Music Trends – Q2 2021

As we slowly emerge from the pandemic, we see some trends that are evolving in music.

Live Music is Starting to Come Back

•EDC Las Vegas has indicated it is coming in May and some festivals like the Newport Folk Festivals are planning to return this summer (July). And starting to see more announcements of live concert tours ramping up in 2022.

With the Pandemic, Music Evolved In the Following Ways:

Livestreams: Artists found new ways to engage and connect. Paid livestreams became both well-staged events and broadcasted audience-less shows from traditional music venues.

Gaming and Music Are Quickly Converging: There is overlap of audience between music and gaming, but until recently there wasn’t a clear path to how they would work together. That is all changing fast as artists, managers, and labels are gravitating to gaming to gain exposure and earn new and significant revenues.

Fandom: The pandemic inspired musicians to step out of their comfort zone and find new ways to connect with fans who are eager to pay for a closer connection.

AJR, Twenty-One Pilots, BTS, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, and more staged major livestream events

Venues like LA’s Wiltern Theater created ticketed livestream series

NFT’s became a very hot topic

Pink Sweats hosted cooking classes on YouTube

DEEPER DIVE ON GAMING + MUSIC

As gaming becomes more integral to the music industry, new approaches are emerging beyond Licensing. Examples include:

•Companies like Twitch inviting musicians and promoters to host performances and more on their platforms

•Gaming platforms hosting in-game performances – Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft (Artists seeing huge PR/Social lift and profiting from physical and virtual goods)

•Investment – Sony/UE, Warner/Roblox, Artists/teams

•Partnerships – Gaming platforms using music to gain awareness – e.g. Pokéman (Katy Perry, Post Malone)

Gaming and Music Are Not Just A Business Model

•Think of this partnership also as a creative and narrative tool

•People hang out in this “Third place” for socializing – Beyond Instagram, Twitter, and Snap, pay attention to Xbox Live, Discord, etc.

DEEPER DIVE ON FANDOM

Pre-Pandemic

Prior to the Pandemic, the music industry was evolving primarily around traditional delivery methods.

•Streaming leads for delivery of recorded music

•Live industry exploded with concerts and festivals

•Merchandise was growing beyond just t-shirts to alcohol, fashion, and wellness products

•Most major artists have signature causes that they care about

Evolution

The evolution for the above was relatively mild. The music ecosystem was relatively static but each component was slowly growing:

•Music: more “single” releases and collaborations with other artists, always on, shorter length, sync for advertisements, movie/TV, and video games

•Live: artist curated festivals (Astroworld, PostyFest, Camp Flagnaw)

•Merch: Partnerships and Products (e.g. Rhianna’s Fenty, Kanye + Adidas)

•Cause: Artists starting foundations elevating to a singular focused cause

Now

Musicians are finding new ways to drive revenues and fans are eager to get closer to the artists they love.

•Subscription: Patreon and Only Fans are platforms which enable artists to have a monetized direct connection beyond standard social networks

•Audio: Artists are looking to expand into storytelling with Podcasts, Audiobooks, Voice

•Personalization: One-to-One communications through companies like Cameo

•Gaming: Artists debut new music via platforms like Twitch, Fortnite

•Collectibles/Scarcity: Digital collectible growth is at a fever pitch with the sudden explosion of NFTs

There are an infinite amount of ways to monetize fandom, the pandemic forced artists to be more comfortable with selling more than just music.

SUMMARY

The pandemic caused a pent up demand for more music and a connection to the artists themselves. Musicians seized the opportunity to try new things and we believe we’ll see more of this innovation even after we return to normalcy.