Why Is the Live Music Business Living in the Last Century?
While the recorded music biz has started to embrace big data, the live space lags far behind
Imagine this: it’s the summer of 1995, you’re 15 years old, and you're about to go see Veruca Salt open for PJ Harvey and Live. You pick up the ticket that you had to adjust your schedule to buy and head off into the crowd, where no one, from the venue owners to the band, has any idea who you are. You watch the show, mildly annoyed at the dude with the disposable camera who won’t stop taking pictures, but otherwise have a generally pleasant time. When you leave, you don’t communicate any feedback about your experience and the bands never contact you. But hey, they played “Seether” and it sounded awesome!
Fast forward nineteen years. You're, uh, older, and heading out to see Veruca Salt headline the Music Hall of Williamsburg. You paid too much for your ticket on Stubhub because you have a job and adult responsibilities and couldn't reschedule life to navigate the Ticketmaster website. The mildly annoying guy now has a smartphone, but other than that, nothing has changed. The venue and the band have no idea who you are. You never have an opportunity to give any feedback. “Seether” is still a killer song.
While the recorded music business has started to embrace big data, the live space lags far behind. Venues think that because you can’t download the experience of being at a live show they'll be insulated from the challenges recorded music has faced, and on a certain level they're right. Live streamed shows are all well and good, but there’s no way to really replicate being in the crowd when someone plays your favorite song. The problem is that much of the experience surrounding that one great moment has become so lousy that it might just not be worth it any more.
So what would a truly modern and connected concert experience look like? Let’s start with the process of finding out about the show and getting tickets. Though there are plenty of great startups out there trying to solve the first problem, no one has fully mastered the art of making recommendations seamless and keeping you on top of who is coming to town. In smaller markets it’s still pretty easy to scan the local alt-weekly and find all the info you need, but in major markets like New York and London, the sheer number of shows happening on a given night can overwhelm the most dedicated fan. Some streaming services, like Spotify, include live music listings; others, like Apple Music, don’t. Depending on how you listen, the whole process can feel disconnected.
Even if you have decent recommendations, there’s still the cumbersome process of buying tickets, including the need to be online at a certain time to actually attempt to make the purchase. What if there was a way to put down a percentage of the cost of the ticket and then have a machine complete your purchase for you if you weren't able to be online at a given time? I'd love to see AmEx presales go the next step and offer promotions for users to be able to enter a lottery so that they don’t need to be in front of the laptop when tickets go on sale.
Then there’s the secondary market, which is a great example of free market capitalism in its purest form and a terrible user experience for those of us who don't like paying hundreds of dollars to see a band. It’s also terrible from a data perspective, because it creates yet another pool of information on fans that just seems to sit around, unused. The obvious answer would be for ticketing companies to launch their own reselling operations, if just to keep users in one place.
Let’s say you finally get everything sorted and get to the show — where the venue will likely look the same as it does almost every night. If venues worked with ticket sellers to gather data on the folks coming to the concert, they might be able to create an audience profile and adjust the atmosphere based on that. Even the zip codes associated with the credit cards could give some indication of what the crowd wants to drink or whether they'll be able to stay out late or need to be home to relieve the sitter. Get social data in the mix, and then we're cooking.
Maybe there’s an influencer coming the show — send them a push notification with the offer of a free drink if they share their experience with their followers. If you see that the audience is mostly female, beef up outside security and offer to walk people to their cars. I realize this next suggestion dips into some nastier territory, but if someone’s social profile indicates that they're a troublemaker or a predator, it’s worth passing along to security to keep an eye on things.
This data can also be used to keep communication flowing during the show. People spend an awful lot of time staring at their phones during concerts, so push notifications are a great way to spread information and keep the audience engaged. You can send quick polls to make sure everything is copacetic and keep folks up to date on set times, wait times, and all the other necessary info.
Any band worth their salt would love to have this data. We've all seen the sad little sign up sheet on the merch table asking for email address — you know, it’s the same one bands have had since the late nineties. There’s no reason the band can’t message the audience before, during, and after the show to solidify their connection and offer rewards.
The live music business can keep on cruising for a while longer, but eventually, it'll run out of gas. Superfans will still show up, but the casual fan will be drawn to experiences that feel more inclusive and rewarding. It’s not too late for the industry to start experimenting with data and connecting with their customers, but they need to act fast.
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