But that all changed over the past few weeks, with artists and promoters having to cancel more than 50,000 shows due to the pandemic. And there is no telling when it will be deemed safe again to gather in large numbers.

That’s left musicians without a major source of income. A growing number of artists, including Erykah Badu and the DJ Diplo, are instead performing live via apps like Instagram and YouTube. But there’s typically no easy way to sell tickets, sponsorships or merchandise.

To help artists navigate this new economy, Bandsintown has partnered with Twitch, the livestreaming site owned by Amazon.com. Starting this week, any musicians registered on Bandsintown that have at least 2,000 followers will be able to collect money from live performances on Twitch.

Currently, most artists who want to make money from Twitch need to submit an application and wait for approval. Bandsintown is fast-tracking the process to help artists collect revenue from advertising and online tips.

“There are massive cancellations of events happening,” said Fabrice Sergent, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Bandsintown. “We immediately felt we could reshuffle our product road map to offer artists the ability to not just offer physical live events, but virtual concerts.”

As governments ask people across the world to stay home, a growing number of artists have responded to their newfound confinement by streaming live on the internet. John Legend and Anitta raised money for charity via performances on Instagram, and DJ D-Nice used it to host the biggest dance party on the internet. Other artists have taken to Twitch and YouTube. Country singer Orville Peck is performing on all three.

Live online concerts have spread so rapidly that it’s getting hard for fans to keep track. Bandsintown has already changed its artist pages so that any of its 530,000 registered musicians can post a notice of an upcoming livestream, including where to watch and when. Bandsintown is also hosting a live music festival Thursday on Twitch.

For some acts, touring is their biggest single source of revenue.

“It’s our means of livelihood,” said Tarriona Ball, known to her fans as Tank, the lead singer of Tank and the Bangas. “If we aren’t touring, where is the money at?”

Tank and the Bangas had to suspend the tour for their latest album, “Green Balloon,” right ahead of festival season. The band lost upward of $50,000 from canceled plane flights and other appearances.

While Ball can survive for a couple of months without touring, her bandmates and crew might not be so lucky. She is going to perform Thursday as part of two-day music marathon featuring 16 artists per day that Bandsintown is organizing on Twitch. It will raise money for people put out of work by the virus.

Bandsintown’s first livestream on Twitch, featuring electronic artist Black Coffee, was watched by more than 84,500 people.

Money from livestreaming may not offset lost revenue from touring in the short term. Nor will it pay all the crew members who live tour to tour. But performing shows for large audiences online can help musicians in the long run.

“Most artists may simply not only keep in touch but also expand their following and audiences,” Sergent said. “A problem may turn into an opportunity for many artists.”

The sensationally popular song achieved the feat in one year and nine months after its official release in June 2018.

That makes “Ddu-du Ddu-du” the most-watched YouTube music video by a K-pop band, as well as the only music video by a K-pop band that topped the 1 billion YouTube view milestone.

BLACKPINK is the second ever K-pop musicians after PSY to collect more than 1 billion YouTube views. (Yonhap)

His favorite moment, he said, was in 2013 while they were recording their final duet together called “You Can’t Make Old Friends.” At one point, he looked up and saw Parton was no longer at her microphone. Suddenly, she appeared by his side, and put her arms around his neck. “Kenny, I think you should know,” she told him. “I could never sing at your funeral.”

Rogers laughed at the memory. “I went, ‘So we’re assuming I’m going first?’ ” He chuckled again. “But I love her for that. You never know what she’s going to say, but it always comes from love.”

Listening to the song, Parton’s train of thought makes sense – the ballad includes the lines, “What will I do when you’re gone? Who’s gonna tell me the truth? . . . How will I sing when you’re gone? Cause it won’t sound the same.” Those lyrics became even more poignant this past weekend, when Rogers died at age 81. Tributes to the country-pop superstar poured in, and on Saturday morning, Parton posted an emotional video on social media. She said she learned the news after turning on the TV.

“I loved Kenny with all my heart, and my heart’s broken,” Parton said, choking up as she held a framed picture of the two of them. “I know you’re sad as I am. God bless you, Kenny.”

