Blog: Live music industry

The longer the pandemic continues, the harder it gets for the live music business (and other cultural sectors built around live performance) to sustain hope of a ‘return to normal’. I hate saying it, but there it is.

My first experience of the United States was not the NYC, LA or Florida usually encountered by those visiting the new world for the first time. I was five years old and, due to an Auntie marrying a midwestern doctor, the family holiday consisted of a brief jaunt from Cincinnati, Ohio through to Indianapolis.

On the eve of Stormzy becoming the first Grime artist to headline Glastonbury, it is worth considering what this represents in terms of the link between the new streaming economy and live music. The South Londoner’s slot is notable less for the now-obligatory controversy that greets any Worthy Farm headliner that isn’t an established rock band (as per Jay-Z and Kanye West’s turns at the festival), but rather should be viewed as a pivot in what the wider live audience ought to expect from the next wave of headliners.