In My Room

“For the past six months, I’ve been toying around with live Internet broadcasting from my home,” says singer-songwriter Michael Tiernan. “In the past couple of months, my audience has really begun to grow.” Tiernan’s “interactive internet concerts” stream live from his laptop computer every Friday at noon on tiernantunes.tv.

“I usually perform three or four songs, all focused around a certain topic or theme,” says Tiernan. “Viewers aren’t just viewers either. They are participants, even more so than at a club show.… They can enter chat sessions, make requests, and discuss the [musical] theme.” Tiernan also sometimes shows photos and slides and polls viewers on a variety of topics, not necessarily musical. “It usually turns out to be part talk show, part concert.…

“So far, the most amazing experience I’ve had broadcasting is after my daughter was born [in November ’08]. I was playing a brand-new song I wrote for her. In the middle of the song, my wife brought the baby into the room after a nap, and I sang the song to her, tears in my eyes. I received tons of feedback after. There were about 50 people watching from all over the world, and many of them wrote me that it was one of the most touching things they’d ever seen.”

Tiernan’s Internet audience can range from a dozen people to around a hundred. “But compare that with getting in your car, filling up the tank, and driving up to L.A. or San Francisco to play at a club that may or may not have 50 people in it, and it’s a pretty good deal. I can also sell sponsorship for my shows and in the future will be putting on pay-per-view online festivals.”

Tiernan’s songs “Better Life” and “Distractions” will be featured on MTV’s Real World on January 21. He appears Wednesday, January 7, at the Belly Up.