Introduction
Music industry is arguably one of the largest and most dynamic of the entertainment industry. Music industry has evolved from one level to another since the origin of man. Music industry is very dynamic and keeps on changing with the change in all aspects of the society in terms of technology, tastes and preferences, marketing and communication.
Modern trends have introduced a variety of options for music industry especially in marketing. Things have changed from the traditional off shelf purchasing of music to more dynamic and interactive concept. Live music is an important part of music industry and this paper looks into how live music affect music industries.
Sales
Perhaps one of the most important uses of the live music is for marketing. The music industry has continually changed from the tradition way where marketing was done through newspapers and media stations. The modern society has shifted from the “give receive” era to an interactive one.
Music artists use live music to market their music since it is more effective (Knab and Day 7). Due to the emotional connection between the artists and the fans advertisement during live music shows is usually more effective as compared to other means of advertisement. A report by Wan argued that:
Many retailers are looking to make and extensive involvement with live music an integral part of their marketing strategies citing consumer trends and the tenuous economic climate at retail as a reason for a move beyond more time proven methods. (Wan 43)
By using live music concerts the retailers are able to narrow down on specific audience hence being more effective. Live shows go hand in hand with collaboration with other sponsors or even several artists holding such events together. Other promotional activities such as signing autographs giving out of promotional materials such as advertisement brochures and even selling of music in the live music events is a very effective tool of marketing. This has changed the way music industry markets its products (Lieberman and Esgate 245).
Rearranging the Marketing Chain
Live music enables the artists themselves to get access to their customers and this resulted to overriding middlemen whose role was to market music. With the current information avenues especially internet applications, music artists can use live music as an advertisement and then place their music on strategic locations such as internet and this has changed the whole marketing structure.
I concur with Moon G that with the modern marketing strategies especially live music then the artists are able to cut on costs and save a lot more in the long run (Summer 243; Summers 2).
Customer Experience
Every business strives to create customer loyalty by providing customer experience. Live music is usually the best leverage when it comes to giving customer experience. Music artists use these shows to entertain their fans first hand as this is more interactive and emotional. The report by Wan claims that
Live music is an important part of the overall music experience and we wanted to be closer to the customer (who loves music and loves live music shows) we want to offer the customer a richer experience than just buying the CD and going home with it. (Wan 43)
Recording Industry
Music recording has recorded a significance change from the tradition recording of audio to recording of video music however live music brought yet another revolution to the recording industry. Live music performances are usually recorded and may be sold out as a product or used for advertisement purposes.
Much of the internet music promotion materials are usually live music performances. We can agree with Hull in his observation about use of live music “music videos and performances by popular recordings acts provide significant content for cable and broad-cast television” (Hull 2004).
Live music as business
There has been a noticeable shift of entertainment from the traditional listening to the music at home to the modern live entertainment. This may be attributed to the saturation of music in entertainment and advertisement media such as radio stations.
People are no longer fascinated by listening music on the radio and instead prefer live music shows where there is more enthusiasm and the entertainment is more exciting. Live music has tapped into this and ticket selling for performances is the modern business. Britten has made similar observations in UK “the UK live music scene is in robust health, with major music festivals now as much a part of the national calendar as Wimbledon” (Britten 83).
New business networks
Live music has resulted to the emergence of new business networks that aim at utilizing the opportunities that come with live music performances. This is suggested by Poel and Rutten: “there exists a complex network of business relationships between the live-concert sector, the broadcast media, and the recording industry; each time a musical property is used in any of these contexts, value is added to that property” (Poel and Rutten 7).
Conclusion
Live music has made a great impact in the music industry in terms of new marketing strategy, giving customers value for their money, brought change in the marketing structures and other different changes. The power and influence of live music cannot be ignored and anyone interested in music industry may need to invest more in understanding impact of live music.
Works Cited
Britten, Alan. Working in the music industry. New York: Cengage, 2004. Print.
Hull, George. The recording industry. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.
Knab, Sam and Day, Bary. Music Is Your Business. New York: Cengage, 2004. Print.
Lieberman, Goe and Patricia, Esgate.The entertainment marketing revolution. New Jersey: FT Press, 2002. Print.
Poel, Sam and Rutten, Ken. The Music Industry in the Netherlands. Data OECD, n.d. Web.
Summers, Joseph. Making and marketing music. New Jersey: Allworth Communications, 2004. Print.
Wan, Alex. Retailers see live music events as marketing opportunities. Journal. 114(2002): 30.