Recently, Concerts SA revealed the most recent findings of their research on behalf of all their partners and supporters. The live music industry was nearly wiped off in 2020 when COVID-19 struck. Music industry professionals began to give up, selling their instruments and looking for alternate sources of income. The music streaming models that South African artists and other industry participants are using were the subject of a brief survey that Concerts SA commissioned. Concerts SA created the original study Digital Futures? Live Streaming in South Africa with funding from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in collaboration with SAMRO, under the administration of IKS Cultural Consulting, and online partner the Music in Africa Foundation.

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Digital Futures? Live Streaming in South Africa offered a ‘trapdoor to escape lockdown and ushered in the Concerts SA Digital Mobility Fund (DMF). “Concerts SA could not, and would not, abandon its mission to encourage live music in southern Africa and, like so many projects, investigated hybrid models for its programmes”, said Mark Rosin, CEO of SAMRO. “The DMF, with support from the Royal Norwegian Embassy, the National Arts Council, SAMRO, international donors and partners, Concerts SA, offered relief to thousands of music professionals around South Africa”.

Concerts SA expanded the Digital Futures? research and produced this second report, titled Digital Futures Two: Taking South African Music Online, after two years of numerous lockdowns. The goal of this study was to comprehend how SA’s music industry’s music professionals experienced streaming at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the live music sector to “pivot to digital.” With respect to live online music events, the analysis took into account changes in knowledge, attitudes, and business structures.

Andre Le Roux, project manager of Concerts SA said Digital Futures Two: taking South African music Online (2022) is a “broader, deeper study, incorporating theory, unique data on the South African streaming experience, and the real voices of artists and others who contribute to making music. Its practical focus is on revenue streams, who pays whom, who carries the risks and who is best equipped to grab the opportunities, as well as the role of the state in dealing with both music role-players at home and dominant multinational streaming platforms”.

The research finds that streaming is not the greener grass everyone thought it was. In truth, the report finds that ‘the Fourth Industrial Revolution remains a distant dream for many South African music professionals.’ Other findings include:

• Many in SA were already streaming before COVID;
• Streaming had already become a part of many musicians’ professional practice, was by no means amateur, and skilled use of analytics to track audiences were already established;
• Streaming was often motivated by a strong sense of social mission and purpose;
• The creators carried most of the risks of streaming, but benefitted minimally, if at all;
• Streaming offered, at best, a tiny supplement to earnings, and at worst – because of platform fees – a drain on them;
• For many, streaming would be unaffordable without sponsorship;
• South Africa’s huge digital divide makes things worse,
• Proposed new copyright laws haven’t begun to address the issues facing online content creators;
• It’s a global challenge: recent international research confirms that, even in countries with strong digital infrastructure, streaming barely helps music workers.

The research can be downloaded for free from the Concerts SA website.