COVID-19 and the Music Industry

With more people homebound, the demand for new music is significant. The good news is that many artists are releasing new albums, singles and music videos as we continue dealing with COVID-19.

November is shaping up to be a great month for new music. Many popular artists, like BTS, Paul McCartney, Miley Cyrus, Megan Thee Stallion, Sam Smith, Ariana Grande have all released or are scheduled to release new albums in the next few weeks.

Were these albums born out of boredom with artists looking for a creative outlet during COVID?

Take it from Sir Paul McCartney, “I was just messing around, never suspecting for one second that this was going to be an album.” the star told BBC 6 Music’s Matt Everitt.

Seems like that is a case for many artists this year and most likely we’ll continue to see artists pumping out great music. The live music industry is taking a massive hit with concert halls and bars facing closures and scaling back due to COVID-19 restrictions. However the music streaming industry seems to be increasing. Spotify saw a 29% growth for the quarter and has crossed 320 million active monthly users.

As we enter a second wave of COVID-19 restrictions, artists are continuing to make music and those who aren’t blessed with good vocals are looking for new hobbies. Guitar companies are starting to see an increase in sales as consumers look for new hobbies. “Fender guitar sales have grown 17% during the pandemic, expecting to top  $700 million”, says Fender Musical Instruments Corp CEO Andy Mooney. No matter how hard this year has been, people are searching for creative outlets to fill spare time. I hope that we’ll be able to look back and remember the great music and creativity to come out during this time. Keep listening! Keep learning! Keep creating! And stay safe!

– Jocelyn van der Geest, Senior Research Analyst