Is the wellness trend bad news for the industry?

The live music industry has been encouraged to diversify its business model and become less reliant on alcohol sales to reflect the habits of younger concertgoers.

Nathan Clark, owner of Leeds’ Brudenell Social Club venue, made the plea during ILMC’s Wellness vs the Industry? discussion, which also featured Mother Artists co-founder Natasha Gregory and Jenni Cochrane, booker at EXIT Festival and founder of mental health and wellbeing non-profit Getahead.

Held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, the panel was chaired by ASM Global Europe SVP operations Marie Lindqvist.

“The entire industry is propped up on food and beverage,” said Clark. “If you take alcohol out of it, I don’t care whether you’re talking about an arena show, an outdoor stadium or anything else, the whole model of live music – certainly in the UK – falls down.

“How can we change the model to reflect the changing nature of society out there, and what we are seeing in trends? So I think there are big economic questions, as well as the wellbeing side that goes with this.”

Clark, who also promotes under the Brudenell Presents banner, said that evidence of the shift was undeniable.

“Anyone who denies it is blind,” he continued. “That’s the honest truth, so you have to diversify your offering.  And you’re seeing festivals pick up and diversify their offering more… When [in the past] would you see a young person at a certain age going out to have a chai latte and going to do yoga? You just wouldn’t have seen it, but that’s the nature of what it is.”

“I’ve been particularly proactive in trying to offer not only non-alcoholic drinks, but diversification”

He offered suggestions for how to keep up with changing tastes, adding the government’s tax cut on low ABV drinks had presented a “cost-effective tax incentive”.

“I’ve been particularly proactive in trying to offer not only non-alcoholic drinks, but diversification – whether it’s Kombucha on tap, or some other kind of offerings on food and drink,” he said. “Low ABV drinks… are now being up taken because the price point is lower, or if you’re a sensible venue, you can sell them at the same price and make a bigger margin, so it’s about keeping aware of the trends.

“If you can start offering those concessions, the audience will repeat buy and come to your venue or festival more.”

Cochrane said that punters now expected a wellness offering at events.

“They expect low and no [alcohol] drinks in the bar, like mocktails,” she said. “It’s just about doing your research and actually knowing what’s going to sell and giving them what they want.”

Cochrane, who also works with organisations including the Exit Festival Group, MDLBeast and music and tech conference Bridge in Croatia, discussed the evolution of the music industry over the course of her career.

“It’s seen to be an industry that everybody wants to get into,” she said. “It’s glamorous, it’s fun, it’s this and that. And with that, there’s an expectation that we should work longer hours than other industries. There’s no such thing as a nine to five, it’s this always-on mentality.

“But I think in a generational shift, younger people coming into the industry are not burning the candle at both ends. They won’t work the crazy hours that maybe we did to get into the industry to try and make our names and they don’t party as much, if at all.”

Gregory agreed that young people were now going out less, citing the pandemic as a factor.

“They grew up differently and have a fear of it,” she said. “I think over time, there’ll be another cultural shift, and so the next generation after will go out more.”

“As an industry, socially, we’re competing with on-demand entertainment”

There was also the cost of living crisis to consider, added Cochrane.

“It’s twofold,” she said. “It’s the financial implications, coupled with the fact that they’re maybe drinking less, they don’t want to go out and they just want to party less… There’s a social isolation point as well – young people have got fewer social skills because they’re online.”

Clark expanded on that statement, saying that technological development had “rapidly changed the whole marketplace”.

“As an industry, socially, we’re competing with on-demand entertainment, whether it be Amazon, Netflix or sport that you can watch on your phone,” he said. “There’s multiple games on TV that they wouldn’t have been able to watch [before], so if you couldn’t get a ticket to that, you went to a show.

“There’s so much more choice out there, so we need to make our offering better when they come out. You have to think, holistically, about what we are doing to make it as a sustainable, long-term business…. Essentially, we’re here to make people get together and have a great time. That’s what the industry is about.”

Gregory, who represents the likes of IDLES, Amy Macdonald and The Teskey Brothers, discussed her own trajectory, explaining how she balanced being an agent with parenting – and how the industry still had a long way to go in terms of support.

“My career is a maze,” she said. “It’s not a ladder, and I’m totally okay with that. I had children, I had them quite late, at 36, because I was shit scared to be honest about where I was in my career and how it would impact. I hoped the way I do things would open it up for so many and I haven’t found that happen.

“I have had to break down barriers at festivals who tell me that it’s not a place for kids, and so I work with them on how it can be a place for kids. I’ve kind of fought my way through not taking no for an answer, and I still do that to this day, because what I’m doing is hopefully opening the doors for someone else to ask that question.”

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