Music industry’s lost summer: No Bieber, no Swift and mass layoffs

Summer concert season ended before it began.

While sports leagues and restaurants make an effort to figure out when they can reopen to the general public, there’s growing recognition among music industry executives that concerts won’t be returning anytime soon. During the past little while, festivals have cleared out of May and June, while those in July and August are simply waiting to reschedule.

Outside Lands, a music festival held in San Francisco every August, is exploring a proceed to October or next year, according to Gregg Perloff, among the festival’s organizers. “The chances of it happening in August go down with each passing day,” Perloff said from his home in Lafayette, California. “We have to have a situation where in fact the public feels safe, we feel safe and the bands feel safe.”

Taylor Swift went further on Friday, telling fans she wouldn’t be playing at all in 2020. Justin Bieber also offers scrapped his current tour, postponing a large number of dates.

Summer is the most lucrative season for the concert business, as promoters stage festivals all over the country and host large outdoor shows at stadiums and amphitheaters. The industry stands to lose out on a lot more than $5 billion in ticket sales if there are no shows all summer, according to Pollstar, a business trade publication. That doesn’t include the lost income from advertising, merchandise, and food and beverages.

The ultimate damage is likely to be much worse, and long-lasting. The concert industry stands to remain closed longer than restaurants or concert halls, which can open with minimal capacity. Sports leagues, meanwhile, make most of their money from media handles TV networks, and have debated playing games before empty stadiums. But concerts depend on large numbers of people gathering in close proximity, the circumstance in which the coronavirus is most probably to spread.

Government officials in Los Angeles and Illinois have warned there can be no events this year, a view held by many agents and managers. One top industry executive predicted the concert business would take 3 years to create what it normally does in one.

“The live concert industry could possibly be in the most challenging position of any industry in America,” Perloff said. “You never hear people discuss it. They speak about airlines. They speak about the auto industry. However the the truth is they’ll be back business way prior to the concert industry is back.”

The immediate impact was already severe. Live music was one of the very first industries damaged by the global health crisis. Many large states outlawed big gatherings on March 12, the same day a business task force of concert promoters, talent managers and booking agents urged a moratorium on large events through the enough of this month.

Shares of Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s most significant concert promoter, have plunged 40 percent since mid-March, erasing billions from its market value. The business has slashed the salaries of its top executives and borrowed just as much as $150 million. Paradigm, which operates one of the largest music-booking agencies on earth, has fired staff and slashed salaries, prompting a lawsuit in one dismissed agent. StubHub, one of the biggest ticket resellers, furloughed two-thirds of its workforce.

Touring is just about the primary source of income for most musicians, a lot of whom have opted to stage live concerts from your home and stream them online using Instagram, Twitch and YouTube. Some have charged tickets for shows on sites like Stageit. But most artists are making a fraction of what they once made, while concert promoters, sound technicians, roadies, agents and managers are struggling to make hardly any money at all.

“It’s an extremely tenuous time for a lot of companies,” said Andrew Morgan, a booking agent with Ground Control Touring. “We don’t have investors, we’re not publicly traded, completely of our income is founded on the income of artists.”

Many festivals have yet to cancel or postpone their events, like the Pitchfork Music Festival and Lollapalooza in Chicago, and Creamfields in the united kingdom. It’s not hard to understand why. Concert organizer Goldenvoice generates a lot more than $100 million in earnings from Coachella, the largest music festival in the US Although company canceled the initial April date, it still hopes to carry it this year, in October.

“It’s not like we’ll haven't any shows, and then all of a sudden we’ll have a festival with 80,000 people.”

But agents and managers have begun to tell their clients never to be prepared to tour in 2020. Morgan has recently rescheduled 13 tours. While his client Angel Olsen continues to be scheduled to perform at the Pitchfork Music Festival in July, he has little confidence the event will need place. “It’s nothing like we’ll haven't any shows, and then suddenly we’ll have a festival with 80,000 people,” he said.

Most industry professionals expect small shows to be the first ever to return, accompanied by large events next year. Perloff still has 120 events scheduled between now and the end of the entire year, some in a 500-capacity venue, others in a 2,800-person theater in Oakland, California, and others on a far larger scale.

The festivals are his biggest moneymakers. Outside Lands grossed $29.6 million in ticket sales this past year for Perloff’s company, Another Planet Entertainment. Life Is Beautiful, an electronic festival it promotes in Las Vegas, grossed another $17.7 million. No decision has been relating to this year’s Life is Beautiful, which is slated for September.

But with out a clear timeline from the federal government of when rules will relax, it’s hard for his company to advertise shows or to sell tickets to events. He has been around frequent communication with the offices of California Governor Gavin Newsom and SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA Mayor London Breed, and is now thinking of discussing some sort of federal support with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Perloff is trying to avoid the worst-case scenario. While larger companies such as for example Live Nation and AEG have furloughed employees and cut salaries, Perloff has yet to trim his staff of 47. And while some ticket vendors won't make refunds for postponed or canceled events, he has said customers are certain to get their cash back for Outside Lands when his company decides how to proceed.

“We’re an extremely healthy company,” he said. “But no enterprise can have it seem sensible for 16 months of no revenues.”