Did We Forget What Live Feels Like?

You can’t lead a performing arts organization and think like YouTube.

I got an email from a potential buyer at a US performing arts center who told me they weren’t booking a live show because “kids can just watch similar programs on YouTube.”

Um, whaaat? YouTube?

For anyone who doesn’t live in this world of live performing arts, these “buyers” are the people who decide which shows a town gets to see. They’re the ones programming the theaters and choosing what experiences a community is exposed to.

Their job is to bring live performance to their audiences. To help people gather and experience something together. To show them what they can’t get from a screen.

So when those same people say, “They can just watch it online,” it feels dangerous.

Live performance isn’t about content, it’s about connection. It’s the moment eyes widen as something real unfolds right in front of them. It’s the electricity in the room, the shared breath, the spark that no algorithm can reproduce.

Marketing is hard. Getting audiences to show up is hard. But that’s the work. That’s the mission.

If you work in arts and entertainment, especially in a role meant to serve your community, your job isn’t to compete with YouTube. It’s to offer what YouTube can’t: presence, wonder, and shared human experience.

Every time someone in a position of power takes the easier route, they teach their audience to expect less.

And that’s how we lose the very thing we say we value.