Why go to pop concerts? The motivations behind live music attendance

Abstract

Recent technological innovations have facilitated widespread illegal downloading of recorded music. While this points towards a decreased willingness to pay for music, the increase in the popularity of live music suggests otherwise. This is especially so when taking into account the rising cost of concert tickets, likely the result of reduced recorded music revenues. In the present study, a consideration of the unique motivations of why music fans decide on whether or not to attend live concerts is of interest. Drawing from a sample of 249 participants (55.02% female) with a mean age of 26.49, an open-ended questionnaire was analysed thematically with four key themes defined: Experience, Engagement, Novelty and Practical. The results highlight that participants want to "be there", to be a part of something unique and special, sharing the experience with likeminded others. Other social dimensions such as the use of live music events as a means to demonstrate fan worship were also found. The unknown, novel aspects of live music were key motivators, such as hearing new material and watching support bands. Notably, price was not a contributing factor when choosing to attend a concert, suggesting that live music offers fans something special that they are more than willing to pay for.

Developing a Framework for the Analysis of Program Notes Written for Contemporary Classical Music Concerts

“…However, they warn that the relationship between familiarity and liking is not yet understood. North and Hargreaves (1995), for example, found a positive association between familiarity and liking, whereas Brown and Knox (2016) concluded that audiences seek novelty rather than familiarity, and Thompson (2007) found no relationship between familiarity and audience members' enjoyment of a classical concert.…”

A phenomenological exploration of music festival experience

“…They have grown in number, size and attendance (Abreu-Novais & Arcodia, 2013). Music festival attendance and the popularity of live music have grown in the face of declining recorded music sales (Brown & Knox, 2016;Anderton, 2011). This trend has been driven by the internet and the same technology that has slowed recorded music sales (Stone, 2008).…”

“…Ea l e e t management research into motivations to attend music festivals, for example Crompton and MacKay (1997); Bowen & Daniels (2005), used social psychology theories of leisure researchers like those of to underpin their studies, but ultimately reduced their findings to broad generalised categories that offered few subjective insights. Moreover, current research like that of Brown and Knox (2016) indicates that there has been little theoretical development around the motivations to attend music festivals in the last 20 years. This supports Abreu-Novais & Arcodia s ie that, while there are a number of studies in this area, the lack of methodological breadth means that this area of research is still under explored.…”

“…An adaptation of their table summarising these, and other motivation factors, can be seen in Devesa et al, (2015) who used factor analysis to conclude that are three motivations for attending film festivals: novelty and new experiences, desire for leisure and entertainment and the chance to see a greater number of films. More specifically to music festival experience Brown & Knox, (2016) o luded that atte dees oti ations could be distilled into four main categories; experience, engagement, novelty and practical. The breadth of these categories means that they have a rhetorical truth and have many similarities to past studies but offer very little deeper subjective or experiential insight.…”

“…Broadly speaking, this body of research has tended to address one of two business focused questions: the first is what motivates people to attend these music festivals (Brown & Knox, 2016;Abreu-Novais & Arcordia, 2013;Tkaczynski & Rundle-Thiele, 2013;Gelder & Robinson, 2009;Li & Petrick, 2006;Bowen & Daniels, 2005;Nicholson & Pearce, 2001;Crompton & McKay, 1997) and the second is (how to enhance) the quality of experience at music festivals (Manthiou et al, 2014;Cole & Chancellor, 2008;Lee et al, 2008;Morgan 2008;Cole & Scott, 2004). These two research questions have enabled event managers to better understand what attracts attendees to music festivals so that they can then be designed to attract the optimum number of people and also boost satisfaction, loyalty and the intention to revisit.…”