How The Global Pandemic is affecting Music Business Negatively

Just like other sectors of the economy have been crippled by the pandemic, the is also weeping during this global lockdown.

The music industry depends so much on large audiences and live experiences, to thrive and the seriousness of the outbreak had only done more harm than good to the Nigerian, African and the world .

A whole year of festivals, gigs and tours has been cancelled as the world is at a standstill for the foreseeable future.

As such, I've looked closely at how the has been affected by the coronavirus outbreak and the way forward.

Artistes loose music streaming fans

Perhaps you thought fans are streaming more during the lockdown as they have no much activities to do? Well I thought so too. Surprisingly, Music Business Worldwide found that global streams from Spotify's Top 200 chart dropped 11% to 226 million plays in the week commencing March 13 (music weeks run from Friday to Thursday).

Image via Music Business Worldwide

Video streaming booms amidst changing habits

According to BuzzAngel and Alpha Data, the video streaming platforms recorded a boom as more video was streamed as compared to the months before the pandemic. Nevertheless, audio streams depreciated.

Image via Music Business Worldwide

The data shows that audio streaming numbers were down 10% March 6th from the week prior, and that video streaming saw a spike of around 14.5% in week commencing March 13th, perhaps indicative of a change in consumer behaviour.

In other words, with fewer people commuting to work and choosing video streaming platforms over music.

Radio listeners increase

Everyone seeks to be informed at this crucial time. According to the BBC, it saw its own radio properties boast a streaming increase of 18%. This is similar to reports from Global (which owns Capital FM and LBC 97.3) which saw a 15% increase in online radio streams between March 9th and 17th.

This could be an advantage for most record labels and marketing agencies to showcase their talents and new songs to the general public but could still not retain the fans as they just want to hear news pertaining to the virus and might not head on to stick around the artiste.

Zero Live Events Sales

Given the nature of , and how it spreads, live music, concerts, festivals and large gatherings were some of the first events to officially be postponed and cancelled following the pandemics proliferation. Davido cancelled his ‘A Good Time' North America tour just beacuse of the lockdown.

The ban on live events which is a vital aspect of the , one could tell that record labels, investors, artistes and key shareholders in the are losing funds.

In summary, it appears delivery services (Amazon, Konga, etc) and movie or video streaming platforms like Netflix, Youtube, Pornhub, etc had more sales during the lockdown than the music industry could boast of.

Article written by Dat Kulgee

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