Into the Pit

This master thesis researches what the added value of a music venue is for the music experience of their customers in times of digitization and digitalization. Using a qualitative research method in the form of semi-structured interviews, eleven respondents who have recently visited concerts in a Dutch music venue before are interviewed about their music experience in general, their music experience at a live concert in a music venue and the role of that music venue in their live music experience. The interviews are analyzed using a combination of thematic analysis and a narrative analysis, as deeper motives, experiences and thoughts of interviewees are elicited. The aim of this research is to give more insight in the how of people’s live music consumption, whereas past research was more focused on the what. The research shows that motivations for attending concerts in today’s digital era are still comparable to those found in previous research. However, it does show a trend towards the atmosphere and the overall experience as top motives, being more important than before. Factors that are shown to be greatly valued by contemporary concert visitors, are Show, Sound-quality, Crowd energy, Artist’s engagement with the crowd and Beleving (experience). The added value of music venues lays in the seemingly simple provision of a spatial dimension and making the experience as comfortable as possible for their customers. Music venues provide a place where artist and audience can come together and co-experience the concert, with the best viewpoints, sound-quality and programming activities possible. Comfort comes in terms of stage-visibility, optimal waiting times for toilets and bars and other factors. The rise of digitization does not seem to negatively influence people’s attendance-rate for concerts. The music venue is a key component in bringing every piece together to form an overwhelming and memorable experience for their customers, more so than a festival or living-room concert does. This research suggests that although sound and light might be reproducible outside a music venue, concerts are unique happenings and consist of factors that are technologically impossible to digitally reproduce, such as the atmosphere, the energy of the crowd, mega-production show elements, the co-experience as an audience with a real, tangible artist and the artist’s engagement with the audience. These factors make the concert-setting unique in its own. If anything, the role of the music venue has only become more important in making the value of visiting a live-concert in their hall as unique and overwhelming as possible, as a counteract to increasing digitization of music. The interviews elicit interesting suggestions from concert visitors for ways of how music venues can add value to the overall experience by their audience that is visiting a concert.