Utopias in the music industry

As I wrote on the blog and just like I mentioned in the podcast about two weeks ago, I don't think that online events could ever replace the live sector. I then gave the psychological explanation for this: collective effervescence. This is how we would describe the feeling of belonging, the feeling of euphoria that people have when they are part of a large audience that lives the same experience simultaneously. The collective effervescence formed, in ancient times, the basis of great religious pilgrimages or even the celebrations of medieval cities and until the pandemic broke loose, used to be the thing that made people spend large sums of money to watch a football match or a live festival, all while being crowded.

The fact that the authorities have banned events (almost) globally does not mean that this need for a congregation of people has disappeared. On the contrary. As Martin Lindstrom says in his newest book - "Buy-ology for a Coronavirus World" – the fear of illness, social distancing and loneliness are just as many reasons for depression. And a depressed audience will definitely not be in the mood for another online concert.

As of today, I have decided to take my reasoning a step further. Let's talk about money and let’s presume that I'm wrong when I say that online events could never take the place of real ones. Let's say people start consuming such events in lack of other options. Well, then our artists would face a new problem, one that I consider insuperable. In Romania, online income for a music artist is so low that it cannot be even compared to any other type of income.

Which means that in fact, the artists in our music industry use the Internet only as an opportunity to sell more tickets, or to gather more people at a concert. And this conversion strategy works pretty well for some of them. But convincing the public to pay for an online concert is a whole other story. The only ones who might accept that are super-fans, that is, the people who are ready to support the artist with body and soul, anytime, anyway, no matter what. Those who, in fact, do not need a concert to show their support towards their favorite artist. You just have to ask them for help and they will be more than happy to oblige and get involved. But to convince a man who may or may not like your music to pay to see you in an online concert that not only does not satisfy his need for collective effervescence, but deepens the feeling of isolation that the pandemic has given us all, I think that could be considered a utopia. And while these utopias have their place in movies and books, they don’t really belong in our everyday lives.