After the news of Rogers’s death, his famed hit “The Gambler” rocketed up to No. 1 on the iTunes charts. The No. 2 spot? Karaoke favorite “Islands in the Stream,” his iconic 1983 duet with Parton. But as much as people have loved the musical collaborations between Rogers and Parton, there is also a long-running obsession with their nearly four-decade friendship.

It was a favorite topic in interviews, and Rogers and Parton were constantly asked if they had ever been more than friends, even though they always said no. “We all want you to get together!” Gayle King said in 2013 when Rogers stopped by “CBS This Morning.”

“We’re both married. Why would you want us to get together?” Rogers responded, smiling, as the anchors laughed and King quickly started to walk back the question. “In all fairness, Dolly and I have been accused of having an affair for the last 30 years. And we never did.” He added that they indulged in some “harmless” flirting, but that was all.

What was most important, he said, was their friendship: “She’s one of those rare people that if she walked in the door and I hadn’t seen her in five years, it would be like we were together yesterday.”

The two first crossed paths in Nashville, Tennessee in the early days of their careers, and he helped her when she headlined a syndicated TV show in the 1970s.

“Kenny was a big star, and I couldn’t get any people on my show,” Parton told the Associated Press in 1990. “Kenny said ‘I’ll do it,’ and I’ll never forget it. He’s always been there for me as a friend.”

Nearly a decade later, Rogers was in the recording studio with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, who had just co-written “Islands in the Stream” and decided to give it to Rogers. After a few days trying to record, Rogers didn’t like how it sounded and was ready to give up. According to Rogers, Gibb said, “You know what we need? We need Dolly Parton.”

By coincidence, Rogers told People magazine, Parton happened to be the same studio that day. Rogers’s manager went to go find her. “She came marching into the room, and once she came in and started singing the song was never the same. It took on a personality of its own,” Rogers said.

“Islands in the Stream” became a massive hit when it was released in 1983 and fueled interest in Rogers and Parton as a duo – they released a Christmas album and filmed a TV special and started touring together. “We didn’t plan it. People just put us together because they liked us together,” Parton said in 1986. “We did that one song and out of that came years of concerts and friendship.”

Their easygoing chemistry remained the same for decades, as they could quickly veer from joking (“So this is my lead-in for me to talk about how handsome you are,” Parton said dryly in a 2013 Great American Country interview when Rogers called her “gorgeous”) to introspective: “One of the things that affects a relationship when you’re working with someone is your upbringing and your background,” Rogers said on an episode of Parton’s show in the ’80s, noting that they had similar family situations and religious beliefs. “She’s a very special person who has a very special place in my life.”

They collaborated on more duets through the years: “Real Love” in 1985; “Love is Strange” in 1990; Rogers recorded the Parton solo-written “Undercover” in 2003. And finally, “You Can’t Make Old Friends,” which was nominated at the 2014 Grammy Awards for country duo/group performance. Even though they didn’t write it, they considered it autobiographical.

“[‘Islands in the Stream’] was a song about objective people. This was about us,” Rogers said in the 2013 GAC special. “And I think that shouldn’t go unnoticed.”

They clearly knew how meaningful their partnership was to fans – Parton also used her tribute video on Saturday to comfort people about the world’s current nightmarish situation.

“I know that we all know Kenny’s in a better place than we are today. But I’m pretty sure he’s going to be talking to God sometime today if he’s ain’t already,” she said. “And he’s going to be asking him to spread some light onto this darkness going on here.”

“I went into this spiral of like, ‘Oh my God, why did I think I was cool enough to call Taylor Swift? That was so embarrassing, of course she didn’t pick up. Why am I even out here? Why am I writing songs in L.A.? What if I put a beat drop on these songs? Is Nashville going to be mad that I have a beat drop on these songs instead of a banjo? Should I be home right now?” Ballerini, 26, recalled during a recent interview.

To calm down, she turned to the therapeutic method she has used since she was 12 years old: songwriting. She didn’t have a guitar with her, so she wrote a poem: “Sometimes it feels like it’s all real, but nothing here is as it seems / I ask myself, does it feed my soul or my anxiety?” The lines eventually turned into the lyrics for “LA,” the final track on her third studio album, “Kelsea,” released Friday.

