Here’s how the massive outbreak of the Coronavirus has been affecting the music industry.
The outbreak of the Coronavirus has been massive in the past few weeks. At first it felt like it was something that could be control easily, next, it had spread all across the globe into countries that we never knew it would reach. It has now been confirmed that the virus has entered every continent in the world except Antarctica.
There are confirmed cases of the coronavirus in literally every country right now including South Africa. Sadly, that hasn’t been good for the music business which requires contact to keep growing and making profit. You may wonder how exactly the spread of the virus affects the music business if songs can be played from anywhere, but you’d be surprised that just playing songs isn’t the only thing that keeps the business alive. Don’t worry, we’ll explain.
If you’ve paid a lot of attention to the news lately, then you must have heard that some of the biggest music concerts in the world have either been cancelled or postponed to later dates. By later dates, we mean till the far ending of the year, which is still not certain because no health update has been given on the time frame that it could take to eradicate the virus.
All over the news, the world’s biggest concerts including Coachella, SXSW, and more have announced that the events wouldn’t hold as they usually do annually. RollingStone reports that the 26 billion dollar Live Events industry is at stake due to the slew of concert cancellations all over the world especially in the US. In the case of Coachella, the event was first rumoured to have been postponed till October but it wasn’t really confirmed till its organisers finally released an official statement. SXSW in Texas was also cancelled after thousands of people signed an online petition to place a ban of large gatherings.
Artistes like Madonna, and Pearl Jam were also forced to cancel their events. The finishing tour dates of Pop icon, Madonna’s Madame X world tour were reportedly cut after officials announced a ban on large gatherings and concerts in France. All over the world, health officials advice against the holding of concerts because the virus requires contact to spread.
According to reports, many artistes especially in China have been forced to hold online concerts from the comfort of their bedrooms. This may seem funny but that’s exactly the new reality of things right now. Also, according to new reports, all over the world, people have resigned to the safety of their homes and now also work from there. This may seem great for the music industry but not entirely. It would seem like a win because many prefer to either listen to the radio more, or stream songs online.
Of course, this is expected to cause a great boost in music streams which is great for artistes, but it also means that music streams are constant in competition with movies. Due to boredom of course, many wouldn’t just lay around playing music, they’d also think about binge watching movie series which may not be that much of a plus for music streams.
Also, there’s the case of artistes also keeping indoors and not meeting with their colleagues for collaborations. You may argue and say it would still be easier for artistes who have make shift studios at home, but be reminded that the percentage of artistes who would have studios at home would be incredibly lower than those who don’t. Also, in the case of shooting music videos for already recorded songs, there would be a decrease in the release of videos for songs as artistes wouldn’t show up to shoots.
Then, there’s the other case of tour merches. What’s the use in purchasing merchandise for concerts or tours if they aren’t going to hold? Due to the cancellation of concerts, fans may still not be interested in buying the merches to these concerts and lead to a massive decrease in the profit the sale of the merchandise should have brought.
The music industry is definitely at stake right now, the new artistes who need the exposure of concerts to promote their brand would definitely be affected. Also, current artistes who would also need to promote their new music releases at various concerts or even award shows and events will not be able to do so.
This would definitely cost the music industry so much as new music and albums would only be promoted minimally, and artistes would have to compete with each other based on choices made by their bored fans at home. The scary part is, no one has any idea how long all this will happen. Many say it is only getting started.
