Exploring Motivations for Popular Music Concert Attendance

Alicia Perkins, University of Newcastle, [email protected]

Abstract

Audience analysis in reference to the market for live music concerts, and specific studies on motivations for popular music concert attendance are extremely sparse. Motivations that drive consumer decisions to attend specific events have been identified for sporting events, performing arts, jazz festivals, tourism, food festivals and festivals in general, where motivations have been demonstrated to differ depending on the type event attended. Recognising the potential for popular music concert motivations to differ from consumption of other events, this study aims to explore potential motivations for popular music concert attendance. An exploratory, qualitative study (specifically focus groups) was therefore undertaken to investigate these constructs in reference to attendance at popular music concerts. The author identifies 11 motivations that drive people to attend popular music concerts. Of these, the research also pinpointed four motivations yet to be addressed in any substantial way in the event literature, including nostalgia, status enhancement, venue and destination and experience new music.

Key words: popular music · motivations · concerts

Introduction

In reference to arts marketing, marketing questions continually arise around the notion of attracting more people and determining how best to attract larger audiences. Customer needs, interests, attitudes and preferences strongly affect attendance (and non attendance), and whilst marketers may be able to influence some of these aspects, a true understanding of the customer and how we can create more value by offering products that are better able to meet consumers needs is essential to marketing success (Caru and Cova, 2006).

The global popular music concert industry is a billion dollar industry for ticket sales alone and provides many opportunities for marketers to build strong brand identities and create long lasting relationships with fans via sponsorship, licensed merchandise and more (O’Reilly, 2004). The music industry is continually struggling with the impact of digital recordings on music sales (Rushe, 2010), and the importance of concerts for musicians to remain highly profitable is ever more pertinent (Rushe, 2010). Touring still remains the biggest source of income for top artists (Billboard, 2012), however, as western economies continue to struggle we have seen promoters struggle with attendance and turn to strategies such as ticket discounting and co-billing acts in order to increase audience numbers (Jones, 2011).

Whilst marketing of popular music concerts has traditionally focused on the promotion of genre styles and artists (Shuker, 2008), cultural and arts related activities, such as popular music concerts provide ways for people to connect with others, feel socially included and promote positive individual and community identities (ABS, 2011b). Gaining a strong appreciation of fans and fan behaviour in specific cultural activities ensures that not only the encounter with the product is significant to the consumer, but experiences with the products marketing and how concerts are packaged and communicated will be relevant and meaningful to existing and new markets (Bernstein, 2007).

An awareness of motivations for popular music concert attendance may provide useful insight to marketers, enabling them to more effectively segment and target all types of fans, including loyal attendees and occasional ticket buyers and may also assist in identifying potential audiences. The purpose of this study is to explore potential motivations of popular music concert attendance and how motivations for popular music concert attendance differ to other types of events identified in the literature. This paper will first introduce issues associated with concert attendance and a review of prior work on consumer motivation is given. The method for data collection and analysis will then be explained, followed by results, discussion, limitations and directions for future research.

Literature Review

Concert Attendance

Shuker (2008) describes concerts as complex cultural phenomena “involving a mix of music and economics, ritual and pleasure, for both performers and their audience” (p. 57), and are “about promotion as much as performance” (p. 58-59). Concerts play an important role in exposing performers and their music to prospective fans and purchases, assisting with commercial breakthrough, image building and creating a following (Shuker, 2008). Of all arts and cultural events held in Australia, including: art galleries, museums, classical music concerts, popular music concerts, theatre performances, dance performances, musicals and operas, and other performing arts, popular music concerts have the highest attendance rate. According to results released by the ABS almost one third of the Australian population had attended a Popular music concert in the 12-month period from 2009-2010 (ABS, 2011a), with more than one-third (40%) attending Popular music concerts more than twice (ABS, 2011a).

Leisure activities that include culture and the arts such as popular music concerts provide ways for people to connect with others, feel socially included, and promote positive community identities (ABS, 2011b). Individual characteristics however, will influence what events people attend and the number of times people attend. Traditionally, marketing of popular music concerts has focused on the promotion of genre styles and artists (Shuker, 2008), however, empirical studies on motivations for attendance at music festivals have suggested that it is possible to broaden the appeal of music events beyond the promotion of genre and artist by identifying how groups of consumers differ in respect to motivations for attendance (Bowen and Daniels, 2005).

Consideration of consumers’ motivations for popular music concerts may lead to the discovery of new promotional strategies aimed at targeting consumers beyond an emphasis on genre and the performing artist. Earl (2001) argues that unless artists can repeatedly sustain the attention of existing audiences, they must continually look to identify new audience groups to ultimately maintain and increase attendance levels that will endure time.