“Kelsea,” which features songwriting collaborations with Nashville writers along with Ed Sheeran and Julia Michaels, is deeply personal as it dives into Ballerini’s insecurities and vulnerabilities. They might seem like unusual topics, given that Ballerini is at the height of her success: She’s had Grammy nominations, a string of No. 1s on country radio, a headlining arena tour, two certified-gold albums, a platinum-selling duet with the Chainsmokers (“This Feeling”) and stints on TV shows including “The Voice” and “Songland.”

But it’s been a long road. When Ballerini was in high school and traveled from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Nashville to see if her love of songwriting could turn into a career, label executives were puzzled when they saw a blond teenage country singer with a guitar. Didn’t they already have Swift? After many doors shut in her face, she was determined to make her music stand out. Her first hit, “Love Me Like You Mean It,” was bursting with self-confidence, and similar “bops” (Ballerini’s word) such as “Dibs,” “Yeah Boy” and “Miss Me More” followed suit. But this new record intentionally has a more introspective tone, Ballerini said, because she finally took a break from nonstop touring and had time for self-reflection.

“I had to get to know myself at 26 and realize that I’m not the same person who wrote the first or second albums,” Ballerini said. “I still have bits of that confidence and that swagger in this album. But it’s definitely paired with a lot more truth-telling.”

– – –

Even though Swift’s presence loomed large when Ballerini launched her career, the two became good friends and share a sensibility about fans: If you can relate to them on the most basic level, they will be loyal to you for life.

For years, Ballerini’s loyal fan base (now 3 million combined followers on Instagram and Twitter) has witnessed her go from playing clubs to selling out arenas, saw photos from her oceanside wedding to country singer Morgan Evans, and watched her cry with her mom when her second record, “Unapologetically,” received a Grammy nomination for best country album. But they have also seen her have dance parties, indulge in her love of fast-food chicken nuggets, watch “The Bachelor” and take her dog, Dibs, for walks in the rain.

“Since I first started, I was always like, ‘I just want to be the same person that I am out with my friends or on the couch with Morgan and Dibs that I am onstage,'” Ballerini said. “There’s also a lot of people that I’m seeing right now that are overly filtered, and I don’t want that to be what young girls are thinking is normal.”

Ballerini has always been candid about her challenges, even as she hit her stride. She admitted on Bobby Bones’s podcast in 2017 that she felt like some people in Nashville didn’t find her very “cool” because of her pop-infused country songs. Earlier that year, after performing on the Academy of Country Music Awards, she posted a defiant Instagram caption: “I wear a lot of glitter, I have bass drops and programmed beats in my songs and performances. But ya know what, I write, sing, and LOVE country music.”

So when writing this album, Ballerini doubled down on exploring tough questions: “Why am I so anxious all the time? Why all of a sudden am I the most insecure person that I know?” She realized if she was having those feelings, other people probably were too, no matter their level of success. It all culminated during a weekend while she was touring last year with Kelly Clarkson and invited top Nashville songwriters Nicolle Galyon and Jimmy Robbins to join her for a few days on the road.

“For different reasons, we were all in really vulnerable places,” Galyon said. As the three brainstormed ideas, something clicked as they shared personal details. She and Ballerini both cried. Over those few days on the tour bus, they wrote songs that altered Ballerini’s entire idea for the album. “I think we knew and she knew that she had begun writing the record.”

They wrote a ballad called “Homecoming Queen?” about the facade of perfection: Just because things in your life are going right, it doesn’t mean you’re devoid of pain. (“What if I told you the world wouldn’t end? If you started showing what’s under your skin? / What if you let ’em all in on the lie? Even the homecoming queen cries.”)

Ballerini’s transparency comes through in other tracks: her nerves about connecting with people on “Overshare”; social anxiety on “Club” (and the realization in your mid-20s that nightclubs are the worst; feeling jealous on “The Other Girl,” which features pop star Halsey. However, she felt that “Homecoming Queen?” so perfectly captured the tone of the album that she wanted to release it as the first single, a risky move in a genre often wary of ballads. But it’s currently in the Top 20 at country radio.

