The Music Industry in the COVID-19 Pandemic – Live Nation

The COVID-19 pandemic hits the live music sector hardest since the end of World War II. The sector has been shut down since March 2020 in most of the countries. Concert and festivals were cancelled or postponed due to social distancing and lockdown measures. A report of Media Insight Consulting[1] estimates that 64 per cent of the UK’s live music workforce of 262,000 full-time employees will have lost their jobs by Christmas. Thus, 170,000 cultural workers in the music sector – most of them self-employed and freelance workers – will be out of work. At the end of March 2020, the German music industry associations estimated a loss of revenue for the live music sector of EUR 4,543 million for the period from April to September 2020. We can expect a much higher revenue loss for the last quarter 2020 due to the continued lockdown of the German music festival and concert sector.

However, the live music sector is highly fragmented and diverse. The international concert promoting market is dominated by large live music conglomerates such as the US-based Live Nation and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) as well as the German CTS Eventim. They control an oligopolistic industry with myriads of small music venues, concert promoters, bookers and management agencies that have no impact on the market structure and processes. These medium and small sized live music organizers struggle for survival and are dependent on public financial support. However, how is the situation for the large conglomerates? Is their existence also at stake? This blog post tries to answer these question by analysing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world’s largest concert and ticketing conglomerate Live Nation. Based on the quarterly reports from January to September 2020, it is analysed how the live entertainment giant has been affected by the pandemic and highlights Live Nation’s strategy to weather the storm.

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International Journal of Music Business Research – October 2020, vol. 9, no. 2

The October issue 2020 of the International Journal of Music Business Research (IJMBR) is a special issue on the “Festivalisation of Live Music” edited by Erik Hitters and Carsten Winter. After a introductory editorial, the first article by Jeff Apruzzese presents a close-up look into the practices of the music festival industry in the USA, by focusing on radius clauses, also known as exclusivity deals. Apruzzese draws up a compelling argument on how these clauses affect local venues and other organizers of live music, effectively obstructing their choice of bands to play for local audiences.

Erik Hitters & Marijn Mulder explore local policies on live music and festivals in their contribution “Live music ecologies and festivalization: the role of urban live music policies”. In particular, their focus is on how such policies have been subject to festivalization.

A special contribution is from renowned live music researcher Martin Cloonan, who looks back at fifteen years of active involvement in live music research in the UK. In “Trying to have an impact: Some confessions of a live music researcher” he mindfully reflects on the paradoxes of his role as an academic observer and analyst and the need for informed and impactful interventions in the business and policies of live music.

The special October issue rounds up with a book review by Daniel Nordgard on “Can Music Make You Sick? Measuring the price of musical ambition” by Sally A. Gross and George Musgrave.

 

 

Volume 9, no 2, October 2020 – special issue on the festivalization of live music

Editorial by Erik Hitters & Carsten Winter: The festivalization of live music, pp. 4-12

Jeffrey Apruzzese: Navigating troubled waters; how are music festivals affecting the local concert industry, pp. 13-37

Erik Hitters & Martijn Mulder: Live music ecologies and festivalisation: the role of urban live music policies, pp. 38-57

Martin Cloonan: Trying to have an impact: Some confessions of a live music researcher, pp. 58-82

Book review by Daniel Nordgård: Can Music Make You Sick? Measuring the price of musical ambition by Sally A. Gross & George Musgrave, pp. 83-86

 

 

The 9th Vienna Music Business Research Days in Retrospective

The 9^th Vienna Music Business Research Days on “Music Life Is Live” gathered again renown music business researchers and music business professionals at the University of Music and Performing Arts to discuss the “Political Economics of Music Festivals” and “The International Concert and Touring Business”.

The invited conference day of the Vienna Music Business Research Days 2018 was opened by the president of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Ulrike Sych, with a welcome address to the conference participants and the audience.

9th Vienna Music Business Research Days 2018 on “Music Life Is Live”

The 9th Vienna Music Business Research Days 2018 on “Music Life Is Live” start tomorrow with the Young Scholars’ Workshop (closed event for students). All events on Sep. 13 and 14 in Joseph Haydn-Hall at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna will be the open to the public.

Check the program here:

https://musicbusinessresearch.wordpress.com/vienna-music-business-research-days-2/

and buy tickets here: https://ntry.at/vmbrdays/performances/7800?l=de

If you cannot make it to the conference,, there will be live video stream of the Invited Conference Day (September 14) starting at 9am (CEST) on our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/ViennaMusicBusinessResearchDays

Introducing our guests: Alan Krueger (Princeton University)

“Music Life Is Live” is the main topic of the 9^th Vienna Music Business Research Days from Sep. 12-14, 2018. In presentations and discussions music business representatives and music business researchers focus this time on the political economy of music festivals and the economics of the international concert and touring business. Find the program here.

