Why Every Funeral Home Should Be Streaming: Brady Cox on the Funeral Directors Playbook

Funeral streaming has come a long way from simply helping people attend a service when they can’t be there in person.

Today, its value extends well beyond the live service. Families can return to the stories and tributes afterwards. Funeral homes can reach more people through every service, build stronger connections with their communities and even create new pre-need opportunities.

OneRoom CEO Brady Cox joined Paul Lovelace on the Funeral Directors Playbook to talk about where funeral streaming is today, how funeral homes should be positioning it with families, and what they can do to get more from it.

They also get into on-demand viewing and digital keepsakes, music copyright, pre-need lead generation, pricing, and why Brady believes consistency is one of the biggest factors in making streaming work.

Watch the full conversation below.

Key takeaways from the conversation

Funeral streaming has moved well beyond helping people attend remotely. Today, its value extends before, during and after the service — giving families something to return to, connecting more guests to the funeral home, and creating new opportunities for engagement and pre-need.

Here are some of the key points from Brady Cox’s conversation with Paul Lovelace on the Funeral Directors Playbook.

Why should funeral homes offer streaming to every family?

The value of recording a funeral doesn’t depend on whether someone is unable to attend in person.

A funeral brings together stories, eulogies, voices and tributes that may never be heard in quite the same way again. For close family, it can also be a lot to take in at the time.

Having the service recorded gives families the opportunity to come back later, when they’re ready, and hear those words again.

Brady Cox, CEO of OneRoom, believes funeral directors should make families aware of that opportunity consistently, rather than only offering streaming when they know someone can’t attend.

How should funeral directors position streaming with families?

Start with what the family gets to keep.

Brady Cox recommends positioning the recording as a keepsake of the service — something the family can return to for the eulogies, stories and tributes shared about the person they love.

Then ask whether there is anyone who can’t be there in person. If there is, they can attend online too.

It shifts the conversation from who might miss the service to what the family may want to hold onto afterwards.

Why do families watch funeral recordings after the service?

OneRoom data shows that around 65% of initial viewing happens after the live service, and that percentage continues to grow as people return to recordings over time.

Families don’t necessarily want to rewatch an entire funeral from beginning to end. They may want to hear a particular eulogy again, find a story someone told or return to a few words that stayed with them.

That behaviour has shaped OneRoom’s on-demand experience. Chapters break the service into sections, Key Moments make important parts easier to find, and Stories turn selected spoken tributes into short clips families can keep on their phones and share.

The recording becomes something designed to be returned to, rather than a video file that gets stored away and forgotten.

How can funeral streaming help funeral homes grow?

A typical service streamed through OneRoom has around 30 online guests. OneRoom data also shows that around 30% of people watching a stream or recording are within 15 miles of the funeral home.

That means the audience for a service can be considerably larger than the group sitting in the chapel, and many online guests are part of the funeral home’s own local community.

Online guests experience the service and the care the funeral home provides. The OneRoom viewing experience also carries the funeral home’s branding and can connect guests with its website and services.

Guest registration creates another opportunity to stay connected, giving funeral homes a way to build relationships with people in their community through relevant information, events and support over time.

Can funeral streaming generate pre-need leads?

Funeral streaming can create pre-need enquiries by giving online guests a simple way to request planning information while they are already engaged with a service.

OneRoom’s Pre-Need Pathways makes this option available within the streaming experience. Guests choose whether they want to learn more about pre-planning and, when they do, their enquiry is passed to the funeral home for follow-up.

Around 1.5% of viewers make a pre-need enquiry through OneRoom’s platform, equivalent to approximately one qualified lead for every three streamed services on average.

For funeral homes, it creates an ongoing source of people who have actively asked to learn more, generated through a service they are already providing.

Does a funeral home’s music license cover recorded funeral services?

The licenses commonly held by funeral homes may cover playing copyrighted music during a funeral service and streaming it live, but may not provide the rights needed when that music is included in a recording available afterwards.

OneRoom developed Music Copyright Protection to address this risk. Copyrighted music is identified and muted in the recording while spoken content, including eulogies, readings and tributes, is preserved.

Families can still see which songs were played and access the music separately.

The live service is unaffected, so music plays as normal while the service is taking place.

How can funeral homes make streaming reliable and easy for staff?

Consistency is one of the most important factors in making funeral streaming reliable and easy for funeral home teams.

Brady Cox recommends having dedicated equipment, establishing a standard operating procedure, making sure everyone knows how the process works, and streaming often enough that it becomes routine.

With the right technology and process in place, streaming doesn’t need to become another job for a funeral director to manage during the service.

It can simply become part of how the funeral home serves families.

Read the full conversation

Prefer to read rather than watch? Below is the full conversation between Paul Lovelace, host of the Funeral Directors Playbook, and Brady Cox, CEO of OneRoom.

Full Transcript

Paul Lovelace: Welcome back to the Director's Playbook podcast. I'm your host, Paul Lovelace, and today we're talking about something a lot of funeral homes probably started doing out of necessity, but have really become part of how families stay connected, and that is funeral live streaming. So I'm excited to have Brady Cox with us today.

