EXPRESS: The Liveness Lift: Viewing Live Streams Creates Connection and Enhances Engagement in Amateur Music Performances

Recent advances in live-streaming technology have empowered millions of amateur content creators to broadcast live video over the internet, sharing events and experiences with consumers as they happen. Despite the growing popularity of live streams, little research has examined how liveness may affect viewers’ experiences and behaviors. The current research addresses this gap, and uses the context of amateur music performances to investigate how, when, and why viewing live streams (versus equivalent or identical pre-recorded video) can enhance presence, connection, enjoyment, and engagement. We find evidence of a mere liveness effect on consumer experiences: simply knowing that an online video stream is live causes viewers to feel more connected to streamers. This effect is facilitated by an elevated sense of presence, or “being there,” in events that are viewed in real time. Critically, this effect also drives a liveness lift for online streamers; viewers of live (versus pre-recorded) streams enjoy the content more, choose to continue watching longer, and are more willing to follow and subscribe to the streamers’ channels. These findings have clear substantive implications: marketers, platform developers, and content creators can enhance consumer connection, enjoyment, and engagement by going live.