The former Chairman of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, Professor Alan Krueger holds a keynote on “The Economics of the International Live Music Business” in Joseph Haydn-Hall at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna on Sep. 14 from 15:00-15:45 by video conference from Princeton University.

Alan Krueger is the Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University.  He has published research on the gig economy, minimum wage, value of education, income inequality, terrorism, and Rockonomics. Since 1987 he has held a joint appointment in the Economics Department and Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Professor Krueger served as Chairman of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and a Member of the Cabinet from 2011 to 2013.  He also served as Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 2009-10 and as Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Labor in 2004-05.

He was elected Vice President of the American Economic Association in 2016, and is the founding President of the Music Industry Research Association (MIRA). He was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 1996, and a fellow of the Society of Labor Economists in 2005. He was awarded the Kershaw Prize by the Association for Public Policy and Management in 1997 (for distinguished contributions to public policy analysis by someone under the age of 40) and the Mahalanobis Memorial Medal by the Indian Econometric Society in 2001. In 2002 Professor Krueger was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and in 2003 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He was awarded the IZA Prize in Labor Economics in 2006.  He was awarded the Moynihan Prize by the American Academy of Political and Social Science in 2017.

He received a B.S. degree from Cornell University in 1983, and A.M. and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1987.

 

 

Introducing our guests: Beate Flath (University of Paderborn)

“Music Life Is Live” is the main topic of the 9^th Vienna Music Business Research Days from Sep. 12-14, 2018. In presentations and discussions music business representatives and music business researchers focus this time on the political economy of music festivals and the economics of the international concert and touring business. Find the program here.

Beate Flath gives the morning keynote on “The Political Economics of Music Festivals” on September 14 from 9:15-9:45 in Joseph Haydn-Hall at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and then moderates a panel discussion with Axel Ballreich (LiveKomm, Hamburg) Hannah Crepaz (Osterfestival Tirol, Austria), Peter Smidt (Eurosonic Noorderslag Festival, Netherlands), Martin Cloonan (University of Turku , Finland), Detlef Schwarte (Reeperbahn Festival Hamburg, Germany)

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Beate Flath studied musicology, art history and business administration at the University of Graz, Austria. Since 2015 she is junior professor for event management at Paderborn University, Germany; Current publication (in progress): Beate Flath, Martin Cloonan & Adam Behr (eds.) IASPM-journal – Special Issue: Pop music festivals and (cultural) policies (9/1, 2019), More information: www.beateflath.net.

 

 

Introducing our guests: Axel Ballreich (LiveKomm and Concertbüro Franken)

“Music Life Is Live” is the main topic of the 9^th Vienna Music Business Research Days from Sep. 12-14, 2018. In presentations and discussions music business representatives and music business researchers focus this time on the political economy of music festivals and the economics of the international concert and touring business. Find the program here.

Besides Martin Cloonan (University of Turku, Finland), Hannah Crepaz (Osterfestival Tirol, Austria), Detlef Schwarte (Reeperbahn Festival Hamburg, Germany) and Peter Smidt (Eurosonic Noorderslag, The Netherlands) Axel Ballreich is a participant in the panel discussion of “The Political Economics of Music Festivals” moderated by Beate Flath on September 14 from 9:45-11:15 in Joseph Haydn-Hall at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Axel Ballreich studied sociology and finished his diploma in 1987 in Bamberg. He is promoting concerts since 1982 and is running two music clubs in Nuremburg, the Hirsch with a capacity of 700 and the Löwensaal with a capacity of 1,500. He has also promoted more than a dozen open air festivals in North Bavaria with his promoting and booking agency Concertbüro Franken. Axel Ballreich is also the co-founder and one of the CEOs of the Hamburg-based LiveMusikKommission (LiveKomm), an umbrella organization representing more than 450 music clubs and festivals in 100 German towns and municipalities.

 

 

Introducing our guests: Ernst L. Hartz (E. L. Hartz Promotion, Bonn)

“Music Life Is Live” is the main topic of the 9^th Vienna Music Business Research Days from Sep. 12-14, 2018. In presentations and discussions music business representatives and music business researchers focus this time on the political economy of music festivals and the economics of the international concert and touring business. Find the program here.

