Music Streaming: Gimmick or Strategic Lever for Your Audience?

You thought streaming killed value? Time to flip the script.

Musical cultural institutions are undergoing profound transformation. Practices are evolving, audiences are fragmenting, and economic models are diversifying. What we’re seeing today is paradoxical: while the average number of tickets sold per event is decreasing, the overall number of spectators is rising, driven by a broader, denser, and more continuous offering (Substrakt, 2025). The appetite for art and culture remains strong, but it is now paired with digital expectations, new rhythms of engagement, and a growing desire for enriched experiences.

In this shifting landscape, music streaming presents itself as a structuring opportunity for cultural institutions. Far more than just a tech tool, it can become a natural, value-enhancing extension of your programming—supporting engagement, loyalty, and deeper audience understanding.

It’s not the technology itself that matters most, but the intelligence with which it is integrated into a coherent cultural approach. In this article, we explore the key questions you should be asking, share concrete examples, and offer a method to make streaming a true strategic lever at the heart of your programming.

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1. Why does streaming still raise concerns among cultural institutions?

There are several (often legitimate) barriers to integrating streaming into cultural strategies. These hesitations are not trivial: they reflect a historical relationship with "live" performance, stage design, and physical presence. They are rooted in the view of a concert as a unique, unrepeatable moment. Precisely because that view has meaning, streaming should not be seen as a replacement—but rather a complement.

Common concerns include:

• Rights management, which is often seen as a true headache and can be extremely time-consuming. Between protected works, artist contracts, broadcast permissions, and the complexity of related rights, it can be hard to navigate—especially for organizations without a dedicated legal or production team. This complexity sometimes stalls otherwise compelling artistic projects out of fear of legal or contractual pitfalls.
  
  
• Technical integration challenges: for many institutions, adding a streaming solution (whether an audio player or a secure video platform) to their website can feel daunting. Compatibility with existing CMS, development burdens, mobile responsiveness—these can all slow down what should be a simple addition. That’s why a turnkey, lightweight, and seamlessly integrated solution is a major time- and resource-saver.
  
  
• Costs of high-quality content production: filming, editing, and creating editorial content all cost money and can discourage institutions from pursuing such efforts. However, flexible solutions now exist, tailored to institutional budgets and allowing iterative or modular production. Moreover, content can be reused and repurposed over several years, reaching different audiences (subscribers, patrons, partners, etc.).
  
  
• Fear of cannibalizing ticket sales: institutions might worry that broadcasting performances will reduce in-person attendance. Yet recent studies show the opposite: in the world of music streaming, 50% of ticket purchases via Spotify come from users who discovered the artist through a playlist (Spotify Fan Study). Digital exposure builds anticipation, strengthens desire, and contextualizes the live event.
  
  
• Lack of internal staff or skills to lead such a project: this is where choosing the right partner is key. A platform like Vialma offers full support—editorial, technical, and analytical—so cultural institutions can adopt streaming without burdening their teams.
  
  

2. What can a well-thought-out streaming strategy really achieve?

A well-integrated streaming strategy is not just a passive showcase. It’s a living, editorialized tool that enhances the coherence of a season, deepens understanding of the repertoire, and fosters ongoing relationships with audiences. Its potential spans several areas:

Create a continuous experience between concerts

Concerts are highlights in a season—but what happens between events? How do you maintain attention, memory, and emotion? Streaming offers contextual musical content: playlists, archive clips, audio interviews, short formats.

These contents extend the artistic universe, reinforce the programming, and add value to subscriptions.

In a world where 69.5% of people consume music via mobile and 32% of traffic to cultural sites comes through event pages (Substrakt, 2025), offering immediate musical immersion (on-site or via embedded players) is a strategic must.

Attract new audiences

One of the major challenges for music institutions is diversifying their audiences. For those less familiar with classical or jazz music, streaming is a more accessible entry point than purchasing a ticket. It allows users to discover a repertoire, an artist, or an ensemble—without upfront commitment. It’s both a democratization tool and a preparation tool.

