Can the ticket prices for the music festival be lowered? Reporter observation: Where is the path of China's music festival industry? Artist | Music Festival | China
With the gradual recovery of the offline performance market this year, 100 music festivals have been held in the first half of this year alone, and their popularity continues to rise. During this year's May Day holiday, the founder of a music festival called for "lowering the ticket prices of the festival, lowering them, and allowing all young people to participate in the festival." This statement received strong support from music fans and also sparked heated discussions.
Is the ticket price for the music festival affordable? Where will the music festival industry go again? The Voice of China at the headquarters has specially planned "Industry Insights" for "News with Perspectives". This issue focuses on the music festival industry in China, and talks with veteran music industry observers Fan Zhihui and free musicians Li Yuan.
The number of music festivals is booming, but the experience is not as good?
2023 is undoubtedly the big year for music festivals. Since the first half of this year, there have been over 150 music festivals in China that have released detailed information on their hosting. According to incomplete statistics, 19 different music festivals will be held in various regions during the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival holiday. During the summer from June to August, Zhejiang Province led the country in the number of 12 music festivals held.
Free musician Li Yuan has participated in multiple domestic and international music festivals with the band. He said that the reason why there are particularly many music festivals this year is, on the one hand, because some artists have extended their performance contracts from previous years to this year, and everyone is concentrated on fulfilling them this year; On the other hand, there are also reasons why cultural and tourism departments in various regions want to boost the tourism industry.
When it comes to this year's music festival, veteran music industry observer Fan Zhihui frankly stated that compared to the music festival he participated in for the first time in 2012, 11 years have passed and the overall experience of the music festival has not greatly improved. Fan Zhihui pointed out that since the domestic music festivals achieved a balance of income and expenditure and entered the commercialization stage in 2007, music festivals have blossomed everywhere, resulting in a mix of good and bad. Moreover, due to complex factors such as transportation, accommodation, ticket prices, on-site events, and weather, the experience of music festivals cannot always be guaranteed.
Each has its own difficulties, how can we "lower" the ticket price?
In addition to the feeling of experience is not enough to match the high ticket price, the ticket is too expensive, which is also one of the main problems that music festival consumers roast about. How to lower the ticket prices for music festivals is the focus of attention from all parties this year.
When it comes to price reduction, the first step is to fully understand the production mechanism of the industry. Fan Zhihui divided Chinese music festivals into two categories. One is a music festival organized by record companies, where performers are artists under the company's umbrella. This type of festival is known as the "front store, back factory" model, which has more advantages in cost control; Another type is market-oriented music festivals that operate entirely in accordance with market mechanisms and require negotiation of prices with artists, making it more difficult to lower prices.
In the composition of music festival tickets, which often cost several hundred yuan, the artist's appearance fee is widely recognized as the largest amount. Li Yuan said that for example, in a typical music festival lineup, the appearance fee for one or two "top performers" ranges from 1 million to 2 million yuan, while the appearance fee for "waist performers" may be hundreds of thousands of yuan, and there are also many artists whose appearance fees range from a few thousand to tens of thousands of yuan.
Fan Zhihui told reporters that if the music festival had 10000 spectators in a day and invested 10 million yuan, the cost of each ticket would be 500 yuan if it were shared equally over two days. In order to balance the cost, the ticket price would be higher.
Li Yuan suggests that music festivals can learn from the model of the sports industry and form a positive relationship with local cultural tourism. He said that the revenue source of the music festival actually does not only include ticket sales, but the arrival of music fans can also play a driving role in the local tourism industry. A mature music festival brand should generate significant revenue from sponsors and licensed live broadcasts.
Where is the path of China's music festival industry after its rapid development?
Looking into the future, will the problem of inflated ticket prices and insufficient experience at music festivals persist for a long time? Can the music festival industry, which generates explosive demand after repression, continue to thrive?
Fan Zhihui expressed his optimistic attitude towards the future development of the music festival industry. He believes that there will inevitably be chaos in the rapid growth stage of the market, but as long as someone continues to participate and hold the music festival, the festival will attract more and more audiences, and the culture of the music festival will become more popular, which is more beneficial than harmful to the overall market.
Li Yuan believes that China's music festival market has only developed for decades and will gradually mature in the future. With the refinement of music performances such as 100 person performances, 1000 person performances, and 10000 person performances, different levels of performances will be matched with corresponding audiences. Li Yuan suggests that differentiated management should be implemented for different types of consumers. Differentiated pricing strategies and details can help balance the experience and ticket prices of music festivals between "cheap and expensive gameplay".
Fan Zhihui said that the competition between music festivals is not only about investment and top lineups, but also about details. Music festivals can invite diverse artists, create refined lineups, and upgrade in areas such as transportation, food, storage, and safety. "It's not that we need to standardize everything, but we need to assume ourselves as consumers and think about what services we want to receive. That's the details."
