Changing demand in the market for live music

Is this a blip in demand, or a shift along the product life cycle of the live music industry? According to this report in the Guardian, live music revenues in the UK dropped by 6.7% in 2010, after a decade of growth that saw income increase by 9.4% in 2009 and 13% in 2008.

The live music industry has enjoyed ten years of strong growth and this has supported the music publishing market at a time when revenues from recorded music have declined rapidly in the era of music downloads and file-sharing. Music festivals and arena tours have proved highly profitable. But are there signs that the market has matured and there will be less profit to be earned in a time when the live music industry has excess capacity (i.e. too many events chasing too few customers).

Some good evidence in the article that students could add to their notes, including a suggestion that the music industry is reluctant to invest in new artists (new product development). If many of the top-selling albums (digital or otherwise) in 2010 have been around for a while, that is good evidence of the publishers managing their products as cash cows rather than stars.