Industry Outlook
It is still early, but we see signs of two significant industry trends emerging from the pandemic chaos.
First, we saw many live show content providers face severe downward pressure on pricing. Stories of price concessions at rates of 30-50% off the bid prices were not uncommon. The Hollywood blockbuster live event shows seem to have been largely immune to these deep price cuts, but there are rumors that even the biggest Hollywood shows are providing discounts in an effort to ignite sales. We are watching closely to see if these price reductions become permanent. As the only content provider in the space built to perform on volume, we would welcome a price reset that makes the affordability of Muséik more attractive to show producers.
Second, and much more significant, it seems at least some show producers, conductors and other stakeholders are coming out of the pandemic with a renewed commitment to champion what might be generally called "non-traditional programming." We predict that female and minority composers stand to benefit the most from this potential paradigm shift, but we are also tracking what seems to be an increased appetite for immersive digital media-rich content. And where composer demographics and multimedia content converge the buzz is white hot at times.
Both of these perceived shifts are still young and a very long way from becoming normalized. Claims about the arrival of a new paradigm in concert programming in particular seems to be a long-standing prediction that never quite comes to pass.
But in the last few years Ion Concert Media has proven its business model and established itself as a viable player in the ever-expanding concert media marketplace. Now our attention shifts from proving our viability to doing what we can to help shape the future. We continue to believe strongly in the disruptive power of the Muséik platform. And we intend to leverage Muséik to effect change. With hard work and a little luck maybe we can play a small role in making these new trends mainstream reality.