When the pandemic started, musicians across the world began to embrace live streaming. After all, they needed a way to get their music out to fans and followers without physically stepping onto a stage. Between platforms, software, gear, and monetization (like virtual tip jars), musicians had to get tech savvy quickly.
Now, thousands of musicians, music shops, and music teachers are leveraging live streaming to grow their reach, engage their customers, answer questions, and share their music with the world.
Maury Rutch is one of those musicians.
Maury owns and operates Maury’s Music, Inc, one of the largest & most trusted dealers for Martin & Blueridge guitars. They’ve been in business since 2003, and Maury’s been playing guitar professionally since the late ‘80s. “We play the products we sell” is the formula, and Maury’s all about getting you the right guitar the first time. When it comes to shopping for a Blueridge or Martin, no mom & pop shop has a bigger selection, or more informative online content.
Like many musicians and music store owners, Maury had to get serious about video and live streaming. He needed a way to reach his customers and fans. He found Ecamm Live and never looked back.
How Maury Started Live Streaming
Maury has always been interested in audio and video. In fact, he studied both in school back in the nineties with an intention to get into audio and video in some way when he started his career.
When he opened Maury’s Music in 2003, Maury knew that he needed to be able to show off his inventory online in order to build a strong customer base. Pretty quickly, Maury and his team switched from taking photos of guitars to sharing video clips instead.
“I remember asking our webmaster ‘what is this YouTube thing?’ I didn’t end up building a huge YouTube channel in the beginning, but thankfully I didn’t skip it altogether, either.”
Prior to 2020, Maury would partner with musicians and record videos of them demoing different guitars. So when the pandemic hit, he had a decent sized YouTube channel with many videos showing different models of guitars available for sale at Maury’s Music.
Unfortunately, with the pandemic in full force and lockdowns happening, he also didn’t have a way to record new videos with other musicians. It was all on pause.
“The pandemic caused it all to stop. I couldn’t bring anyone in to record new videos. And I’m not the best talker. I don’t have the personality where I could just hit record and get a good video.”
Thankfully, Maury isn’t the kind of person to give up, either.
Saying Goodbye to the Comfort Zone
So he forced himself out of his comfort zone and just started trying. His friend Aaron Short (another musician) invited Maury to be an occasional guest on his Monday show, but that quickly became a weekly occurrence. Their time together on-camera turned into regular streams that lasted almost 2 years!
Around the same time, Maury started going live on a regular basis to give inventory tours of Maury’s Music. These virtual tours not only let customers and potential customers see the inventory available at Maury’s shop, but let them hear the quality of the guitars and get to know and trust Maury himself.
These live stream demos have grown into an incredible series that, at the time of this blog post, is 97 episodes in with over 30,000 views across all videos.
Why Maury Loves Ecamm Live
“Ecamm takes the tech out of it. There’s something fun about showing up and looking your best where people are just like ‘Wait – how are you looking like that?'”
Maury started with Facebook Live using just his phone to broadcast. Less than a week later, he learned about Ecamm Live.
“Ecamm completely changed live streaming for me. It gave me almost immediate confidence to get out there in front of everyone. By my forth live stream, I didn’t know everything, but I had enough confidence to look like I did.”
Like anything else, practice made perfect. Being on camera was a weird feeling at first, but the more time Maury spent in front of the camera, the more he’d get used to it. And small tweaks like adding graphics, changing up his video set, and learning how to flow through the content by adding foot pedals to trigger scene changes, made a big difference in both the quality of the live stream AND Maury’s confidence.
In no time at all, Maury was going live on a regular basis to show off new guitars in his shop and to play music live with friends and colleagues.
Maury’s Live Streaming Gear Guide
In addition to Ecamm Live, Maury uses the following video and audio gear to power his live stream productions:
- Canon M50 camera
- CamLink 4K
- 2015 iMac 24g RAM
- Behringer Xair mixer for Audio, connected to a 2009 iMac for mixer control
- MIDI footswitch to change Xair sounds for vocals & guitar (FX on and off)
- USB footswitch programmed with Ecamm hotkeys for next scene & sounds
- Rode NT5 and NTG2 Mics
- Godox LED flat panel lights
- Phillips 46″ TV as a 2nd monitor for comments/reactions and scene windows
Just Start Streaming
No matter your industry, you can be effective with live streaming.
You don’t have to be a professional videographer to have an impact with your audience. Maury is selling more guitars and reaching more customers by showing up on a regular basis and using live video to show the incredible sound and quality of the guitars he sells.
Want to get started with live streaming? Ecamm Live can help make it easy and effective no matter how tech savvy you are (or aren’t).
