Conference Presentation, Panel
The Evolution of Music and the Music Consumer
Milken InstituteJohn Amato, Irving Azoff, Scooter Braun, Lucian Grange, Rob Light, Bob Pittman, Pascual Rotella
- The music industry is projected to continue breaking more artists, selling more tickets, and reaching broader demographics across all genres and age groups, with a specific expectation that roughly 60% of the best dates for a 60-city tour will eventually occur outside the United States.
- Festival and live event markets are predicted to expand exponentially worldwide, incorporating diverse genres beyond EDM such as comedy, family shows, and food and wine festivals, with major venues opening in every market and international growth anticipated in Southeast Asia, the Pacific Rim, the Middle East, India, and South America.
- Strategic plans include expanding the refurbished music-only Forum venue across several American cities and enlarging the Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas to feature comedy and rock music clubs, while the broader industry shifts toward branding and multimedia business models where the creative process extends beyond the song.
- Recorded music, publishing, and merchandising are expected to undergo rapid transitions, with monetization and content delivery expanding on an enormous new scale through relationships with telcos, ISPs, and streaming services, potentially creating a "petri dish" of opportunities in markets like Latin America.
- Radio is anticipated to evolve from a traditional transmission model into a franchise and connected companion accessible on every device, though future relevance for promotion may decline among streaming-heavy audiences, with a noted divergence on whether radio will remain a primary validation tool for the next generation.
- The number one strategic relationship for the industry involves the music business itself, with expectations that intellectual property rights, such as those for the Beatles, will serve as permanent forms of revenue, despite ongoing concerns regarding respect for intellectual property from technology services.
- Marketing challenges are expected to shift from distribution to standing out within a landscape where anyone can make a record due to lower barriers to entry, requiring "Herculean" efforts to market artists and drive self-discovery among fans who are increasingly "totally differently wired" regarding music consumption.
- Dance music is predicted to continue fueling the emergence of new artists, genres, and sub-genres, while social media is viewed as an enhancing rather than disruptive force that complements the communal experience of live events, which is expected to never disappear regardless of technological advancements.
- The industry is expected to move beyond selling records to integrating music into all aspects of consumer life, with the "connected consumer" trend driving demand for instant connection and making the direct artist-to-fan relationship a critical determinant of future industry directions.
- Opportunities for entrepreneurs are described as endless, encouraging ventures that expand from the music business into diverse areas, though the inability of human agents to simultaneously operate in 32 countries remains a significant constraint in this global expansion.
- The panel collectively maintains a bullish stance on the business trajectory, anticipating that current trends will benefit all industry participants, while specific predictions suggest the pace of change in recorded music and publishing is quicker than initially forecasted.
- A common risk identified involves the potential loss of core audiences in the EDM sector if content does not provide "something very real," and the necessity of constant innovation to feed the industry's passion-driven demand.