The promising uptick in overall music industry revenue we’ve seen over the last few of years could easily fizzle out in an extended period of loss like the one on the horizon right now. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Coachella SXSW is canceled. Coachella is delayed. Live Nation and AEG tours are suspended. Broadway is going dark. Some TV talk shows continue, eerily absent their lively studio audiences. Major sporting events are off until further notice.
The impending live music freezeout drives home the extent to which the current music industry model is, itself, a kind of disaster relief strategy built to counteract a precipitous drop in the public concept of how much a song or album is worth. It has succeeded thus far at returning a measure of the rule of law to the machine by offering access to digital streaming platforms at unbeatable Columbia House subscription prices all year round.
In the streaming age, we’ve learned that many listeners who won’t necessarily pay very much for music will often spring for access and memorabilia. The enterprising artist is out on the road on both sides of the Atlantic hawking merch and doing meet-and-greets as often as their bodies and minds allow, the idea being that fans who have the means can subsidize what the casual listener no longer will.
Coronavirus is the nightmare scenario that calls the viability of this business structure into question. It’s the bottom falling out of the idea that everyone will always want to be in the room. A major tributary for touring artists is drying up quick with no end in sight. With it goes work for sound and lighting teams, people working merch tables, bartenders, and so on.
What can we do? Support, support, support. If it’s in your budget, show love to an artist you like. Buy an album. Hit up a merch store. Keep running up streams and helping boost artists’ signals on social media. In the long term, let’s start thinking about better ways to navigate the relationship between artist and audience. Fan-funded album projects cut overhead way down.
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