The Impact of COVID-19 on Music Consumption and Music Spending

COVID-19 induced restrictions ordered by governments around the world have been an exogenous shock to the music industry, which we divide into two affected groups: 1) live music events and 2) recorded music. While the impact on live music events is rather obvious, it is unclear how the current pandemic is affecting the recorded music market. Hence, we study consumers’ pre- and post-pandemic shifts in consumer spending (in euros) and music consumption (in hours) across live music events, as well as the digital and physical submarkets of recorded music, in the world’s fourth largest music market, Germany. Relying on an online bi-annual panel capturing five waves between winter 2018/19 and winter 2020/21, we find that the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the continuous trend towards digitalization of the music landscape with premium streaming being the biggest beneficiary. However, total monthly consumer spending on music decreased by more than 45% compared to pre-pandemic, with live music events and physical sales being the most severely affected. Surprisingly, music consumption in hours also decreased during the lockdown even though consumers spent more time at home.

全球各国政府因COVID-19实施的限制措施，对音乐产业构成了一次外生冲击（exogenous shock）。我们将受影响群体分为两类：1）现场音乐活动；2）录制音乐。尽管现场音乐活动所受影响较为明显，但当前疫情对录制音乐市场的影响尚不明确。为此，我们以全球第四大音乐市场德国为研究对象，分析消费者在疫情前后，于现场音乐活动及录制音乐的数字与实体子市场中，在消费支出（单位：欧元）和音乐消费时长（单位：小时）方面的变化。研究基于一项半年一次的在线面板数据（bi-annual panel），涵盖了2018/19年冬季至2020/21年冬季期间的五个调查波次（waves）。结果显示，COVID-19疫情正加速音乐产业向数字化转型的持续趋势，其中付费流媒体（premium streaming）是最大受益者。然而，与疫情前相比，消费者每月音乐总支出下降逾45%，现场音乐活动与实体唱片销售受冲击最为严重。令人意外的是，尽管消费者居家时间有所增加，但音乐消费时长仍出现了下降。