The Live Music Industry & Business: Pivoting Reactions to COVID-19
Abstract
In March 2020, the emergence of COVID-19 soon led to widespread economic and cultural carnage in the music and entertainment industries, with immediate and most direct implication on the live music sector. Overnight closures and unfulfilled ticket orders pressured the live-music economic model the industry once thrived on. This paper examines the different opportunities and threats live music venues, managers, promoters, and artists faced as a result of the crisis. Including the use of business pivoting theory presented in Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup, it is shown how the live music sector reacted to COVID-19 through the variety of decision-making practices implemented to cut costs and instill new growth practices. The methodology for this is in the form of a qualitative study and founded on inductive reasoning. Analysis of twelve industry interviews supports the popular reactionary shift to implement more online/digital practices during the pandemic. Later reactions support a second wave of decisions that reconsider these practices’ profitability, potential implementation, and growth in the new climate. It is argued that COVID-19’s shock in the traditional live industry allowed many companies to readjust their models, leading the live music industry to become less of a cashflow gamble than it once was.
Publication Date
7-1-2020
Campus
Valencia (Spain) Campus
Recommended Citation
Napier, Alyssa. “The Live Music Industry & Business: Pivoting Reactions to COVID-19.” Master's Project, Berklee College of Music, 2020. https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-global-entertainment-business/144
Comments
Project Components: one outcome paper, one reflection paper.