcase the music or showcase personality. Showcase personality.

The music will always be there. God, People don't want to hear it, man. But that's so important. It's like the most important thing always. Perfectionism or momentum? Momentum. Books or podcasts. In motion stays in motion. Ooh. Yeah, who's that? Podcasts. Twitch or TikTok live. Ooh, it depends. Both. Twitch for community, TikTok live for getting new people into your community. That was the Gary answer. And finally, become a full-time pop singer or leave. Whatever it is that you do. The streaming music Gary world forever. Oh man, that's a great question. I think like the little girl in me might have to say. I I'm curious what it's like to be a full-time pop singer, and I would definitely dabble in the EDM genre. Let's go. There it is. There it is. Bro, you should have said become a Jojo Siwa impersonator. Ah, well.

At least I remember to bring up Jojo at all. Dude, I know. You did not. That's why they pay you the big bucks. The big bucks, baby. The big bucks are always going to Henry. The last section is the word association. You know how this goes. I'm gonna say one word. Give me the first word you think of off the top of your head. Mm-hmm. Starting with music. Video. Album. Song. 8 a.m. Early. Podcast. Audio. Community. Depth. Riz. Flirting. Suck at this. It's the slow first half, but we still got half left. You can turn it around. Gary V. Okay, here we go. Content. Chat. Hi. Caffeine. Matcha. Love matcha.

Cringe. Jojo Siwa. She's never gonna reply to you now. Main character. Sorry, Jojo. Sorry? Main character. Mickey Mouse. AI. Intelligence. Gifted sub Twitch. Live. Stream. Let's go. This has been Jojo Siwa, our live streaming expert. Expert. Jojo, Jojo, Jojo, Jojo. Uh like, comment, subscribe. We're here each and every week. And get out there and start live streaming, goddammit. We're waiting for it. Why are you still watching? Watch the next video. Actually, now, please.