Brady is the CEO of OneRoom, and he brings a really interesting perspective on live streaming and how funeral homes can use technology in a way that supports the human side of what we all do. So Brady, thanks for being here, and thanks for joining us all the way from New Zealand. All the way from the bottom of the earth.

Brady Cox: That's right, yep. Living in paradise down under. Yeah, it's actually- Thanks for having me, Paul ... tomorrow there right now, isn't it? It's tomorrow. That's right. I'm way ahead of you. You probably hear that all the time. I certainly do. Yeah. I hear a lot of things about New Zealand. , We... I've just been out nursing my sheep, and, chatting to the hobbit across, across the fence.

Paul Lovelace: -

Of course. Why wouldn't you be? Yep. I just got off my horse here in Texas and had to go- There you go ... check on my oil well at lunch. Yeah. I wish Yeah, yeah. Now we should probably, uh, get into our subject matter here a little bit, but, but before we do, I know, just a little background, I met you earlier this year out in Las Vegas- Yeah

at a conference and, and, , we had a side conversation. I was just fascinated by the whole concept of live streaming and- Yes ... the good work that you folks are doing helping funeral homes and families. So I guess before we get into the subject matter a little bit, c- can you tell us, the audience, a little bit about how you got into this line of work and- Yeah

and, uh, what drew you to this live streaming, um, service?

Brady Cox: Yeah, sure. I guess, , I actually came at it from a technology point of view. So this is my fourth tech CEO role. I've always been in technology, , taking technology to market. Um, next to agriculture, technology is the, the second-biggest industry in New Zealand, so we export a lot of software and a lot of IP.

Um, and so I've done, uh, a lot of enterprise software, um, and some electronics, and, , I was looking for a change and, and was chatting to what turned out to be the chairman about an AI telephony company. It turns out that we ended up talking about OneRoom and the idea of something that, as, as altruistic an industry as it is, and we're, we're adding so much value.

That would be the first time, is the first time in my career where I'm genuinely doing good in the market, selling technology to make things better. , So , I, I loved the idea and, , OneRoom's very, very well positioned globally to, to do this. So yeah, it was a natural fit for me. It was good. I love that.

Paul Lovelace: Well, I love the- Yeah ... the, the success story of, of OneRoom and what you're doing, Brady. Mm. So heard so many great things. That's why I wanted to have you on, on the podcast today and just delve into some of the details. I guess, you know, I guess a lot of live streaming started as a necessity back in COVID just six years ago or so.

Yes. How have you seen that change, I guess, from that time until now?

Brady Cox: Yeah. So I guess I'd point out that we were, we were in the US. Again, New Zealand company landed, , having done a few years down here pretty successfully. We were in the US and growing before COVID, , so it was a pretty established concept actually.

, But obviously co- COVID, , was a, was a, we were in the right place at the right time. We sort of grew 400% over that period of time, there's no doubt , but it was a, a massive relief for a lot of people to be able to attend services when they physically couldn't, and it did a-- Y-you all know the story. I mean, it was a, you know- Yeah

everybody had to do it, basically. I think that caused a lot of PTSD effects. I think there was a lot of stress associated with having to get a tripod in front of what was happening and, and have the batteries charged, and have capacity on the, in the iPad and so many things could go wrong. It was very stressful for people.

So we actually did expect it to drop off after that. I think  people were relieved they didn't have to do it as much. Yeah. But I think throughout that time they, they realized that, hang on, this is, this is just a great way for everybody to be a part of the service, not just the people that can make it locally.

So it didn't drop. It went down for a couple of months by a few percentages and then stayed flat for a while, and then, uh, started to grow.

Paul Lovelace: Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, we- Yeah ... we hear about it all the time just in our line of work. Mm-hmm. And sometimes I just think it's easy to look at live streaming as maybe a technology conversation.

We're talking about, you know, cameras and audio and- Yeah ... internet and connections and all that, but really when it's done well, it's about making sure people who can't physically be in that room still have a way to be present, right?

Brady Cox: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, that's, that's where we came from.

That's where the industry sort of has got some traction, but it's a little more than that as well. But absolutely. If you're, you know, if you're close to the decedent but you just physically cannot make it, it's just such a great thing to be able to do. There's no doubt about that. Um, but what we've come to realize is that it's much more than just the live streaming and the accessibility.

Um, it is, it's actually way more about the keepsake afterwards. The fact that the people actually in the service, uh, you know, they're in a, they're in a bit of a fog of grief. They're distracted, they're stressed, they're talking to people, and they don't actually capture everything that, that happens during a service.

And so- In the moment ... it's become much more about the keepsake afterwards as well, 'cause if you don't record it, no one can ever watch it again.

Paul Lovelace: So, you know, that's quite a valuable thing. And I think that's what excites me the most, because I just know some of the funerals I've been a part of over the years of loved ones who have passed on that, they didn't have live streaming, right?

