Influence of streaming on the willingness to pay for concerts
A German research team has investigated the impact of streaming platforms on other distribution channels such as concerts.
The researchers focused on the question of what happens when customers change their music streaming subscriptions to services such as Spotify, Apple Music or Deezer - i.e. take out, upgrade, downgrade or cancel a subscription. Are they more willing to spend additional money on live concerts or analog or physical music albums after a conversion? These so-called spillover effects are particularly relevant in the current market environment, as the payouts from music streaming services are low for many artists.
There were positive consequences for the live market. The switch from no or a free streaming service to a premium subscription led to a particularly strong increase in the willingness to pay and demand for live events. Cancelling the subscription, on the other hand, caused them to drop significantly.
However, the change in music subscriptions had no impact on analog or digital album purchases. This could indicate that live music usefully complements the consumption of music subscriptions in the streaming sector from the customer's perspective, while albums tend to serve other segments and are therefore not influenced by music subscriptions.
Original article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10949968231186950
