COVID-19: An Australian Music Industry Perspective

Among the news about toilet paper scarcity and panic buying is the real-world impact COVID-19 will have on our live events community.

Here at Bolster, that community is our heart. We deal in good times and we’re conscious of the knock-on effects that a potential pandemic announcement will have. We’re conscious of event cancellations, reluctance to attend events, and the economic recovery of a community that operates on human connection IRL.

It’s our duty of care to provide solutions and support in these times to a community we’re so fortunate to be part of.

What we can do

Unfortunately, the status and knowledge of COVID-19 is changing every day. We acknowledge our understanding of this situation is in flux and our recommendations will change to align with the status of the virus.

The good news is the Australian Government sees no need to consider a ban on mass gatherings just yet. “You can go to the concert and you can go out for a Chinese meal,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters last week (February 28).

But in the event the Australian public is advised to avoid large social gatherings, there’s still a lot that we can do to keep the importance of live events front of mind. Here are a few:

• Develop ticketed, live-stream events and club nights across streaming platforms that encourage punters to interact with the larger online attendees. Chinese musicians and audiences have been doing this with ‘bedroom music festivals’. We love it! 💕
• Amplify your community by spreading awareness and advocacy for responsible health measures. Achieve long-term and genuine progress by allowing your punters to have a conversation on your channels and be a part of it with them.
• Travel bans will have an impact on international artists coming into the country and headlining events. This is a great opportunity to put Australian music in the spotlight and diversify the line-up.
• As audiences embrace staying local, investigate what you can do to scale proximity with local community attendance. Reach out to local businesses and create partnerships to drive connectivity, or, consider what journey you can take people on if they choose to road-trip to your event.
• Audiences will now be thinking of more ways that they can share good times with each other that reduces the likelihood of any negative effect on their health. Ensure your creative signifies safety, wellbeing and a mature, caring community at your event.
• Keep your event front of mind by repurposing, resharing, or creating content that engages your social audience in a positive way. People will be experiencing news fatigue, so a reminder of a good time in their lives could provide a nice respite.
• With event cancellations occurring across the world, be mindful of your announcement and spend strategies. Consider weighing your budget and talking points closer to the event as customers may not be motivated to buy until a government announcement is made.

What do we know?

In the last month, global touring agency shares have dropped by 14% in the wake of the virus’ impact on live events. ULTRA have cancelled their Miami event and musicians are beginning to cancel the Asian legs of their tours, but the news is a bit brighter in our market. ULTRA’s AU edition will still go ahead this weekend, as will Golden Plains, WOMAD, and Pitch.

Our internal data signifies that customers are buying at least one less ticket per transaction than the same time last year and that the cost to acquire punters has increased by 29%. Although we’re yet to see a total decline in ticket purchase volume, but of course, we’re considering it could happen.

The most recent example of a world-wide pandemic was Swine Flu (declared a pandemic by WHO in 2009) where the economic impact was between a 0.5%-1.5% decline in GDP. The Australian live events economy experienced the effect of that decline, however, there are no data sources available for us to be able to state the exact financial impact our industry faced.

This was at the tail-end of the GFC, during which the Australian music industry remained stable by investing in diversification of their activity in touring, licensing and digital channel distribution. This strategy allowed new audiences to be reached with increased, long-term engagement.

Despite this challenge, the Australian music industry is a resilient bunch, and we’re determined to overcome whatever comes our way. Please reach out to us if you need help with keeping your audiences safe and your events sustainable during this period. We’re on board to get through this together with you.