Long Live the Live-Stream: The viability of concert live-streams as a business model.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the live music industry faced a global crisis due to lockdown measurements. Mass gatherings were prohibited and travelling became nearly impossible, meaning that touring as we know it was out of the question. To cope with this loss, many artists started to live-stream their performances to maintain an audience connection and generate some income. Still, it remains to be seen what this format can provide once lockdowns are part of history. While some authors have begun exploring the phenomenon of concert live-streams from a culture perspective or business perspective (Vandenberg et al., 2020; Rendell, 2020; Taylor et al. 2020; Breese et al. 2020), the insights about the phenomenon remain limited. This study hopes to offer more clarity about if and how concert live-streams can be utilized in the future to create a valuable business model. So, it asks the question: How can value be created for live-streaming concerts and how can these be used for a sustainable business model for the live music industry? To answer this, the study uses three building blocks from the business model definition of Osterwalder et al. (2005), looking at value creation, distribution channels and revenue generation. The study combines both media technological and cultural perspectives with business theory to analyze the different business strategies that occur in the dataset. This includes expert-interviews, festival panels and podcasts. A thematic analysis is applied to map out the recurring patterns. The results show that different strategies can be employed, depending on the artist's success and the goals that they hope to achieve with the live-stream. The concert live-stream format can be an entertaining art form that can add supplemental value to the existing fan experience, although it cannot replace the physical concert experience. The digital distribution format allows for players of all sizes to profit off this format and strengthen their artist brand and increase their following. Yet, the bigger players will remain one step ahead in the game as they can employ platform strategies to increase their audience reach and create a higher production value, which in turn can generate more income. So, the format can sustainably be used as a supplemental feature to grow your audience and keep them engaged with the brand. This way, the live-streams can be used as investments in the brand for more profit in the future.