Live music enhances self-reported audience immersion and physiological synchrony compared to live-streaming

Before the late 19th century, experiencing music required being physically present with performing musicians. Since then, many methods have attempted to replicate this live experience, most recently livestreaming. It remains unclear to what extent livestreams can replicate the live experience for audience members. To address this, we directly compared audience responses (N = 296) to live and livestream performances of two concerts (one jazz, one classical). On arrival at the concert venue, participants were randomly assigned to be physically present in the performance space, or watching a simultaneous, professionally-filmed livestream in a separate room. Questionnaire responses revealed increased reported immersion; increased intent to listen again to the artist and increased intent to return to the venue in the physically present group. This group also had significantly increased levels of heart rate synchrony. In summary, being physically present was associated with an enhanced audience experience compared to viewing a livestream broadcast on all measures. We found no evidence that seating position affects the live experience, whereas for the livestream experience viewing angle (e.g., as altered by camera angle) does significantly impact the experience. Future research should examine which perceptual qualities are important for optimising experiences for both live and livestreamed concert audiences.