Ernst L. Hartz is a participant of the panel discussion on “The International Concert and Touring Business” with Jake Beaumont-Nesbitt (International Music Managers Forum, London, UK), Harry Jenner (Frequency Festival, Austria) and Peter Jenner (Sincere Music, London, UK) moderated by Berthold Seliger from 16:15-17:30 in Joseph Haydn-Hall at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Ernst-Ludwig Hartz is promoting concerts and festivals since 40 years. As a local promoter he worked with Rage against the Machine, Pink Floyd, U2, Tine Turner, Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Page & Plant, Roxy Music, Coldplay or Eminem to name just a few.

One of his festivals was the Bizarre Festival (1987-2002) – the first big alternative festival in Germany. Bands like the Foo Fighters, Beck, Iggy Pop, Rammstein, die Ärzte, die Toten Hosen, The Chemical Brothers, Korn or Faith No More played at the event.

Since 2012 with his partner Martin Nötzel he has build an open air site in the Beethoventown Bonn-Kunst!Rasen – a 9,000 capacity venue which saw artists like Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Santana, Gov’t Mule, Jan Delay & Disko No 1, BAP, Limp Bizkit, ZAZ or Deichkind. His latest coup were three shows at Roncalliplatz in Cologne(near the cathedral) which saw this summer sold out shows with Van Morrison, Patti Smith and Joan Baez.

 

 

 

Introducing our guests: Berthold Seliger (Konzertagentur Seliger, Berlin)

“Music Life Is Live” is the main topic of the 9^th Vienna Music Business Research Days from Sep. 12-14, 2018. In presentations and discussions music business representatives and music business researchers focus this time on the political economy of music festivals and the economics of the international concert and touring business. Find the program here.

On September 14, Berthold Seliger (Konzertagentur Seliger, Berlin) holds a keynote on “Empire business or cultural diversity. About the reality of the concert business” from 14:00-14:45 in Joseph Haydn-Hall at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He is also moderating the panel discussion on “The International Concert and Touring Business” with Jake Beaumont-Nesbitt (International Music Managers Forum, London, UK), Ernst L. Hartz (E. L. Hartz Promotion Bonn, Germany), Harry Jenner (Frequency Festival, Austria), Peter Jenner (Sincere Music, London, UK) from 16:15-17:30 in Haydn-Hall.

Berthold Seliger is European agent and German tour promoter for more than 30 years. He is also writing books about the business with music (“Das Geschäft mit der Musik”, 2013, 7^th edition; “Klassikkampf”, 2017, 2^nd edition), and his essays on cultural, musical and political issues are regularly published in newspapers and magazines in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (Berliner Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Jungle World, Konkret, Versorgerin and others). He is doing lecture shows on these topics from Berlin to Beijing (www.bseliger.de).

 

 

 

 

Introducing our guests: Carsten Winter (Hanover Universiy of Music, Drama and Media)

“Music Life Is Live” is the main topic of the 9^th Vienna Music Business Research Days from Sep. 12-14, 2018. In presentations and discussions music business representatives and music business researchers focus this time on the political economy of music festivals and the economics of the international concert and touring business. Find the program here.

Carsten Winter gives a short presentation with Detlef Schwarte on “Music Festival Conferences as Live Incubators of the Music Industry” within the panel discussion “The Political Economics of Music Festivals” with Hannah Crepaz (Osterfestival Tirol, Austria), Martin Cloonan (University of Turku , Finland) and Peter Smidt (Eurosonic Noorderslag, The Netherlands) on September 14 from 9:45-11:15 in Joseph Haydn-Hall at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Carsten Winter is Full Professor of Media and Music Management at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (Germany). He researches media and culture histories, transformations and conjunctures, (strategic) media and music management, music networks and cities. His more than twenty books include Cultural Studies (with R. Bromley and U. Göttlich, 1999), Die Cultural Studies Kontroverse (with A. Hepp, The Cultural Studies controversy, 2003), Konvergenz und Medienwirtschaft (with M. Karmasin – Convergence and Media Economy, 2006), Connectivity, Network and Flows. Conceptualizing Contemporary Communications (with A. Hepp, F. Krotz and Sh. Moores, 2008). Carsten Winter is Dean of Students for all scientific programs (incl. Phd-Programs) of the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, Director of the MA Program “Media and Music”, one of the editors of the International Journal of Music Business Research (IJMBR), and elected Board Member of the International Music Business Research Association (IMBRA).

Find an abstract of the short presentation here.