As audiences at live events decline generally, and as the economics suffers, with tickets costly but earnings meager, virtual audiences could save live performance as a living.

Almost no musician makes much selling CDs (who even buys them?), and streaming pays very little, gigs and teaching remain. But gigs don't pay either. When I first played in clubs they paid you, now you pay them, and still no one makes a living, including the club.

In Japan they are trying a phone app for "Remote Cheering", sending a trigger to the loudspeakers at the ballpark which generates a variety of cheers and applause. This is heard by both the players and the viewers at home. Yamaha sells this software:

https://soundud.org/en/serviceinfo/r...-soundud-beta/

The classical music critic at the Washington Post complained in an opinion piece about this subject.

"Applause is how we speak back to the composer, the actor, the acrobat and the politician (who is a little of each) in the moment. It’s also how we speak to each other as strangers, how we coalesce as a crowd, how we lend definition to our togetherness."

I hope venues employ this software. I want it as a viewer, and I want it as a performer. It could expand audiences to be anyone viewing instead of just those that live nearby.

He reports that the remote-cheer system has not