Results of the Curveball: 2020 Impact on Live Music
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| Many venues were dark March 2020 |
While 2020 saw a historic decline in live show revenue--such as that Live Nation revenue declined 83% year-over-year--there was a 9% increase in recorded music revenue nationally. This is the fifth straight year with rising revenue, led by music subscription services like Amazon Music Unlimited , Apple Music and Spotify. Since there's nowhere to go but up, Live Nation's second quarter of this year had an increase of over 670%. Not bad.
While no industry is risk-free, the music industry especially is known to be constantly changing, and having tight profit margins and many cases of cut-throat business practices, along with ten-year overnight successes and millions of musicians over the decades who have tried to find the magic formula for success, which until proven otherwise is a lifetime of hard work plus a dash of luck. Last year, the brave souls who made the music industry home were thrown the curve ball of the century. Perhaps even the curveball of the past 500 years. For the first time in history, people could not gather. This wasn't optional. It was the law. Venues closed. Stages were dark. Musicians that were entrepreneurial looked to livestreaming to satiate fans and the inner creative beast. But the blow to the live music scene was historical and astronomical.
However, musicians and the music industry folks are not known for uncreative ideas or lack of gumption, and I predict music fans will be eager to get back into music for both its emotional release as well as its social aspects i.e. "where you at?" People will be just kind of eager to see live music again.
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| Lollapalooza festival Chicago 2021 |
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