How big outdoor concerts are changing the musicindustry
大型的戶外演唱會如何改變音樂行業
DOLLY PARTON, an American musician, is used toperforming for big crowds. But after her set this year at Glastonbury, Britain's largest musicfestival, she admitted to feeling nervous. Since that show, seen by 100,000 revellers and 2mtelevision viewers, her album “Blue Smoke” has hovered near the top of the album chart foreight weeks. Ms Parton's resurgence hints at how festivals are reshaping Britain's musicbusiness.
The live music market is flourishing even as sales of recorded music have mouldered. Between2012 and 2013 it grew by a quarter, according to the Performing Right Society for Music, anindustry body. Gig-goers now spend more than 1 billion (1.7 billion) a year on tickets andalmost half that again on food, drink and the like. Festivals make up a large chunk of this. In theearly 1990s Britain had few of them, recalls Melvin Benn of Festival Republic, a promoter.Around 450 will take place this year. The festival season, once limited to July and August, nowstretches until early autumn. On the first weekend of September four festivals battle it out.
One boost was a change to the licensing laws in 2005, recalls Jim Whewell of the WildernessFestival, a music and performing arts event. This made it easier to put on a show outdoors. Therecession helped too: Britons who could no longer afford foreign holidays found a weekend ofcamping in a muddy field more attractive. And as fewer people buy recorded music, fans aresplurging the money they save on live events, says Chris Carey, a consultant.
據Wilderness Festival (曠野節,一個音樂和表演藝術的活動)的Jim Whewell 回憶,2005年許可法的變化對現場音樂有一定推動效應。這使得在戶外舉辦表演變得更加容易。同時經濟的衰退也對此有一定的幫助。負擔不起國外度假的英國人發現,在泥濘的曠野中來一次周末露營更具吸引力。而且購買唱片的人越來越少,樂迷們更青睞將他們積攢的錢財用于生活消費,一位名叫Chris Carey的顧問說道。
Ageing crowds are another bonus. A survey in 2013 found that the average age of a revellerat Glastonbury, excluding those under 18, was 36 years old. Older people have more cash tospend on boozing, and their demands have helped make festivals safer and more pleasant.Security at bigger festivals has grown much tighter. Toilets are slightly less gruesome (thoughpunters must often pay an extra fee to use the cleanest ones). Posh food and fancier drinkshave replaced cheap hot dogs and watered-down beer. At Wilderness, middle-aged bacchanalsquaff champagne or real ale and eat lobsters.
All this is changing the way the music industry works. Festivals are increasingly seen as a way totest whether big-name artists have enough fans to warrant arena tours, says Rebecca Kaneof the 02, a large venue in London. Newer names find them essential: Clean Bandit, a Britishband who brought out their first album this year, are performing at around 20 festivals thissummer. And music executives are increasingly taking into account how successfully they thinkartists will perform at big outdoor gigs before deciding to sign them.
Some promoters complain festivals are getting harder to run. “Most people do it as a labour oflove,” sighs one. Increasingly bureaucratic paperwork is a pain, complains Sidharth Sharma ofShambala Festival, a smaller event, while providing better food and drink is expensive. One bigproblem is that competition for headliners means the most popular bands, many of whom aregetting on in years, can command eye-watering fees. Few new acts have Dolly Parton's pullingpower.