Motives

Motivations are seen as the fundamental reason for behaviour (Mayo & Jarvis, 1981; Snepenger, 2006). Whilst varied definitions of motivation exist in the leisure, recreation and tourism literature, motivation is commonly defined as “an internal factor that arouses, directs, and integrates a person’s behaviour” (Murray, 1964, p.7). The decision to attend a popular music concert will be influenced by an individual’s motivation to fulfil a desired need (Crompton and McKay, 1997). Crompton and McKay (1997) suggest that an understanding of consumer motivations for attendance is important to designing product offerings. Consumers do not just purchase a service, but expect certain benefits from that service in order to satisfy a particular need. Identifying these needs may be a key factor in developing elements of a concert event and tailoring marketing communications in order to draw attention to an attempt to address these needs. There also exists a very close relationship between motives and satisfaction, where motives for attendance occur before the concert and evaluation of satisfied needs are made after the concert has been attended (Crompton and McKay, 1997).

Existing studies on motivation have yet to include a specific focus on popular music concerts, though studies on motivation exist in reference to attendance at sporting events (see Fink, Trail and Anderson, 2002; Wann,1995), Jazz festivals (Formica and Uysal,1996), Tourism (Iso-Ahola, 1982; 1983; 1990; Snepenger, King, Marshall & Uysal, 2006), Performing Arts (Swanson, Davis & Zhao, 2008), Music festivals (Bowen & Daniels, 2005) and festival events in general (Crompton and McKay, 1997; Nicholson and Pearce, 2001).

Studies related to different types of events have revealed varied motivations for attendance. Formica and Uysal (1996) identified five dimensions of motivations for jazz festival attendance, including, excitement and thrills, socialization, entertainment, event novelty and family togetherness. Crompton and McKay (1997) acknowledged six categories of motivations for general festival events (food festivals, music events, parades, balls and shows). The motivations consisted of cultural exploration, novelty/regression, recover equilibrium, known group socialization, external interaction/socialization, and gregariousness.

A comparative analysis of visitor motivations specific to four different events in New Zealand, (namely a food festival, an airshow, a wine, food, and music festival, and a competitive music festival), also revealed that motivations will differ, depending on the event attended (Nicholson and Pearce, 2001).The fact that motivations that drive attendance have been shown to differ between not only disparate and similar events suggests that a closer examination of motivations for popular music is warranted.

Iso-Ahola (1983; 1990), who has published several works on motivation theory in reference to leisure, recreation and tourism proposed that motivations are not mutually exclusive, meaning that it is also not unlikely for an individual to possess more than one motivation for attendance at a single event.

Exploratory Investigation

In order to better comprehend consumer behaviour in reference to attendance at popular music concerts, an exploratory, qualitative study was undertaken to investigate motivations for popular music concert attendance. Specifically, focus groups with consumers were conducted to gain a conceptual understanding of the motivations for attending a popular concert, and to detect disparate and similar motivations identified in the literature for other types of events. Participants in the focus groups comprised undergraduate and postgraduate Australian University students ranging from 18 years to 32 years. Although the results of this study are not intended to be generalised, a higher proportion 18-34 year olds attend popular music concerts than any other age category in Australia. Results from a survey of attendance at selected cultural venues and events in Australia conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate that 44.6% of 18-24 year olds and 40.2% of 25-34 year olds attend popular music concerts (ABS, 2010a). In accordance with guidelines traditionally followed in the marketing research field, focus groups were continued until the moderator could anticipate group responses and no new material was being generated (Calder, 1977). This resulted in a total of three focus groups.

Participants in the focus group were asked to first give insight on what motivates them to attend a popular music concert (unaided) and were then provided with a handout of motivations that had been identified for varied events in the literature (aided). Participants were asked to consider the motivations in front of them and discuss their applicability to popular music concerts, and whether any category on the list of identified motivations had ever driven them to attend a popular music concert. All focus groups were audio taped and written transcripts prepared from the audio. The written transcripts formed the basis of a content analysis conducted in NVivo.

