Music Industry X Coronavirus | Turning The COVID-19 Dip Into Opportunity

The novel coronavirus has globally affected various industries and their eco-systems, but one such sector that has been affected at a much larger scale is the Music and Live Entertainment industry. The conditions as they are turning out to be might have one believe that this phase is a complete dip. Au contraire, this phase, if navigated carefully, could turn out into the perfect time we all needed to revisit our support and growth-enabling systems.

In order to not just survive but thrive during this low period, there can be different things that we can all do to help speed up the process and possibly reconsider our approach and traditional strategies. Below, you can find a few suggestions on what could be done in this time period by musicians, managers, promoters, brands, labels, Streaming Companies, software & hardware companies and venues. It’s plausible that most of these strategies have already been thought of and are even in the works internally at various companies. However, I wanted to share a short list of how we can get through this time and more importantly, think of new strategies that can not only be implemented within this period but can also continue past this period of low-lying.

Creators and entrepreneurs should look at this as a tiny challenge and should try to find new ways to approach their work. Perhaps it’s time for us to do more than we were asked, perhaps it’s time to create new ideas and most importantly, perhaps it’s time for us to share our knowledge and help support the eco-system and the community.

We know that it isn’t going to be easy, but now is the time when we all can probably collectively reshape the way music is approached in its entirety?

I will deep-dive into various areas on growth in the independent music industry in India in a subsequent post, but until then, here are some of my initial thoughts on what can be done by everyone to turn this dip into a goldmine of opportunities.

I. MUSICIANS | CREATORS | TALENTS

1. Start teaching and start digital/offline sessions in Software x Instrument skills.
2. Managers and Promoters can help create better music and entertainment and can conceive other policies for the future.
3. Start moving on completing your projects, EPs and albums which have been pushed for too long.
4. Revisit your brand strategy and how you want to build your lifestyle brand out.
5. Find new ways of monetisation: Streaming | Content | Merchandise | Skill Sharing | Brand Partnerships and Start strategising yourself instead of waiting for managers.
6. Create new social impact projects that you would like to help on or maybe grass-root music initiatives.
7. CONTENT | CONTENT | CONTENT - Start creating vlogs, BTS, Process Breakdowns, New Original series!
8. USE NEW APPS like Lemonade to host your own events & monetise directly.

II. BRANDS

1. Bring some of their experiential budgets into content and digital experiences.
2. Create learning | Skill-building modules that each brand wants to be a thought leader of.
3. Launch digital-only entertainment and lifestyle properties with creators & platforms.
4. Kick-start digital hunts and contests for creators across the music ecosystem. Remember, not just musicians.

III. LABELS

1. Lead the charge on developing more talent online and offline.
2. Help foster a better music ecosystem by regular skill-building sessions online.
3. Drive collaboration opportunities between artists across different career timespans.
4. Create more sources of revenue for existing and new and upcoming talent.

IV. STREAMING COMPANIES

1. Give a deeper push on talents to be heard and drive more streams.
2. Create new discovery plans for consumers to learn about diversity in music coming out.
3. Launch new learning-focused podcasts or give the existing ones out for free.
4. Create better stream revenue packages for at least 3 months for musicians.

V. SOFTWARE COMPANIES

1. Give out free or limited day software usage ( Moog has already done the same ).
2. Create a bigger push on remote learning (where musicians using certain software can teach digitally).

VI. HARDWARE & EQUIPMENT COMPANIES

1. Create equipment rental schemes for creators similar to startups like Furlenco.
2. Sponsor gear that can be used by musicians teaching others at home or their studio.

VII. VENUES

1. Consider starting to using spaces for the time-being for live digital experiences.
2. Revisit their curation and programming strategy to include more inclusive programming.
3. Create new modules of bringing in lesser-known artists, talents, creators.
4. Plan out full-week utilisation instead of just weekend-focused programming.

I would like this to transform into an open-source list of ideas. For suggestions, please write to me at varun@homegrown.co.in or approach me via LinkedIn or Instagram.