1.1 Introduction
Music Festivals are music events with a massive attendance and certain duration that comprise performances of several bands and artists in a limited period of time and limited space. Festivals provide educational and an opportunity, cultivate a culture of community identity, assists in destination tourism and leads to sustainable development of a particular region taking care of its cultural milieu. According to Negus (2015), music can be defined as a cultural experience, as an element capable of creating a community. This is instrumental in creating communities and mobilizing societies (Negus, 2015). Music Festivals differ from concerts by bringing a selection of brands and artists, called Lineup (Hiller, 2016), which changes from year to year, bringing dynamism to the festivals’ positioning (Kuijken et al., 2016).
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitation of the study and Definition of terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Music began to be marketed as a final product in the late 19th century, when technological innovation made possible the transformation of music into consumer goods (Marchi, 2006) for the general public. Music is the background of life, representing an international language that connects different cultures. It is also significant with respect to economies, markets, and busi- nesses.
Festivals are usually held in large areas close to urban centres, promoting an idea of freedom (Szmigin et al., 2017), alternative society (Anderton, 2011), and counter-culture (Morey et al., 2014) features weakened since the 2000s in face of the growing commercial message. Festival’s economic growth is due to their market evolution and to the professionalization and corporatization of the industry (Anderton, 2011; Morey et al., 2014), which was created in order to attract and maximize consumption among their target audiences (Szmigin et al., 2017).
Marshall (2013) and Naveed et al. (2017) argue that with the music sector evolution throughout the years, the power centre and value creation was transferred from record labels to the concert’s sector. From the management point of view, this can already be seen in some markets around the world, such as the UK (Anderton, 2011; Cho et al., 2017) and Spain (Montoro-Pons and Cuadrado-Garcia, 2016), where the musical events sector is more economically important than the traditional music industry.
One important contribution of music festivals to their local economy is their big tourism potential, attracting public from different areas to their influence zone (Andersson and Getz, 2009; Cashman, 2017; Szmigin et al., 2017). They attract this public using local features and products in order to add value to their services (Diaz Soria et al., 2014), in their communication or directly in the event.
The worldwide relevance of music can be recognized not only in philosophical discussions but also in statistical data about the industry. Music consumption has grown quickly, particularly since the start of the digital revolution, and this growth seems unlikely to slow down in the future (IFPI 2022). The world wide music industry has grown significantly in recent years. In fact, it grew from US$14.2 billion in 2014 to US$25.9 billion in 2021, revealing growth of 18.5% in 2021 (IFPI 2022). Streaming now drives the music market, representing 65% of global music market revenues in 2021 (IFPI 2022). This trend is a consequence of the digital revolution, which has been characterized by two phases of development (Koh et al. 2019).
The first phase involved physical and digital music record sales. The second phase was the development of streaming, unbundling, and cross-platform services that combined music with other entertainment forms, such as video games, television programs, films, and talent shows (Shen et al. 2019).
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the how the use of digital strategy has revolutionized the music festival events industry in the UK.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that the problem of the decreasing value of psychological ownership of music guided by the dematerialization of music and the advent of access-based streaming platforms (Sinclair and Tinson, 2017). The music industry has reacted to this tendency and has been able to assimilate the technological and digital innovations (Naveed et al. 2017).
The other side of the coin of the digital revolution in music is that collaboration between major labels and other actors has allowed them to keep their power and to maintain the oligopoly in the market. In this context, while technological and digital innovation is stimulated, innovation in music is discouraged (Sun 2019).
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to determine how the use of digital strategy has revolutionized the music festival events industry in the UK. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To identify the main strategies of internationalization used by companies owning music festivals in the UK;
- To investigate the ways in which music festivals are currently internationalized and the internal processes prior to this decision;
- To analyze the use of digital strategy in the events industry; and
- To analyze the role of Media in the promotion of various events and festivals using different tools of communication.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Can the use of digital strategy promote success in the UK event industry?
- Does digital strategy add value to the marketing strategy in a positive way?
- Has the Use of Digital Strategy Revolutionized the Music Festival Events Industry in the UK?
- What are the main strategies of internationalization used by companies owning music festivals in the UK?
- What are the ways in which music festivals are currently internationalized and the internal processes prior to this decision?
- What are the role of Media in the promotion of various events and festivals using different tools of communication?
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