Why now is the hour to invest in the live events industry and the tech that supports it

The live events sector largely collapsed during Covid. A £70 billion industry responsible for a huge part of British culture was left on its knees, with more than one in three music industry jobs lost. Some of the biggest events were cancelled last minute, with ‘pingdemic’ and ‘government-backed insurance scheme’ buzzwords of a summer in flux. Government guidance was confusing and constantly changing, and a lack of contingency planning left the industry financially exposed, drowning in uncertainty.

Fast forward a few months and we are now seeing a resurgence of venue openings and live events - new results from Venue Performance showed that London venues increased the number of events they ran by 231% in September 2021 compared with August 2021. But as the Omicron wave looms, what is next?

The last year and a half has been a trial run for a world in which Covid and events can co-exist harmoniously. The answer lies in technology - something that has always been heavily linked to music, but that has had its relationship accelerated by the pandemic. Digital advancements made in the last 18 months have changed the live music scene forever.

The idea of the metaverse was catapulted onto the world stage in October following Facebook’s recent announcement, giving music and live events industries a whole new space in which to operate. More importantly, this has and will continue to give traditional revenue streams a new way to monetise. 

The digitisation of property rights is well underway; artists are selling their music as NFTs, giving buyers the ability to hold a digital copy of a song in the same way that a person might buy a physical vinyl copy of an album. Huge names like Grimes and the Rolling Stones have jumped on the trend.

Investment in this space is not only beneficial for an injection of cash into the events industry but it will enable the more equitable distribution of revenues. NFTs sidestep the monetary hurdles put in place by DSPs, labels, marketing and the rest. The music, artwork, file - whatever it is that’s been tokenized - goes straight to the buyer. This also benefits said buyer as an owner of a portion of the royalties. 

This technology has implications for the live scene too - musicians are already able to release NFTs of concerts and festival performances. In October, the first festivals were hosted in the metaverse - Decentraland’s Metaverse Festival and Roblox’s Insomniac World Party heralded a new era of virtual music performances. Music industry giant Warner Music Group was both quick to cash in on the prospect of this new revenue stream, investing an eight figure sum in Roblox’s £520m Series H investment round in January. The share price has since doubled from $45 to $105, demonstrating the confidence in this technology as the future.

While the metaverse is currently a consumer-centric market, the reality is that B2B virtual spaces hold huge potential. Microsoft and its Teams meeting software could become a serious contender to Meta for meeting rooms, classrooms and conferences, depending on the level of investment put in.

Another area of investment worth consideration is in the technology businesses aiding the physical return to live. There are apps that will allow users to swap poor quality sound with professional audio and visuals straight from the mixing desk on smartphone videos of live music events. Videos can then easily be shared on social media platforms, taking User Generated Content (UGC) to a whole new level, which allows audience members and those at home alike to enjoy live events through enhanced technology. 

It is however important to remember that investment can and should come in many different forms, and that the industry needs input from those outside of the ecosystem as well as from within. Diversification is essential to prevent the creation of an industry too heavily weighted to one company or sector. 

Ultimately, the investment community now has a serious opportunity to help an impacted yet much needed industry get back on its feet. Out of every challenge comes opportunity, and 2022 is going to show no sign of these opportunities slowing down.