March 11, 2020: The Day Live Music Died
On March 11, 2020 The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Congress that “it’s going to get worse,” a spooked President Trump finally addressed the nation from the Oval Office and schools, business, sports and the live music industry began a near total shutdown.
March 11, 2020: The Day Live Music Died
Venues closed, concerts and festival cancelled and artists returned home as streaming subscriptions soared driven by locked downed fans struggling to find their musical fix somewhere.
Bandsintown chronicled more than a million live show cancellations globally.
Live Nation
Concert giant Live Nation alone cancelled over 5,000 concerts and 15 million tickets and postponed 6,000 and 22 million tickets more in 2020. Overall revenue for Q1-Q3 2020 decreased 81% $1.6B from $8.7B in the same period of 2019.
Livestreams
Near the end of March 2020 Bandsintown began listing music livestreams which by August totalled 45,000 shows by 14,000 artists.
- 75% of the streams are by emerging artists – those with less than 10,000 followers on Bandsintown
- On an average day, 2700 livestreams are listed on Bandsintown
- 62% of all live streams are from US-based artists
- More than 3 million fans have used the Bandsintown Notify Me button to track their favorite live streams
Upstarts from VEEPS to Bandsintown’s innovative concert streaming subscription service PLUS rushed to fill the live music void for both artists and fans.
Tumultuous Return
By the Fall of 2021 vaccines were available and some live music returned. The Foo Fighters re-opened Madison Square Garden for concerts and fans flocked to Lollapalooza.
But the return to live music came with a price. Even as ebullient fans filled venues, there were major outbreaks again, often exacerbated by hundreds of thousands of fans eager to gather.
It was well into 2022 before live music started to feel normal again.
Next, we’ll look at the difficult post-COVID return of live music and where things stand in 2025.
LATER THIS WEEK: Live Music Post COVID – Did we really #SaveOurStages?
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, a Berklee College Of Music professor and founder of the Skyline Artists Agency
