Alumni work on developing site to stream live concerts

After working at a consulting company during his first year out of college, Michael Rudoy ’07 decided that he “wanted to do something more entrepreneurial.”

Talking with a representative of Live Nation, a major concert promoter, Rudoy learned that the company was looking to expand into online concerts. However, Rudoy explained, it “couldn’t figure out the best viewing environment for a concert.”

So the politics major decided to tackle the project himself, developing a business model for a service that would allow online viewers to watch live concerts — and comment on them — together.

At that point, Rudoy turned to the University’s alumni network.

“I actually sent about 100 e-mails to the venture capital community through the Princeton alumni network, and I got a ton of great advice from alumni working in venture capital,” he said. Fifty alumni responded, five spoke with him on the phone and he still maintains regular contact with two, Rudoy added.

Following one piece of advice he recieved, to partner with San Francisco technology executive Jonathan Zakin, Rudoy founded BigLive.com in 2008. By June 2009, the website was under development.

The project continued to grow. Cameron McLain ’10, who is interested in entrepreneurship, heard about the project and approached Rudoy about working on the team. McLain began working on the website’s development last summer.

“At that point, [BigLive] was in the process of being designed, and they were trying to get footage for the website and trying to secure deals,” McLain explained, adding that he filmed one of the website’s first live performances and assisted in its design. He said that he believes BigLive distinguishes itself from other websites because of “the social networking, in particular, and the clarity of the vision.”

The website will soon take its next step forward, and it is expected to launch by June.

The “Live” in the company’s name does not mean that the website streams all shows live, Rudoy noted. Instead, “the live experience is being at a show with other people,” he said.

BigLive differs from other websites that stream live concerts, like AOL Music, Hulu and MySpace, because they don’t offer many options for user interaction, Rudoy said. “Going to a concert is a very social experience,” he said, explaining that users will tune in for shorter periods of time when they are watching shows by themselves. On BigLive, users can tune into live shows, see how many other people are watching and chat with other viewers, who can be located by entering specific searches, such as students who attend a college or people who live in New York.

BigLive also offers users “a new type of video distribution platform,” Rudoy said, which allows users to switch between multiple stages and simultaneously tune into several live shows, much like flipping through television channels. BigLive viewers can also watch archived concerts online.

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In testing the website, Rudoy said, he discovered an interesting phenomenon when he placed 10 people at one concert and separated another 10 people over a few other concerts. “Within about a minute and a half, because people can tell where everyone else is, everyone migrated over to that one show [where the 10 people were],” he said.

Rudoy plans to publicize the event through a phenomenon he calls viral loops, where users will be able to let their Facebook friends or Google Buzz contacts know what concerts they are currently watching and invite them with a link.

Rudoy said that BigLive is currently working to secure deals with venues nationwide, where the company will film and broadcast its live shows. The website will show mostly indie rock, but Rudoy said he hopes to branch out in the future.

“We’re also incentivizing the venue and the artist to promote the show on our behalf, because they’re also cut in on our revenue,” Rudoy said.

In the meantime, however, Rudoy’s work seems to be paying off. “I think Mike’s a hustler,” McLain said of his summer boss. “I think he’s done a good job.”