The music industry has been dealt a heavy blow by the corona crisis. While musicians depend almost entirely on live performances for their livelihood, the big money ims made by a small group within the industry. Pauwke Berkers, cultural sociologist at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, and Frank Kimenai, Ph.D. candidate and working in the music industry for over fifteen years, wonder: Is there a future for the music industry?Â
During research, you can look at the music industry in different ways. Pauwke Berkers and Frank Kimenai used the metaphor of an ecology. In the Erasmus Magazine article, Kimenai explains: ''Basically, an ecosystem is the collection of living and non-living factors in a certain area and how they relate to each other.The interesting thing is how within these music ecosystems the people, companies and institutions relate to each other.''
According to Berkers and Kimenai, the biggest problem is that the music sector, or the art sector in general, is a sector where income is distributed in an unbalanced way. There is a 'winner takes all' principle, where many people earn almost nothing and a few people earn a lot. The discussion about this was already going on before the corona crisis, but it has now gained momentum. Berkers argues: ''The corona crisis could be a historical watershed, where the question is asked whether we should go back to the way things were before, or whether something should change now. The corona crisis could be a turning point for the music industry in a positive sense.''
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