So now I missed out on that, and so many other people have missed out on that as well. But now they don't have to fortunately.

Brady Cox: And, you know, we get people signing up for the first time to see, , a service, well after a month after the service. Um, so, you know, it can spread for quite a long time.

But the other thing, coming back to COVID, the other thing that has definitely changed is, you know, people were right to be scared of it, as a technology because it was the first time they're doing it, and they did make a lot of mistakes, and they did get some pain. Um, so, you know, the, the emphasis has always been on taking away the human involvement and those risky elements to it and automating and streamlining.

So yeah, we've poured lots of energy into that over the last sort of actually really the last 10 years. But to make it as seamless as you possibly can is the main thing that's changed from, from COVID times, take the risk out of it.

Paul Lovelace: But yeah, some of that's pretty normal. I mean, anytime you adopt a new technology, there's fear, and it's not just fear, I guess, of You know, not working, but, you know, maybe there was some fear that if we, if, if I'm a funeral home owner and I offer live streaming, that people won't show up to the funerals anymore, right?

Brady Cox: That's right. Yep. That had to be a real thing. But surely we've gotten past that, right? Well, I don't know because, I think we've gotten past that concern. I think there's an acceptance that if you're close to the decedent, you're gonna go to a service and it is about that, right?

But what we've found continuously and consistently is that 30% of the people that watch a live stream are within 15 miles of that chapel Say that again. 30% of the people who watch a live stream- 30% of the people that watch a live stream or a keepsake afterwards come from 15 miles away. Wow. Right? So I don't know, it might be a bit of a shock, but not everybody wants to go to a service and a full funeral.

People sometimes just don't wanna be a part of that, or they didn't know the person that well, or it's awkward for them. There's a big population of people as a percentage that, you know, feel uncomfortable going for some reason.

Paul Lovelace: But I can see also maybe they went to the visitation in person- Yep

but they watched the service virtually.

Brady Cox: Yeah. There's, there's a, there's a huge range of reasons as to why people would do that, right? Um, so yeah, like I say, it's quite surprising how it's not just physical incapability in terms of distance or otherwise. It is about there's a layer of people that wanna pay their respects, but for some reason don't feel as though they should go to the service.

And so we're enabling them to do that, which is also good.

Paul Lovelace: Yeah. Essentially you're helping funeral homes enlarge their chapel. So if the funeral home has 150 people available in their chapel or space for that capacity, you know, you're enlarging that by all the people that can attend remotely, so you've just exponentially increased your audience, right?

Brady Cox: Yeah. No, that, that's exactly right and that's probably the biggest message that we try and get across to funeral directors. Uh, you know, it's, they all care about the size of the audience in the chapel, which is why you've made that point. We want people to come to our chapel and experience our service, become part of what we do so that they know that they wanna come back to us at a time of need, right?

Um, well, every single service that gets streamed has 30 people watching it that you can't see, right? Wow. So imagine there... And it's, we think it's probably about half of the, in-person attendance. So if there's 60 people in the chapel, there's probably another 30 watching it, is generally the number.

And so whenever you're running a service, you should imagine the people at the back that you can't see, there's 30 of them watching it as well. They're there. The service is bigger than you think it is. Right. And they get a good view of it. They get to see, they get to see everything. They're actually more relaxed than people in chapel.

They get multiple camera angles. They get to see probably more than a lot of the people in the chapel, so they really do experience your service.

Paul Lovelace: Well, and I just maybe think about, um, I remember hearing some of the early advice when I got into the business about the best marketing a funeral home can do is performing a great funeral service.

Mm-hmm. So if someone can see that, I mean, even more people can see it, then you're just further strengthening your brand, and I think- Definitely ... that's powerful.

Brady Cox: Yeah. And then, you know, the other thing that is different about someone watching a service online versus someone in person is that literally the branding that we're talking about is surrounding that viewer, so that when you log into it, you've got the funeral home's logo there.

You can have access to their website. And then you can tie in some of the other things like purchasing flowers and other things that engage them directly into the funeral home. So from a branding/marketing point of view you got much more awareness of what the name of the home is and the services they offer, because it's a digital platform.

Paul Lovelace: Yeah, and I mean, that's, that's the question is how do, how does this technology help funeral homes grow and be more successful? Well, that's it- Mm-hmm ... right there. And, and, and a big part of it- Right ... is, is that brand recognition, that top-of-mind awareness and, and just further strengthening of, of their, their brand in the marketplace.

I think that's, that's-

Brady Cox: Yeah. And something that people don't quite appreciate or that whenever you register, we actually ask for the name and the email of the people wanting to watch it, and there's a bunch of reasons for that. One of them is that we provide a guest list immediately for the family to see who actually attended, which is really nice and quite appreciated.

But the other one is that that then can go into a contacts database for the funeral home of people that have actually witnessed their service then, in recent time they can do surveys through them, which is a really, useful, tool because you've got an email address and name that you don't have that for people in the chapel, right?