“It wasn’t the traditional bop that I normally put out,” Ballerini said. “But I think it was time for me as a songwriter to really show that side of myself.”

– – –

Shane McAnally, one of Nashville’s most successful songwriters and Ballerini’s frequent collaborator, was in awe of her writing skills the first time they met. “She would be having hits everywhere with other people if she wasn’t cutting them herself,” he said. “She’s that good.” (Galyon agreed, adding, “I’ve joked that if Kelsea wasn’t so busy being a superstar, she would steal my job.”)

This record features the most “traditional” country songs Ballerini has ever had on an album: the pointedly named “A Country Song”; drinking jam “Hole in the Bottle”; and “Half of My Hometown,” which, to her amazement, features backup vocals from country superstar Kenny Chesney. The two of them connected years ago when Chesney, a fellow Knoxville native, texted her a picture he saw of her on a billboard in New York City and wrote, “Proud of you, hometown girl. Love, Kenny.”

“I didn’t know that he even knew who I was,” Ballerini said. Now that she’s in a position of power, she has the same support for newer artists. When a country radio programmer recently went viral for admitting that her station was barred from playing two female singers in a row (an unspoken rule of thumb in country radio, where women make up only 10 percent of airplay), Ballerini wrote a long Instagram post and called it “unfair and incredibly disappointing,” especially on behalf of newer singers trying to break in the business.

At first she was hesitant, given her radio success – yet she knew this was the time to use the large platform she’s earned over the years. “I never wanted to say anything that would sound ungrateful,” she said. “But when you see something that blatant … that was when I need, with as much grace as possible, to try to protect this next round of females that are moving to Nashville.”

“I went into this spiral of like, ‘Oh my God, why did I think I was cool enough to call Taylor Swift? That was so embarrassing, of course she didn’t pick up. Why am I even out here? Why am I writing songs in L.A.? What if I put a beat drop on these songs? Is Nashville going to be mad that I have a beat drop on these songs instead of a banjo? Should I be home right now?” Ballerini, 26, recalled during a recent interview.

To calm down, she turned to the therapeutic method she has used since she was 12 years old: songwriting. She didn’t have a guitar with her, so she wrote a poem: “Sometimes it feels like it’s all real, but nothing here is as it seems / I ask myself, does it feed my soul or my anxiety?” The lines eventually turned into the lyrics for “LA,” the final track on her third studio album, “Kelsea,” released Friday.

“Kelsea,” which features songwriting collaborations with Nashville writers along with Ed Sheeran and Julia Michaels, is deeply personal as it dives into Ballerini’s insecurities and vulnerabilities. They might seem like unusual topics, given that Ballerini is at the height of her success: She’s had Grammy nominations, a string of No. 1s on country radio, a headlining arena tour, two certified-gold albums, a platinum-selling duet with the Chainsmokers (“This Feeling”) and stints on TV shows including “The Voice” and “Songland.”

But it’s been a long road. When Ballerini was in high school and traveled from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Nashville to see if her love of songwriting could turn into a career, label executives were puzzled when they saw a blond teenage country singer with a guitar. Didn’t they already have Swift? After many doors shut in her face, she was determined to make her music stand out. Her first hit, “Love Me Like You Mean It,” was bursting with self-confidence, and similar “bops” (Ballerini’s word) such as “Dibs,” “Yeah Boy” and “Miss Me More” followed suit. But this new record intentionally has a more introspective tone, Ballerini said, because she finally took a break from nonstop touring and had time for self-reflection.

“I had to get to know myself at 26 and realize that I’m not the same person who wrote the first or second albums,” Ballerini said. “I still have bits of that confidence and that swagger in this album. But it’s definitely paired with a lot more truth-telling.”

– – –

Even though Swift’s presence loomed large when Ballerini launched her career, the two became good friends and share a sensibility about fans: If you can relate to them on the most basic level, they will be loyal to you for life.

