Not so much - to steal from marketing, recorded music is a top of funnel acquisition activity. Live performance is bottom of funnel conversion.
And, in fact, there are plenty of folk who go to live music events because they want to be at a live music event, not caring too much about who is performing. This is particularly true at the bottom end of the market: go to any show in a major city in a 200 - 400 cap venue and you'll have an audience of people many of whom are more interested in instagramming and being able to tell their friends that they "saw this really cool band in this totally underground venue".
But if people are willing to spend $600 on tickets to Taylor Swift or Drake or whoever, but not on unknown artists, then obviously there is some brand recognition going on right?
Not to mention, some artists can sell out stadiums but most cannot.
Yes. This is my point. Recorded music is top of funnel. Other stuff that drives people to that conversion moment where they buy the $600 ticket for the live show. An artist brand is part of that “stuff in between”.
It talks about there being fewer artists on the charts, and "a reality where there are a few artists releasing a ton of music — most of it doesn’t last, but the songs that do stick, stay for long".
Lower barriers to entry mean there’s more music than ever before. In the CD era getting music out to an audience was complex and expensive. Write a song. Go into a studio with an engineer. Record on tape. Multitrack. Mix. Master. Press discs. Get them into shops. Get someone to write about them. Get some radio play.
Now you can write and record in an iPhone and build an audience on SoundCloud. Will that audience come to a live show? Almost certainly not.
I used to book bands and promote shows. People would push artists to me based on “they have loads of Facebook fans…” which normally equalled no ticket sales.
What sells tickets? Major investment by labels and live promoters - and longevity. Artists don’t sell out global arena tours overnight.
The music needs to stick but the artists need to stick - and their partners need to stick.
Isn't that exactly how festivals work? There are 1-2 headliners that are well known, and 20 other obscure bands to fill out the weekend. You can buy a ticket for a day, but you can't only buy a ticket for a particular performance.
Tours by mega-bands like U2, Taylor Swift, Coldplay, Rolling Stones, etc. can cover 50+ cities and make hundreds of millions. The combined revenue they generate probably dwarfs festivals. But festivals happen annually and those tours do not.
And, in fact, there are plenty of folk who go to live music events because they want to be at a live music event, not caring too much about who is performing. This is particularly true at the bottom end of the market: go to any show in a major city in a 200 - 400 cap venue and you'll have an audience of people many of whom are more interested in instagramming and being able to tell their friends that they "saw this really cool band in this totally underground venue".