You're right. But you have it for people online. And you can engage with them over time and invite them to community events, share information, and of course post them. So we package up the keepsake, in a really nice  way. You email them after the service and say, you know, "Here's, here's a, a repackaged, keepsake for you to review," which has a whole lot of nice things in it.

So it's a real engagement with that community. So- Yeah ... brand recognition and building, it's great.

Well, it's the gift that keeps on giving it sounds like- Yeah, that's right ... for the funeral home. Yep. Yeah, it's really cool. Yeah. Well, I know, let's talk about utilization a little bit because I know, uh, I've, I've heard different stories about how many funeral homes are actively engaged in live streaming, and then also the consumers, because I know they're maybe more comfortable than some of the funeral homes.

But what, what, what is your, what are your findings in regards to the utilization?

It's a, it's a hard one to measure in that we haven't spoken to everybody. Yeah ... but we think there's probably a 20 to 30% adoption rate of what I would consider to be acceptable technology. There's a whole bunch that will continue to only offer it when families ask.

So they won't position it because they're still in that, well, I, I mentioned the PTSD phase. They're still worried about the tripod. They're still worried about the mistakes. They see it as a risk where they might make a family mad. So they don't wanna offer it, because they are using technology that they are having to, actually really actively manage.

Hitting the start, stop button, having the volumes up, all that sort of stuff. And so they will do it if they're asked to. They'll get their Facebook Live or the, some other platform, and connect every now and then. I think a lot of people do that. And not many of them enjoy it. They get takedown notices and they get...

You know, there's, there's a range of things. The people that have a regular stream of services, at the other end of the spectrum, we have customers, large consolidators and small independents that stream every single one. And they position it that, you know, "We, we record every service so that we can provide you with a keepsake at the end that you can have forever," right?

And so that's why we do it. You're preserving the tribute essentially. What was spoken, what was shared, what was experienced. Absolutely. You're preserving it for the future. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's, like, it's... , i, I don't like the analogy but there's not really a, a better one, but the, it's like having a wedding.

You know, it's a massive milestone. There's a lot of effort involved. It is an event. They're recording it in so many different ways. Imagine not having any of that afterwards. It's to a smaller degree a similar thing. It's the end of someone's life. You're celebrating that life, and some people say some great things and you will never hear those again, right?

So especially if you're the, the husband or the wife or the mother or whatever that is emotional at that time, you won't actually hear what some of your relatives or friends of that person you didn't know have actually said about that person. You won't hear it. You'll hear it, but you won't listen, however you wanna word it.

Um, and so we've actually focused on that. I'll maybe talk about that later as well. But, you know, it's a pretty big thing. So, that's how you position it is it's a keepsake so you can come back to it, and is there anyone that's not gonna make it, then it's live.

Now, if you're doing that, it becomes a very profitable line item, right? You, you sell it for, you know... If you're, if you're streaming every one, it's less than $50 a stream to stream a proper live stream. And the market is, you know, I, I won't start throwing numbers around, but you can make a profit out of each, each and every one of those, right?

If- Sure, depending on how they set the pricing. That's right. Is it bundled into a, another bundle? Is it in a professional services? However it is. So that alone is, is a profitable thing. Um, so, uh, you know, the, the people that get it, certainly streaming a lot. So the target for us is to get people to be streaming 40% of their services.

That's where the companies are making the most out of it and getting the most value for families is about 40% of all their services get streamed

Paul Lovelace: That makes sense. And I wonder if the majority of those are probably, uh, fixed chapel solutions versus- Sure ... one out at the cemetery or something, right?

Brady Cox: Yeah. Although actually we've had, we've had a number of customers that are just running four or five iPads just nonstop graveside doing quite high volumes. But they get really good at it 'cause they're repeatable, it's a repeatable standard operating procedure. Uh, so that's a secret to anything mobile.

We obviously have a mobile application as well. So, you know, when you're doing that, you just have to do it repeatedly and, and do it consistently. Um, and none of those mistakes will get made. Um- Yeah

Paul Lovelace: Yeah. Something you just get used to y- after you do it a couple times. Yeah. Yeah. And then have a backup plan, contingency plan.

Brady Cox: That's right. But there's no doubt that if you have a chapel and you install fixed hardware, you know, multiple cameras, encoders, and so on, that gear will last you seven years. And, you know, on the day, your cameras will just turn on at the start of the service, and at the end of the service, they'll turn off, and you won't have to touch anything.

There's literally nothing you have to do as a funeral director on the day of the service except greet families and do a good job of that, right? And  so that's a complete contrast to how people typically have perceived streaming and those that are still doing it manually. Yeah.

Paul Lovelace: Yeah. You would think that it'd be very labor intensive and lots of room for mistakes and things along those lines.

That's right. And- Yeah ... that's not, that's not the reality of it. No, that's right. Exactly. Well, what, what are funeral directors getting right, you think, in your experience? What are they doing well in this area?

Brady Cox: So, uh, uh, it, I mean, it defaults back to what I just said then. I mean, if you've got the system set up you basically can't go wrong.

