Over the last few days, many countries like Switzerland, Japan and China cancelled several live events due to the ongoing spread of the new coronavirus. Our own Daniel Johansson, music industry researcher at Linnaeus University and collaborator in FuturePulse, talked to Georg Cederskog and Hugo Lindkvist of Dagens Nyheter, on the possibility that the coronavirus could have disastrous consequences for the live industry.

As Daniel explains ‘the problem is that nobody knows how this will develop. But if it becomes the same in Sweden as in China, South Korea and now also some parts of Japan and Italy, it will have disastrous consequences for the live industry. An industry that in Sweden has a turnover of more than 6 billion SEK, more than what the entire recorded part of the music industry, all rights parts, and Spotify have together.’

As the FuturePulse partner mentions, the live music on Swedish stages and festivals accounts for 56% of the total industry in Sweden. If the coronavirus persists and there is an outbreak in Sweden, it would affect not only organizers, artists, festivals, but also songwriters and their voice revenues, since a significant part of these revenues derives from their live performances.

Daniel Johannson concludes that ‘behind the scenes, this development is already being discussed a lot among organizers. Among other things, general instructions have been sent out to employees on how to handle artists from different parts of the world.’

You can read the full article here.

 

 

 

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