Live Music’s Future [Video]

As the ongoing pandemic continues to put a long term hold on all concerts and tours, industry professionals are looking ahead at when the live music experience can return, and what it might look like when it does.

Guest post by James Shotwell of Haulix

As the spread of coronavirus continues to prevent concerts, music professionals are scrambling to find creative ways to resurrect the live music experience.

Virtually nobody has been to a concert in over eight weeks. Think about that for a second. The last two months were probably the only time in the previous century when the vast majority of the world was unable to experience live music. The coronavirus has brought the concert industry to a standstill, and there is no vaccine in sight.

You may have read a few headlines regarding the future of live music. Some experts believe music festivals and arena shows won’t return until the summer of 2021, while others claim it could be 2022 before live music is back in full swing. No one knows what the future holds, but that isn’t stopping music professionals from all walks of life from finding creative short-term solutions to COVID-19’s stranglehold on live entertainment.

Starting this week in America, concerts will begin again. A venue in Arkansas will host one of the first “socially distanced” concerts on May 18, but the gig itself will not resemble any pre-COVID events. From temperature checks at the door to “fan pod” seating, dozens of new rules and regulations are being implemented to keep consumers and employees safe. Will these rules be the new normal? No one knows. Any performance right now is an experiment, and many more tests will follow as the world slowly begins to reopen.

In this episode of Music Biz, host James Shotwell explores the ongoing impact of coronavirus on live music. He explores emerging trends, newly implemented rules, and even the proposed ‘concert suits’ some professionals believe will become part of this ‘new normal’ we are coming to terms with as the pandemic carries on. It’s a lot of information to digest, but James does his best to keep things simple. Enjoy:

James Shotwell is the Director of Customer Engagement at Haulix and host of the company’s podcast, Inside Music. He is also a public speaker known for promoting careers in the entertainment industry, as well as an entertainment journalist with over a decade of experience. His bylines include Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Substream Magazine, Nu Sound, and Under The Gun Review, among other popular outlets.