I do think that funeral directors, can be, can be pos- if I talk generalization, they should be directing and letting people know about the service more than they do, because I think that, again, it's out of their own fear or it's just a little bit more work in their mind. If it's no more work, they should be positioning it every time.

Yeah. Because families don't appreciate that on the day they're gonna forget, and they wanna come back and they can't. And so I think the way that they position it, you know, needs to be consistent.

Paul Lovelace: Yeah, I, I talked to a funeral owner last week, or recently I should say, and they, they have made the decision to charge a, a flat fee and make it available for every s- family- Yeah

regardless of if they're in the chapel or outside the chapel, because they just believe so strongly in the concept that they think every family should have the opportunity.

Brady Cox: Right. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And as I say, it's no extra work. You make a margin on it if you build it into your pricing properly and, it adds value to every single family.

I mean in terms of people coming back to your brand every time they look at it. Yeah.

Paul Lovelace: Yeah. Well, it's good to reinforce that. I mean- Mm ... you know, the funeral business is hard enough as it is with, uh, margins being compressed and competition and, and consumers being more demanding and all those things we hear about.

So if we can do some things to offset some of that, then I th- I think we've, we've done some good work here. So- Yeah ... I like that. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So what are you seeing us, I guess, specifically with the platform, uh, what features are you seeing families are drawn to the most? What do they like the best?

Brady Cox: Well, you know, we're, we're at the tail end of having totally reinvented ourselves, , and, and what we actually take to market because over the years, we realized that, I think I mentioned this already, 65% of people that watch a service actually watch a recording Wow. So you think about live streaming, only 35% of people watch it live, 65% watch it afterwards.

And we started clocking that a couple of years back and thought, "Well, we need to add value to that, element to it." You think about how people consume video today, you think about the sports that you watch. You don't sit down and watch a five-hour game. You watch three hours of it at most, and probably 20 minutes if you're in a hurry, right?

And how do you do that? You've got chapters, you've got highlights. You jump to the bits that you wanna see,  especially in the Ameri- uh, in the, um, World Cup, right? I, I'm not a big soccer fan- Yes ... but I've watched heaps of games. -

Paul Lovelace: Same. Yeah. And I actually prefer to watch the YouTube summary of it, 'cause you can watch that in 10 minutes and see all the highlights and all the penalty kicks and- Bang.

Exactly ... all the, all the things you wanna see and not the things you don't wanna see.

Brady Cox: Exactly. So take that to pretty much any, any videoed, piece of content. So music performances, churches even, church performances online. Yeah, anything where there's, where it's recorded and played back, people wanna come in, they wanna get to it at any time that they wanna get to it, and they wanna go to the good bits.

They wanna go to the highlights. And so we have actually, , totally reinvented the keepsake so that you can quickly access, you can access it any time in the future. So you can come back and, and type in the decedent's name and bring that keepsake back up again in 10 years' time, right? And then when you get in, you have the entire service broken down into the order of, sort, order of service.

So they're broken into chapters. So you can skip the introduction and go straight for the part where he's talking about his wife. And then inside that, we have, highlighted the, the real key moments. Those highlights that you come back to, to watch that are, you know, deemed to be the most engaging and meaningful parts.

You go straight to those parts, if you wanna watch it superficially for the first time, or those are the bits that you wanna return to all the time

Paul Lovelace: That's very innovative right there. I I think that's very clever- Mm-hmm ... because you might wanna just zero in on the eulogy or maybe there was something poignant or funny that was said by, by someone you wanna go back to that time and time again or wanna see- Yes

what someone's wearing. I don't know. People Yeah. That would be what some might wanna look for. Who knows?

Brady Cox: Yeah. It's interesting. There's all sorts of moments, there's all sorts of moments that, that, that people wanna come back to. So when we first started doing this, yeah, it's astounding. You can watch an entire service and not clock them, not capture them.

When they're called out and they're isolated as this key moment for a minute and a half, it's like that is a very key moment, and by itself- When you say- ... it's much stronger

Paul Lovelace: When you say keepsake, that's essentially the on-demand view, right? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Okay. And so w- but an individual may watch an on-demand view or a keepsake multiple times, right?

Brady Cox: Correct. But- That- And they do. So that, that 65% that I talked about is the initial just after the service, you look at how many viewers you've got out of 165 will be, watching the recording. That grows as a percentage to 75, 80, uh, in less than a year because people keep coming back. Yeah, they do.

Right? Right. So actually in total the-

Paul Lovelace: Because you've got holidays and you've got y- you know, anniversaries and- Anniversaries ... birthdays and- Correct. Yep You'd want to go back and remember them and, and think of them and-

Brady Cox: Or they'll come in and just look at that one bit Right. So they'll come back into that one part that they've, they got the most out of.

Um, so that's proved really popular, to answer your question. We, launched that, earlier, well, late last year, and, the adoption of that and the growth, that's come from that has been phenomenal 'cause people just get it. They don't wanna watch a whole service, but they wanna watch the the good bits.

