What can we all learn from how the music industry is dealing with the COVID-19 crisis?

On February 16th I went to what could be my last concert of 2020. While I was already being careful with washing hands and all of that, I wouldn't miss a show I was so much looking forward to. The Bay Strikes Back concert tour featured Bay Area thrash metal bands Testament, Exodus and Death Angel. Interestingly enough, three musicians from those bands are currently recovering from COVID-19. Financially those guys were quite lucky as only two concerts of this leg were cancelled. A few weeks later, Saxon played in Antwerp on March 4th and I already didn't go fearing the escalation of the coronavirus infections. It was one of the last metal shows in the region. It's hard to believe how much has changed since that day. On March 14th Belgium went into soft lock-down and we may not have a concert for a long time.

Together with commercial aerospace and Air & Travel, the music business which is a passion of mine is one of the most severely hit sectors by the COVID-19 crisis. I'd strongly assume at similar levels as all non-online entertainment businesses (movies, theaters, live sports, etc).

It's not like the music is business has being sailing calm waters. "Digital is changing the music business" is a jargon going around for years now, and while that's of course true, a lot is still the same. Bands are still relying on Record Labels and the same old cycle of recording, releasing a new album of 8 to 15 songs every 2 to 5 years, touring and selling merch is pretty much the same. Bands and labels are still recording and releasing music videos (just like in the 80's but for YouTube instead of MTV), and, despite the streaming platforms with playlists and YouTube, they still release compilation albums and live albums/DVDs. There's more touring and merch line extensions, I agree. For example, in my own experience, it's impossible to go to all concerts that I'd like to go in my reasonable driving distance range. There's just too many. During the summer, if it wasn't for the skyrocketing prices, I could go to a festival almost every weekend. And the merch? Remember when Kiss was the only band to have all sorts of crazy merchandise? Now a days for example, I lost count how many of my favorite bands have launched an alcoholic beverage.

As I said, the music business has been changing but a lot of the basics are the same and the changes are slow. But as they say "necessity is the mother of invention" and the COVID-19 situation has forced the whole industry to quickly find new ways to operate. Physical sales decline speed will increase sharply with closed stores and amazon halting distribution of physical music media. Album releases are being delayed. Moreover the economic recession will reduce available income for non essential items. Not a bright future for physical music media which has been already on a decline for years. This could be the final push for CDs to virtually disappear.

To make it all even more difficult, the complete shut down of the live-music side of the business is what will hit all the music professionals (venues, promoters, staging companies and food/ merchandise vendors) and bands the hardest. The live-music sector will contract by 50% in 2020 by some estimations, I believe it will be much more than that because we won't have concerts for more than 50% of the year. If they return at all before the year end. I already mentioned the huge explosion of summer festivals in the last 15 years or so, well, those international gatherings of more than 30,000 people are at high risk of not happening anywhere in the world for the whole summer. Coachella was moved to October (I doubt they will pull even that off). Glastonbury festival was canceled on March 18th, Download on March 26th and COPENHELL on April 7th (to name a few). I suspect many more (if not all) are still to come. Even if "only" half of the festivals are cancelled, then bands will be forced to cancel the tour as it won't be worth the cost to play for half (and possibly empty) of the venues.

The lasting impacts of all of this for us music lovers and professionals is very difficult to predict. On the bright side, I want to be back to the innovation at higher speed that this huge crisis is bringing to us. Labels and artists are finding new ways to promote music, connect with fans and generate revenue. I read that some labels immediately put their teams together and started brainstorming ideas on how to deal with this situation. Apparently hundreds of ideas were generated, and we already see several being implemented by labels and bands in record speed. Let's look at some of those.

Live Streaming & Recorded Videos

Days after the first lockdowns, we started seeing online festivals happening and several bands releasing recorded shootings from the last few months. Norwegian Black Metal masters Enslaved performed their music live at Verftet Online Music Festival. They are accepting donations via Ticketmaster. Melodic  Death Metal bands Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum announce co-headline Live Stream Concert. The price for the Stream is 8,90€. It's the first time I've heard of an online streaming ticket. When coronavirus forced their show to be canceled, growing hardcore act Code Orange turned to Twitch: 13,000 Fans watched live. We are also seeing bands jamming virtually together. Sammy & The Circle jammed from their homes the iconic The Who song "Won't Get Fooled Again" on YouTube. The UK Power Metallers DragonForce, which I luckily saw live in February, had to cancel their North America Tour. They innovated by launching a songwriting livestream on Twitch! Cattle Decapitation recorded and released the "Bring Back The Plague" music video filmed on their mobile phones while social distancing at their respective homes. The drummer didn't even had a drum kit. It's not only fun, but coincidentally the song title couldn't be more perfect. Spoiler alert: it features toilet papers.

Special Merch Offerings

E-commerce is still functioning for the most part, so bands immediately tap into that as a revenue source. I have already ordered two T-shirts from canceled tours. Gruesome have merchandise available in Europe, with "Canceled due to Coronavirus" back prints. As they posted "any purchase really helps us out, and you get a sick new shirt in the process!". Many more (if not all) bands are selling their merch that was going to be in the stand during the canceled shows. Thrash metal legends from Brazil, Sepultura are streaming Q&A sessions with band members on Twitch. Moreover they cleverly related their new album title Quadra to isolation using #StayInYourQUADRA. Consequently they also released specially designed T-Shirts with this theme. Another band that related their music to the COVID-19 crisis was Pantera. A Limited Edition Social Distancing T-shirt was created to support the MusiCares Covid-19 Relief Fund. The t-shirt based on the cover of the band's album Vulgar Display Of Power. It also features the "Walk" song lyrics "Be yourself, by yourself, stay away from me" pretty clever, right?

Singles & New Music 

While probably recording studios will also suffer as people can't travel. We could see an explosion of new music in early to mid 2021 as artists are sitting at home and possibly many are writing new music. With today's tools, many could also be recording demos and having virtual writing and even recording sessions with band mates. For example, Abigail Williams, an American extreme metal band, which have just released an album last year posted the following: "In light of worldwide touring cancellations and our day jobs on hold, we said fuck it and wrote a new album". On the short term bands could take this opportunity to release singles and keep their names active in the customers' minds. The mighty Kreator from Germany and the American Lamb of God were planning a co-headlining tour. Meanwhile, they will release a split new single. Kreator song lyrics message "we have to stick together in this more and more divided world".

Using technology, creativity and trying new things, bands and labels are being forced to innovate in order to survive. Regardless of the restrictions they still need to promote music, connect with fans and generate revenue. This is one example of an industry transformation being accelerated, but many more, if not all, will emerge from this crisis differently. Use your time at home and think how your business will change and how you can make a difference to stay ahead of the curve.