According to Billboard.com and the IFPI Global Music Report for 2020, music revenues have risen for the fifth straight year in a row to an astounding $20 billion in revenue. That said, due to COVID-19 there are many new challenges popping up that may change the outlook for the industry. In 2019, streaming music summed up for over half of the industry’s revenue, making it a first in music history. How is this possible? Well also according to IFPI reporting, there has been a huge increase in subscription services like you see with companies like Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora Radio. I for one have had a Pandora subscription for at least five years and just decided to add Spotify because it allows me to listen to entire albums whereas Pandora kind of picks for you based on similar artists and music to what you search. Billboard noted that “there are now 341 million users of paid streaming services worldwide, up 34% in 2018.”

On the other end of streaming music is downloading songs, which fell about 15% and only accounts for about 5.9% of music revenue across the globe (Smirke, 2020). Most music markets across the world saw boosts in revenue mostly from paid subscription streaming, but the health crisis might impact this year’s numbers. Forbes magazine covered a hard look into the negative impacts the virus has had, particularly on the musicians themselves. I for one was really hoping to be able to see lots of live concerts this year as my husband and I have been doing well financially and the only time I have ever seen a concert live was when I was deployed overseas: Seether and Trace Adkins. Unfortunately, Vibrate, a music data company shared that over 300 festivals have cancelled their shows or postponed to an unknowable date and time. Recording studios are shut down and now musicians have to either find a way to record from home or go without a paycheck. According to Forbes, it’s not just the issue of concerts being cancelled across the nation, but also some of our best musicians have contracted the disease and some have sadly passed on. One such case was “86 year old Afro-jazz legend Manu Dibango (who joined) the ‘gig in the sky’ after contracting COVID-19” ( Lunny, 2020).

Our mother country, not so caring at the moment, doesn’t even have a plan in place for self-employed workers. Now, many musicians are wondering how they will even feed their families and some are beginning to see that they may need to rely on themselves more when and if things open back up and they can return to the studio. With a lack of faith and feelings of uncertainty and job security, I believe the music industry will see some big changes once this virus passes. They’re truly one of many types of organizations whose employees will seek to find alternative routes to ensure they can put food on their families tables come what may and I think we will see more home studios, more streamed concerts and recording studios across the globe will slowly become obsolete or go the way of the film industry’s opulent cinematic theater palaces: age-old relics, neat but no longer useful or practical.

Citations:

Lunny, O. (2020, March 30). The Heartbreaking Cost For Musicians As COVID-19 Stops The Music. Retrieved June 10, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/oisinlunny/2020/03/24/the-heartbreaking-cost-for-musicians-as-covid-19-stops-the-music/#3b41df6c7a97

Smirke, R. (2020, May 5). IFPI Global Music Report 2020: Music Sales Rise For Fifth Straight Year to $20 Billion. Retrieved June 10, 2020, from https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/9370682/ifpi-global-report-2020-music-sales-paid-streaming-coronavirus-impact