So we actually doubled down on that and we now have just launched, something called Stories, where inside the key moments, there's actually 30, 40-second audio clips that we will extract. Oh, really? And that is even more powerful because it takes away the visual element to it, and you can listen to it at any time.

You download it to your phone, you can share it, you can put it on social media, you can get it out there, and you can listen to it again and again. It might be a funny joke if the story, it might be a really sentimental piece from someone you didn't expect, or something you didn't know about the deceased.

And you can listen to it, you know, as  much as you like, or keep it forever on your phone and listen to it every four years, you know? So, um, yeah, that's, that surprised us how, uh, emotionally engaging those things actually are, just the 30-second audio clip.

Paul Lovelace: Well, yeah, I mean, I can, I can see the views just growing, growing over time.

That's so good. Yes. Yeah. Great idea. Yeah. Well, good deal. Well, well I can't have you on the podcast and, and not bring up the whole music licensing thing, Brady, so- Because it's kind of a confusing subject, but it- Oh. Mm-hmm ... can you, can you k- provide some clarity on that? Because, uh, I know there's been some discussion on what can they legally, uh, show at the funeral home or in a performance basis or in a recorded basis.

So can you, can you just give us- Yeah ... the facts on this?

Brady Cox: Yeah, absolutely. Yep. I, I mean, uh, took a little while to boil down what we were dealing with, when I first got advice that, that actually the, the industry is in breach. So spoke to a lot of people. But in a nutshell, the licenses that we've all acquired over time, protect us for playing the music during a service, streaming the music, so sharing it live with others.

But what they don't protect you for is actually that keepsake and recording, right? And everybody wants to do that. They post it on their obituary sites afterwards, they make it available, like I've been talking about. That's where that 65% of people who get benefit, that's where it sits, right? Yes. That is called, that is protected by a different group of people.

That's from the copyright holders who actually made the songs or who, produced it. And that's, you can't license that unless you go directly to the source of the person who made the song. Right. And there's thousands and thousands obviously of artists and pieces of music that we listen to in this industry.

And so that's been a little known fact, although actually a lot of people  did know it and have not been able to do anything about it. So we've been approached over the years by big firms saying, "What, what is the story with this?" And we've not had a good answer. No one has. And so when I got involved in it, I realized we could get sued and the funeral homes can get sued, and so started addressing it.

And the only way outside of getting a license for every single song is to mute it in the recording. Okay. So how do you mute, on average services have seven copyrighted songs that are actually, on average in every service. How do you go through and mute seven songs for every single service?

We do 60,000 services a year on our platform today. How do you do that? Right. And that's why it's never been solved until now. Yeah. So yeah, we built the technology, using AI to be able to identify and search. We test all the  songs. We identify the ones that are copyrighted. We then, very accurately find the start and the finish of the song in the recording, and we mute that song as long as there's no voice in there.

So if there's no humans talking, then we mute it. If there is, then we don't. Right. So we, we, we trim it right back to where the start of the people were. So that's all very tricky. Can you imagine doing that-

Paul Lovelace: Oh, I can only imagine. No ...um, in video software. Yeah. So if it's live, it's okay because they're current- Correct The, the current license, if you will, that they pay for through ASCAP or whatever, NFDA- Yep

covers that live performance. Yes. But it's the recorded performance.

Brady Cox: That's right. So it's the people coming back and watching it later. And so, you know, when you first see it, it's kind of, it's a bit strange. No one ... I, I don't like it. No one likes it. No one thinks this is amazing when you see muted music at the start.

But then you realize two things. One is we do provide a link to the, to the song, so we actually provide a playlist, which is quite cool. You actually get a playlist of all the songs that the person liked. , And you can listen to them on your own player, right, at the time of the service. But the other thing is, coming back to what I said before, when you come back in, you don't actually watch the start.

You watch the people walking in a little bit, but you don't want the 10 minutes of people walking in and the five songs that came with it. You go to the eulogies, the tributes, the key moments. And so we know that, 'cause we look at the people watching an hour and 20, um, service will watch 25 minutes of it, right?

So they come in and they watch 25 minutes. So they don't actually watch the bit with all the music in it anyway. So it's- That makes sense ... it's an interesting subject.

Paul Lovelace: I was gonna say, thanks for providing some clarity on that, and that was very smart way to resolve it a- and at least- Yeah ... allow the rest of the video to be shown.

Brady Cox: That's right. Yeah. It doesn't impact the live and, we don't over- override any voice, and that's just the most critical part. I mean, everyone cares about what people are saying. Good deal ... and look, there's, there's a lot of  smaller players out there that, that still think this is an unnecessary risk.

So long as they're prepared to accept liability on their behalf, then, then we will turn it back on again. So we'll turn this feature off, but what we're doing is giving people the power to protect themselves if they want to.

Paul Lovelace: Makes a lot of sense. I like it. Yeah. How are you seeing it benefit pre-need at the funeral home?

