Greenwich Village club Smalls  

Can watching a live gig streamed from your favourite jazz club ever replicate the experience? Well, the obvious answer is no. But that isn’t putting off New York club Smalls who know a thing or two about the authentic jazz club experience.

The club’s owner, or as he prefers to refer to himself, “caretaker”, Spike Wilner says: “We intend to make our live video feed free and make our ever growing library of audio and video available for a subscription." The revenue from subscriptions "will be shared fairly by all the musicians in the archive based on how many minutes their shows get listened to. All musicians on a date get credit for a listen," he says.

"In this way we can reward popular sidemen who are on a large number of dates. We hope to create a revenue stream for all the Smalls artists and have a positive effect on their personal economics.”

Live streaming may to its supporters be the next best thing to actually being there, and using it as an inducement for people to help the club by subscribing to the library if they’re taken by what they see seems to be a pay-back for the largesse. What the take-up will be remains to be seen but if it works clubs on this side of the Atlantic may well consider a pilot scheme along the same lines. Stephen Graham