Content overload leads to live music boom

Revenues from live music globally will grow at an average annual rate of 3% to 2020, new research reveals, as live events find increasing popularity among smartphone-saturated consumers.

Writing in its Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2016–2020 report, an in-depth forecast of global consumer spending and advertising revenues in the worldwide entertainment and media (E&M) market, accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says: “With consumers now having an astonishing array of choice delivered to their hands via the content available on a smartphone, an increasing premium is placed upon the live experience: be that watching the Super Bowl on TV, going to the cinema or a gig or, increasingly, tuning in to e-sports tournaments.”

PwC’s researchers also noted that the decline in recorded music revenues has led to an increased dependence on live music for the music industry as a whole, which in turn “has changed the economics of the industry, with record companies extending their revenue streams to include live performance and concert promoters expanding into artist management”.

The full report, which also covers the music industry as a whole, as well segments on book publishing, B2B, cinema, internet access, internet advertising, magazine publishing, newspaper publishing, out-of-home advertising, radio, TV advertising, TV and video and video games, can be purchased in full from the PricewaterhouseCoopers website.

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