I mean, I think every pre-need should have a live streaming component to it if it w- in an ideal world. Problem is, if the funeral home doesn't offer live streaming, you know, you can't sell it on a pre-need basis. So, um, if we can get more funeral homes to see the value in live streaming, I think absolutely we can plan ahead for live streaming in the pre-need concept.

What are your conversations like?

Brady Cox: Our conversations of pre-need Yeah a pretty, it's a pretty common conversation for us, because what we realized some time ago is that, right throughout the whole viewing of the service, from the time people register for it through the time that they watch it again and again with the keepsake, there's a lot of time where they're looking at a screen, actively engaged in that screen.

And there's an opportunity for the funeral home to be posting things like flowers, grief support, plant a tree, make donations, but also pre-need. So- You're thinking about a pre-need lead source potentially, right? We've- I hear you ... I'm talking-- Yeah, no, it's a, it's a real thing. It's been, we've been doing it for quite a while, and we've really refined it down.

So you can just stick a pre-need button on there and hope people will push it. But we, we have actually now... we actually produce a banner, that goes along the bottom. It's really elegant. It fits right on into the setting. But it says something along the lines of the benefits of pre-arranging, you know, take the stress out of it for your family, inquire, and people will click on that.

And then we'll do another screen, which again, talks about the benefits of pre-need really simply, so that people know for a fact that they're clicking on something about pre-need. They haven't accidentally clicked on it. Wow. And then they hit submit, and we've already captured their email address. Uh, we've shown them that.

And so they submit a request for more information, right? You then get, as a funeral home, you get, a lead sheet with the name of the person that's asking, the name of the decedent, the time of the service and so on, so you can reach out to them. Seventy-five percent of the people that register for a service actually voluntarily give you their cell phone number as well Wow Right?

So you got, you're getting some good stuff. So now when you're getting pre-need leads, , you have contact details including their cell phone 75% of the time. That's a universal standard percentage. It's bizarre. We don't make them do 75%. And so, you will get a qualified, qualified in the way that I've just explained it, you will get a qualified lead every three services on average.

Paul Lovelace: That's really, really good. You th- because you think about it, th- they're, they're opting in to learn more. They're  raising their hand and said, "I have a question." Yep. So that's a, that is indeed a, um, degree of qualification. Right. So I like that. And, you know, it's natural whenever you're experiencing a funeral in person or virtually to think about your own mortality, right?

Exactly. You're sitting there with people. So why not click a button to learn more? Exactly. Yeah. Maybe not for everybody- Absolutely ... but for some people, yeah.

Brady Cox: so, so yeah, that's, that's been very popular, and I think,, it's just another source of names that you should nurture over time., I, I think we've had, varying degrees of close rates from, you know, 0 to 30% depending on how people follow up and what they do.

Um- I can see that ... but it's a, it's a continuous ongoing source of leads for, for pre-need. So one and a half percentage of the population click on pre-need Say that again. What's the percentage? One, 1.5% of all people that view will actually inquire about pre-need. So that's your- Okay ... that's your conversion rate or your hit rate to leads.

That's not bad. How, how long have you been doing, having that feature available? About a, just over a year, but in varying forms. And so- Okay ... where we've had it now, it's been about sort of six months or so. Um, yeah.

Paul Lovelace: What a great idea. Another-... solid innovation there. And, uh- Yeah. No worries ... because you wanna, you wanna let people have an opportunity to talk about their own funeral services or what they want or what they don't want- Yeah

With a professional. Absolutely. Yeah. Agreed. Well, when you first brought up pre-need, I was thinking about not lead sources, I was thinking about, uh, having that as part of the pre-need contract, live streaming, because I- Ah ... I think that's a, that's a big part of it. Um, if, if you have a, a surcharge, are you thinking most people are building in their service charge or they have a separate charge for live streaming?

Or you're seeing both, I guess?

Brady Cox: Yeah, the, more and more people are building it in, but they built, I mean, it's a broad subject, right? How the funeral sector prices, but- Yeah ... if they're offering different packages, they tend to put it into the most popular package with the things that are most common, layer them up and charge an appropriate amount for the whole lot.

So that, and , then they sell those like 75% of the time or whatever it is. That's how it probably goes most of the time. But others are just putting, you know, and, and you can, if you do it all of the time, you can put in a smaller amount into your professional services. It doesn't have to be a $250 bump on your pro services.

Oh, yeah. You could put in a 60, $70 bump and make a, a good margin on, , streaming if you do it every time. So-

Paul Lovelace: Well, th- this kinda gets to what's at stake for funeral homes with regard- Mm-hmm ... because it's opportunity, right? Uh, we look at a big, a big challenge right now for funeral homes is direct cremation.

Agreed. I mean, those are cremations with no services or what have you, but, uh, but if you want to have a live stream as a part of your cremation, then that just implies there will be other people there, right? Yes. And so that- Yeah ... that helps have the conversation in a different light. And so maybe they're considering other options now that live stream is involved because you have somebody who wants to, uh, view remotely or wants to hear, uh, uh, you know, a eulogy or a poem reading or some, some part of the ceremony, right?

