The Bandsintown app that many musicians use to announce their upcoming show details last week tweaked its service to offer online live performances by some of the artists.

Last Friday it debuted its new Bandsintown LIVE channel on the Twitch platform, which allows it to stream live and says over 84,500 people viewed the debut performance by Black Coffee.

Today starting at 1 p.m. it kicks off the first of a two-day “music marathon” that features performances by 16 artists. The shows run from 1 till 9, with eight artists doing one-hour sets each day.

(For today’s lineup see the listings that follow article.)

The shows also allow viewers to donate to an online “tip jar” and “all tips collected during the event will be donated to the MusiCares®COVID-19 Relief Fund to help musicians and music industry professionals,” it says.

“We are experiencing a new form of connectivity between music acts and their fans,” says Bandsintown Managing Partner Fabrice Sergent.

“Artists have suddenly become more approachable. A new form of entertainment is emerging from this chaos.”

In keeping with that thinking, the company is also offering the opportunity for artists “to receive free fast track status to Twitch’s world-class monetization tools for live streaming,” it says.

You can find out more by visiting the article on the company’s blog page.