Author: Martijn Mulder

[English below]

Drie jaar na het loslaten van de beperkingen als gevolg van de coronapandemie lijkt de evenementensector voor meer en grotere uitdagingen te staan dan tijdens de lockdown. Hoewel de sector relatief goed uit die crisis kwam en al snel weer op (bijna) volle sterkte was, hangen
er in het post-coronatijdperk opnieuw donkere wolken boven de sector. Met name het laagdrempelige aanbod staat onder druk. POPLIVE onderzoeker Martijn Mulder schreef een artikel waarin hij pleit voor een aanpak specifiek gericht op dat deel van de sector, om te voorkomen dat (culturele) evenementen in de toekomst een luxeproduct worden. Het artikel is hier te vinden.

Continue reading “De vrijetijdssector na de pandemie: pleidooi voor ondersteuning van kleine/gratis festivals”

In a digitalising world, pop venues and festivals face the task of whether and how to adapt to this development. During the pandemic, some venues invested heavily in equipment to livestream performances, and during those years there were even voices that livestreams and holograms could eventually replace traditional live offerings. However, based on the POPLIVE publication ‘I was There!’, that view can be disputed. One of the main conclusions from this study is that physical copresence, being there, is the key element of concert experience, something that can not be perfectly simulated in a digital context. Therefore, the primary focus of venues and festivals in the post-pandemic era should not be at digitising their offerings.

Read the article “The value of being there” that was published in the magazine UNCOVER – The Future of Leisure here.

From 1-3 November 2023, the 14th International Music Business Research Days took place at University of Agder in Kristainsand, Norway. Two POPLIVE researchers presented their recent work at the conference. This conference is commissioned by the International Music Business Research Association (IMBRA). 

Continue reading “POPLIVE at International Music Business Research Days 2023”

On July 7, 2023, POPLIVE researcher Martijn Mulder defended his PhD Thesis “I was There!” at Erasmus University Rotterdam. The goals of this study have been to map the live pop music practice in the 21st century, achieve an understanding of value creation within live music, and assess the feasibility of an ecology approach to live music. The book is built from a holistic (interdisciplinary, multi-epistemological) perspective on live music and approaches the subject from both what happens onstage, how that is organised backstage and how that is received and experienced frontstage. A digital copy of the Thesis can be downloaded here. An article about the study in Dutch newspaper Trouw can be found here.

 

 

On Thursday July 6, 2023, POPLIVE organizes the mini-symposium “From Stage to Campus (and back). Pop music research in practice“. This symposium explores the value of academic research on pop music for the sector; how can pop music organizers, festivals, artists, policy-makers etc. benefit from scientific research projects and what are the most valuable future opportunities? Speakers at the symposium are Britt Swartjes, Daniel Nordgard, Frank Kimenai and Martijn Mulder. The symposium starts at 15.00h, ends with drinks around 17.15h and the entrance is free. For more info see below.

[in Dutch]

Naar aanleiding van het proefschrift Making a living in live music dat POPLIVE onderzoeker Rick Everts op 17 februari verdedigd heeft aan de Erasmus Universiteit, publiceerde De Volkskrant en Trouw op die datum artikelen over de studie van Everts. De artikelen zijn te lezen via onderstaande links:

Volkskrant: De meeste Nederlandse bands houden het maar kort vol. Wat maakt dat je het redt?

Trouw: Vijf jaar na Noorderslag is de helft van de bands verdwenen. ‘Dan komt de reality-check’.