Post Lockdown – Let’s Niche!

“Remember when that Corona thingy happened?”, mused our correspondent.

“It changed things quite a bit, didn’t it.”, you answered.

“So how did you react?” …

To make this question a bit easier to answer, let’s look at the music industry.

The music industry

When pop music started to be lucrative it was vinyl sales that brought in the cash and concerts were used to promote the single sales.

As things in the music industry developed, the business model flipped so that the less profitable single was used to promote the money-making gig.

The internet grew and gradually the music industry moved online. This new landscape meant that bands and singers had the potential to sell to a massive worldwide market that had hitherto been difficult to access.

The sheer size of this newly available market afforded “home producers” the opportunity to connect with (and sell to) a much large audience.

The result of this expanded market meant that without the need to compromise on artistic considerations, there were plenty of people willing to pay for specific genres of music that may not have appealed to a mass market. We also began to see the blending of genre conventions that never could have happened in the previous landscape. Without the worry of competing against other musicians with wildly different styles, many performers received a satisfying amount of exposure to the wider world.

“So, why are you banging on about the music industry?”

A good question, the answer to which could lay the red carpet to a new way for performing artists to thrive once the COVID19 pandemic has finished wreaking its havoc.

Ask yourself:

  • How could the history of the music industry help to inform your future?
  • What have you been forced to learn during COVID? How have you adapted your performances?
  • What skills have you honed because you have had to deliver your content online?
  • How much has your audience grown since lockdown?

Perhaps, adapting to a much more niched model of performance, engaging on a global scale with a bigger audience, spread across the wider world, could be just the positive result of all this learning about how to use Zoom that we all need.

With limited live acting opportunities, perhaps you have bought a microphone and made the leap into voice acting work. Or used your phone to create new content that pushes you to use your creative theatre skills in a new medium.

How have you adapted to the new environment during lockdown?
What good has it done for your creativity?
What lessons or innovations can you carry forward?

We would love to hear all your answers to these questions. Please comment and share your experiences below.

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