Brady Cox: Well, absolutely. And I think that's the way that the industry's gonna have to head to some degree. Obviously, the different types of ceremonies, the places we do them is gonna change. It's already changing. But you know, the scattering of ashes and the smaller ceremonies that can happen on the side are just as valid to keep, as a full service inside a chapel to some degree.

Uh, and yeah, we're having, you know, one chap wants to hook his drone up to cameras as he does live drops of ashes over the mountains. You know, we're getting all kinds of requests for, for streaming out in the field. Oh, that's a new one- ... I guess. Yeah. I mean, any camera can be streamed that's an IP camera, right?

Doesn't have to be- Yeah ... an iPad or a, or a fixed camera thing. Any- anything with an RTMP stream, which is effectively an IP camera, you can stream it. So, you know, think of all the scenarios that you could, you could actually do this in. Yeah, they're endless. Yeah, obviously from a services point of view, you're wanting to have people participate and structure those ceremonies and add value to celebration of life outside in a garden, in a wherever.

You need portable cameras, but you could be streaming them , and every one of those is a keepsake revenue, uh, increases your reputation, gets you data for the community. It's got tribute buttons, pre-needs, and its own profitable line item. I mean, there's so much business case for streaming as much as you can.

Paul Lovelace: Well, yeah, because you think about, uh, the streaming that takes place outside the funeral home that they're currently not capturing if they're having a celebration of life somewhere- Mm ... but also a funeral service. B- so people could have something at their office or at their church or in a park- Yep ... or some other place.

Yep. I love that. Yeah. Great work. Yeah. Great work. Thank you. W- well, good deal. Well, as we, as we wrap up here a little bit, Brady, um, w- what's some advice that you might wanna share with our listeners being, knowing that there are a lot of funeral directors, some funeral home owners, funeral professionals?

What advice would you give them about live streaming?

Brady Cox: So I think, I think there's lots of advice we could give. The one thing I think I'd give across the board, whether you're using One Room or not, is do it consistently and establish standard operating procedures so that everybody knows this is exactly how it works.

It's not a big deal. We do it all the time. We have a dedicated device for it, and we make it a repeatable, regular thing, and then it just gets into the flow. The only time that mistakes ever happen or experiences aren't positive is if someone's forgotten or they don't have a thing because they don't do it all the time.

Right.

Paul Lovelace: So if you're inconsistent, yeah, someone else, some family didn't get the same benefit that the other family got, right? That's right. Is that what you're alluding to? Exactly. Good advice. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, I guess on that note, think about the future about live streaming in 10 years. Sure. Because it's...

How, what, what's your vision for that? How, how's it gonna be different, you think, in 10 years?

Brady Cox: To, you know, the, the rate of change 10 years now looking forward is a whole lot faster than even going back 10 years, right? So it's , who knows actually what's happening. Obviously, holograms- Mm ... virtual reality-

um, all of those sorts of things are being floated about. You're blowing my mind right now. Yeah. So, you know, I, I mean, absolutely. I mean, there already are holograms that replicate a decedent based on interviews and photographs and things like that, that you can buy units with little people in them that are the decedents.

I mean, you know, that, that... A lot of people talk about things like that. Wow.  I think my personal belief is that what we do as, as a profession is an incredibly human thing. And I think as those things develop, by that time people will be craving more human contact across the board, and they will be looking for human empathy at a time of need way more than gimmickry, right?

So what we're doing with streaming is we're capturing that human compassion in that moment, in that service, and we're sharing it, and we're not adding stuff to it that makes it look tricky or whatever. So I'm aware of one company actually, not in the States, but they're, they're producing tribute videos based on AI.

They're making content of things that didn't happen. So they're using the image of an individual to create, you know, Granddad flying a fighter plane in World War II. And that stuff's gonna happen, and you're gonna get it. We probably  won't touch it, because of what I just said before. Well, I'm CEO anyway.

Uh, but that's gonna happen. But I do think that the way that people consume video for absolutely everything and they depend on it, no one reads anymore, this will be absolutely 100% of the time it'll be streamed, , and people will be able to access it any time, which is great 'cause we're gonna have people being able to be remembered forever

Paul Lovelace: Good stuff right there, Brady.

Um, we'll, we'll see what happens in the future. It'll be here before you know it. That's right. It's already here. Yeah . Well, Brady, thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing your perspective. Just fascinating stuff. What I appreciate about this conversation is just that it reminds us about live streaming is not just technology decision, it's really at its best another way funeral professionals can extend their care, include more people, help families feel supported during the most meaningful moments of their entire life.

So thank you for being here and for your passion for live streaming, for helping funeral  homes.

Brady Cox: Absolute pleasure, Paul. It's been great chatting to you.

Paul Lovelace: Thank you. And thanks everyone for listening today on Director's Playbook. If today's conversation was helpful in any way, uh, be sure to subscribe and, and share this episode with someone in the profession.

And join us next time as we continue exploring the ideas, tools, and conversations shaping the future of funeral service. Thanks, everybody. See you next time