  The global pandemic has driven musicians online. We report an ethnographic
account of how two traditional folk clubs with little previous interest in
digital platforms transitioned to online experiences. They followed very
different approaches: one adapted their existing singaround format to video
conferencing while the other evolved a weekly community-produced, pre-recorded
show that could be watched together. However, despite their successes,
participants ultimately remained unable to sing in chorus due to network
constraints. We draw on theories of liveness from performance studies to
explain our findings, arguing that HCI might orientate itself to online
liveness as being co-produced through rich participatory structures that
dissolve traditional distinctions between live and recorded and performer and
audience. We discuss how participants appropriated existing platforms to
achieve this, but these in turn shaped their practices in unforeseen ways. We
draw out implications for the design and deployment of future live performance
platforms.