For years, Ballerini’s loyal fan base (now 3 million combined followers on Instagram and Twitter) has witnessed her go from playing clubs to selling out arenas, saw photos from her oceanside wedding to country singer Morgan Evans, and watched her cry with her mom when her second record, “Unapologetically,” received a Grammy nomination for best country album. But they have also seen her have dance parties, indulge in her love of fast-food chicken nuggets, watch “The Bachelor” and take her dog, Dibs, for walks in the rain.

“Since I first started, I was always like, ‘I just want to be the same person that I am out with my friends or on the couch with Morgan and Dibs that I am onstage,'” Ballerini said. “There’s also a lot of people that I’m seeing right now that are overly filtered, and I don’t want that to be what young girls are thinking is normal.”

Ballerini has always been candid about her challenges, even as she hit her stride. She admitted on Bobby Bones’s podcast in 2017 that she felt like some people in Nashville didn’t find her very “cool” because of her pop-infused country songs. Earlier that year, after performing on the Academy of Country Music Awards, she posted a defiant Instagram caption: “I wear a lot of glitter, I have bass drops and programmed beats in my songs and performances. But ya know what, I write, sing, and LOVE country music.”

So when writing this album, Ballerini doubled down on exploring tough questions: “Why am I so anxious all the time? Why all of a sudden am I the most insecure person that I know?” She realized if she was having those feelings, other people probably were too, no matter their level of success. It all culminated during a weekend while she was touring last year with Kelly Clarkson and invited top Nashville songwriters Nicolle Galyon and Jimmy Robbins to join her for a few days on the road.

“For different reasons, we were all in really vulnerable places,” Galyon said. As the three brainstormed ideas, something clicked as they shared personal details. She and Ballerini both cried. Over those few days on the tour bus, they wrote songs that altered Ballerini’s entire idea for the album. “I think we knew and she knew that she had begun writing the record.”

They wrote a ballad called “Homecoming Queen?” about the facade of perfection: Just because things in your life are going right, it doesn’t mean you’re devoid of pain. (“What if I told you the world wouldn’t end? If you started showing what’s under your skin? / What if you let ’em all in on the lie? Even the homecoming queen cries.”)

Ballerini’s transparency comes through in other tracks: her nerves about connecting with people on “Overshare”; social anxiety on “Club” (and the realization in your mid-20s that nightclubs are the worst; feeling jealous on “The Other Girl,” which features pop star Halsey. However, she felt that “Homecoming Queen?” so perfectly captured the tone of the album that she wanted to release it as the first single, a risky move in a genre often wary of ballads. But it’s currently in the Top 20 at country radio.

“It wasn’t the traditional bop that I normally put out,” Ballerini said. “But I think it was time for me as a songwriter to really show that side of myself.”

– – –

Shane McAnally, one of Nashville’s most successful songwriters and Ballerini’s frequent collaborator, was in awe of her writing skills the first time they met. “She would be having hits everywhere with other people if she wasn’t cutting them herself,” he said. “She’s that good.” (Galyon agreed, adding, “I’ve joked that if Kelsea wasn’t so busy being a superstar, she would steal my job.”)

This record features the most “traditional” country songs Ballerini has ever had on an album: the pointedly named “A Country Song”; drinking jam “Hole in the Bottle”; and “Half of My Hometown,” which, to her amazement, features backup vocals from country superstar Kenny Chesney. The two of them connected years ago when Chesney, a fellow Knoxville native, texted her a picture he saw of her on a billboard in New York City and wrote, “Proud of you, hometown girl. Love, Kenny.”

“I didn’t know that he even knew who I was,” Ballerini said. Now that she’s in a position of power, she has the same support for newer artists. When a country radio programmer recently went viral for admitting that her station was barred from playing two female singers in a row (an unspoken rule of thumb in country radio, where women make up only 10 percent of airplay), Ballerini wrote a long Instagram post and called it “unfair and incredibly disappointing,” especially on behalf of newer singers trying to break in the business.

At first she was hesitant, given her radio success – yet she knew this was the time to use the large platform she’s earned over the years. “I never wanted to say anything that would sound ungrateful,” she said. “But when you see something that blatant … that was when I need, with as much grace as possible, to try to protect this next round of females that are moving to Nashville.”