Results and Discussion

In reference to motivations for attending popular music concerts, consistent patterns emerged from the three focus groups. Common themes emerging from the focus groups led to the development of Table 1 which summarises the key insights gained about motivations for popular music concert attendance. Whilst previous research for other events have identified the motives of aesthetics, uninhibited behaviour, stagecraft, social interaction, escape, entertainment and atmosphere, and hero worship, the definitions in Table 1 are specifically relevant to attendance at popular music concerts. Furthermore, the focus groups revealed four new motivations, specific to attendance at popular music concerts, which have not been discussed in any detail in the literature for any of the other events. The most prevalent of these was ‘nostalgia’ where participants across all groups expressed a desire to relive old memories of music that gave them a “blast from the past” and took them back to their childhood. Participants had many happy associations with artists from the 80’s and 90’s such as Roxette, Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block and Aqua, and expressed nostalgia and reliving the happy personal associations they have with these artists as a motivation for attending recent popular music concerts. One participant expressed that they “never would have got to see them as a child”. Another dominant theme arising from discussion was the opportunity to visit a venue or destination that one would not normally visit. Participants indicated that venue and destination of a popular music concert could either motivate or demotivate them from wanting to attend a particular concert, and for some participants, destination or venue highly influenced whether they would choose to attend a concert or not. One participant expressed that they had “been to concerts 1000km away, but not to ones that are 3km away” because of the appeal of a particular destination. Discussion revealed that people “like a chance to get out of the norm” and that holding a concert at a particularly interesting venue like the Opera House, or at an exciting destination like Byron Bay would be a significant motivator for some people. A reoccurring theme evident across all focus groups was the notion of status enhancement. Participants discussed a type of competitive behaviour that would motivate some fans to attend a particular concert in order to increase their ‘status’ as a fan. This was deemed to derive from the belief that “you are a bigger fan if you can say that you have attended more concerts”. Part of this motivation also centred around the concept of being able to “look cool” and put that you are at a concert as your ‘status update’ on Facebook. One participant also felt they had bragging rights, as they had seen the now deceased, Michael Jackson, in concert, “I like the fact that I went to Michael Jackson, I feel there are bragging rights to have gone to that, not many people can say that”. The final motivation specific to popular music concert attendance identified in the focus groups was the opportunity to experience new music, and music that can only be encountered at a concert. This included music that had not yet been released, hearing the artist play covers of another artist, play songs acoustically or in general hear “stuff that you can’t normally listen to on a CD”.

Table 1: Motivations for Popular Music Concert Attendance

Motivation Definition Motivation Definition Nostalgia To relive a period with happy Escape Seeking distraction from personal associations, everyday life and sentimental longing to relive responsibilities. E.g. Work the past, childhood and kids. memories. E.g. Roxette, Backstreet Boys, Aqua. Aesthetics The artistic admiration of the Entertainment Pleasure and exhilaration music and of the and Atmosphere that cannot be generated artists/bands technical skill. by listening to recorded E.g. John Butler. music Hero Worship Being in close proximity to Uninhibited Social behaviour that may be celebrities, form of support Behaviour unaccepted in a normal and demonstration of setting such as drinking, dedication to music of moshing, dancing and going artist/band. Can involve crazy. touching the artist and crying. Stagecraft Production, theatrical Venue and Getting to visit a venue or performance and visual Destination destination that one would appeal. E.g. Pink, Lady Gaga not normally visit. E.g. The Opera House, Byron Bay. Social To interact and socialise with Interaction alike people, to feel part of a Experience new Hearing music that has not group with similar interests. and concert been released, where Status Competitive behaviour, specific music attendance is the only Enhancement gaining 'bragging rights' and means of exposure. seeking to increase 'fan' Hearing covers, acoustic

status as a consequence of sets etc. that can only be attendance. E.g. More experienced at concerts. concerts = Bigger fan.

Conclusions and Directions for Future Research

This study explored motivations that drive people to attend popular music concerts. The findings from the focus groups confirm that there exist motivations for popular music concert attendance that differ to motivations for other types of events. Specifically, the research revealed 11 motivations that drive people to attend popular music concerts. Of these, the research also pinpointed four motivations unique to popular music concert attendance that have yet to be highlighted as significant motivations for other types of events in the literature. These include nostalgia, destination/venue, status enhancement and concert specific music.

The emergence of motivations for attendance such as nostalgia, uninhibited behaviour, stagecraft, escape, venue and destination suggest that it is possible that popular music concert organisers may be able to employ different marketing tactics to broaden the appeal of specific concerts, beyond the promotion of genre and artist. Bowen and Daniels (2005), in their study on motivations to music festival attendance used cluster analysis to identify four distinct groups of visitors attending music festivals, demonstrating that it is indeed possible to go beyond a reliance on music itself or a specific artist to attract audiences. Results of this study show this too may be true for popular music concerts, where there is an absence of other activities, diversions and non musical attractions that are typically associated with music festivals (Bowen and Daniels, 2005).

The findings of this paper need to be treated as exploratory as the motivations identified may be sample specific and only tentative conclusions can be drawn from this single study. The results are also limited to a student sample; however, the results do offer insight into motivations for this kind of leisure activity.

Directions for future research include using the results from this study to generate hypotheses and identify questionnaire items for a follow-up quantitative study so that we may be able to better demonstrate how motivations can predict popular music concert attendance. Research in this area will provide marketers and managers insight concerning consumer motivations for popular music concert attendance so that they may be better positioned to improve service delivery and marketing promotions aimed at increasing satisfaction. These implications are particularly important for the music industry, where artists now rely so heavily on concerts as their major source of revenue.

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