Indie Music – The Shift in Concert Sector.
Internet is a great platform for budding indie artists to get noticed and build a fan base. Getting booked at a music festival gives them a chance to connect with a larger audience and bring out their best talent. As discussed in my blog Indie Music – Concerts, today, if indie artists get on to the internet and start looking for music festivals happening within a 200-mile radius of where they currently are, they are sure to find many festivals coming up in a lot of places for their specific genre, related genres and even mixed genres. They can book a place for their performance at one or all of these.
A notable shift in the concert sector has occurred with music festivals gaining widespread popularity. While the gross revenue from the top 100 tours actually declined in 2009 and 2010, music festivals continued to break attendance records every year. One possible explanation may be Americans’ watching their spending. It has been speculated that rather than paying $90 to see one band, consumers are more willing to spend $300 and see over 100 bands at a music festival. In addition, festivals have taken on a role beyond concerts, as they often serve as a full-weekend experience with a culture of their own. These events often feature up-and-coming bands, along with several top-tier headliners and, with over 100,000 people in attendance, can help an artist at any level expand their fan base. As discussed in my blog Music Festivals, with rise of indie music and increasing interest of fans in indie artists, most music festivals now have a dedicated category for fresh artists.
Tip: If any of your work has been appreciated in the local newspapers, magazines or radio channels; if you have been mentioned in music blogs or even if your performance has been discussed on a local forum, it should not be difficult for you to get a slot at a local music festival. Most music festivals just book once every year, so their calendar gets filled out sooner, particularly with lesser-known performances. Start the booking procedure early, to make sure you don’t miss the chance.
This also creates an incentive for consumers who are looking to discover new artists. The extended length of festivals brings several additional revenue streams from related necessities such as campsites, parking, food and merchandise. In 2012, three of the top five concert grosses came from music festivals with Coachella, which expanded to two identical weekends, standing at number one with a record-shattering $47 million gross. As more artists gain exposure through the Internet, festivals can host a wide-range of performers, from different genres and levels of mainstream consciousness.
Tip: At the beginning of your career, mark important places around you on a map that can be beneficial to you for a performance. In the music festival season, aim at getting a festival gig in these places and give your best at those performances. If you are really good, there is a high chance that you will grab an offer at one of these performances. Otherwise, you will at least become famous locally, which is the first step forward in your career as an indie artist. However, if you have already built a fanbase in nearby cities as well, there is no harm in asking to be the opener in all of those cities.
The recent spike in total ticket sales has likely been greatly aided by festivals, whose larger scale venues and multiple artists allow them to both expand their audience and charge a higher price. Meanwhile, average gross per event within the top 100 has fallen in recent years, suggesting less even distribution within the collection. This could also potentially be attributed to the rise of large, sold-out festivals, which bring in enormous amounts of revenue that few, if any, individual acts could earn in one show. The rising, often independent, indie bands who perform at festivals, though, gain valuable exposure that might serve to boost recent bottom-up development, not expressed in the top 100 data.
Further I am going to write about alternative ways to explore the differing trends within concerts and recorded music. Please share your experiences and I will add them to my future blogs.
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