Online music performance consumption in times of crisis - A quantitative study of the impact of online music concert consumption during the Covid-19 period on future physical attendance

The Covid-19 period presents an unprecedent moment in history, where all cultural organisations and concert venues had to close their doors to the public. Consequently, the live music sector faces high uncertainties of supply and demand for the future, and heads into a precarious economic and cultural situation. In turn, artists, organisations and venues increasingly turned online to provide online concerts and music performances. The online consumption of these also considerably increased in the two and a half months of lockdown. In this research, we analyse the online consumption and its effects on future attendance. We set out to look at drivers and barriers and how they affect future attendance. We find that economic drivers and barriers are significant to understand the relation to future attendance and anticipation. Through a mediation analysis, the research studies how online consumption mediates this relationship. We find that the effects of economic drivers and barriers are mediated through how much audiences increased their online consumption during the lockdown period. Furthermore, we draw general implication of online consumption. Firstly, we show that both the frequency of online consumption, and how much audiences increased their online consumption have positive effects on the future increase of physical attendance and the anticipation towards attending concerts again. Secondly, we detect specific types of online consumption. Significant results show that the more audiences engage socially online, the more they plan to increase their attendance post Covid-19. Then, online engagement, online discovery, online education and online access show significant positive effects toward the anticipation of audiences for physical concert. Lastly, we draw important implication for cultural organisations to become more resilient for the post Covid-19 era.