With refined audience segmentation and listening analytics, it's possible to design personalized listening journeys (by age, profile, consumption habits), and fuel targeted campaigns.

Highlight artistic work beyond the stage

Each season brings hours of music, recordings, and powerful moments. Too often, these assets remain unused. Streaming lets you build a digital heritage that becomes a medium for mediation, visibility, and cultural value. It also highlights emerging artists, rare works, and experimental formats that may not fit in a traditional venue—but resonate perfectly online.

At Vialma, we help museums, orchestras, opera houses, and festivals unlock the value of their archives through tailored editorial strategies and user-friendly interfaces.

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3. Can streaming really generate revenue?

This is often the key question. The answer is clear: yes—but not in a one-size-fits-all way.

Streaming can be a source of revenue when tied to your broader strategy, rather than functioning as an isolated channel.

Here are proven business models:

• Smart bundles: offering a physical ticket with unlimited or time-limited access to a dedicated streaming platform. This type of package adds tangible value and supports loyalty.
  
  
• Premium access for patrons, partners, or members: offering exclusive content access increases perceived value and strengthens your pitch for sponsorship—without additional production costs.
  
  
• Better audience insights lead to better monetization: by integrating streaming with your CRM or analytics tools, you can refine your marketing, better target offers, and optimize conversion journeys.
  
  

Vialma Insight: our Web Player solution identifies your most listened-to works, favorite artists, and peak listening times by audience segment—and links this data to your CRM for segmented campaigns.

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4. How some organizations are already using streaming as a strategic lever

An orchestra

A national orchestra added a themed player to each concert page. Musical previews led to a 40% increase in clicks to the ticketing page. The setup took just three weeks, with no internal tech mobilization, and resulted in better conversion rates.

A festival

One of the world’s largest classical music and opera festivals wanted to reach new audiences online and better communicate about its programming.

To address this, they launched a Dynamic Playlist to present the annual program. The result: over 75% of visitors listened to at least one track, with sessions averaging 7 minutes and a conversion rate above 35%.

An opera house

A major national opera, through its patronage support association, partnered with Vialma to launch a white-label platform reserved for donors, giving them access to exclusive multimedia content (videos, audio, articles). Result: a 90%+ login rate and average sessions exceeding 30 minutes.

A museum

A major national museum, also through its patronage association, wanted to recognize its donors and extend access to its collections beyond its physical space.

Together with Vialma, they launched a white-label streaming platform exclusively for patrons, offering unlimited access to exclusive cultural content: newly acquired artworks, contextualized musical playlists, curated videos. This innovative blend of music and visual arts enriched the cultural experience and enhanced accessibility.

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5. Key questions to ask before launching a streaming offer

Before getting started, lay the groundwork. A successful streaming strategy is based above all on clear objectives and alignment between proposed formats and your artistic identity.

See our complete guide with 10 key questions to ask yourself before getting started! 

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6. How Vialma can support you

Vialma is not just a tech provider. With a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 9.5/10 and a customer renewal rate over 95%, we are a true cultural partner—committed to helping institutions build tailored editorial and digital projects.

Here's how we help our cultural partners bring their streaming strategy to life:

• A fully customizable white-label platform integrated into your website
  
  
• Interactive Web Players for your concert pages, ticketing, or newsletters
  
  
• Editorial support (writing, playlists, video or podcast content)
  
  
• Usage analysis and performance dashboard
  
  
• A catalog of 4 million licensed classical and jazz tracks
  
  

Our mission: to make streaming useful, culturally coherent, and economically viable—with an average ROI of 3x.

Discover what our clients have to say!

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Streaming is not a gimmick. It’s a tool for mediation, loyalty, and digital transformation—serving the mission of cultural institutions. It doesn’t replace the live event, but gives it a new dimension: accessible, continuous, and editorialized.

At a time when attendance is shifting, expectations are diversifying, and competition is intensifying, smartly integrating streaming into your strategy is less an option and more a foundational choice.

Ready to get started?

Contact our team for a personalized demo and discover how to transform your offering into a rich, engaging digital experience that’s true to your identity.

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