If the pandemic has changed anything, it is even more evident in the music industry. All of a sudden, the concerts and musical festivals around the globe have been suspended, and numerous performance venues have been shut down after long periods of unuse. In addition, many performance-related personnel who used to work internationally are sitting idly at home in Taiwan. At the end of last year, Taiwan’s success in fighting off the pandemic led to a massive amount of music events packed with crowds. “Performance of Retaliation” would have been an appropriate phrase to describe this type of revelry. Fast-forward to the month of May this year, however, the people in Taiwan finally witnessed the capricious nature of the world, having to endure the most limitations on their activities since the beginning of the pandemic. At this moment while we are making preparations for this music festival, it is impossible to predict how long the restriction on will last.

As the current pandemic continues to engulf the world, the impact to the live music events industry has also become globalized, as each market must deal with the music development trend of becoming more inwardly focused, which has been evident whether looking at the streaming traffic on the Internet or occasional concerts that have been scheduled and then forcibly cancelled. The Taiwan music industry, which has been focusing on the international market for the past few decades, has also realigned its marketing strategy, observing the joy of the audience while wondering when the impact of the pandemic on the industry will end. Or, perhaps it will never disappear as is the prediction of many.

Even companies not in the live music industry, such as record labels prouction, rightsholders have also experienced shrinking revenues due to the vanishing of live events. They have also had to change the focus and rhythm of promotion plans. Furthermore, due to the impact on the general economy that has led to the cancellation of various shooting activities and budget cuts in advertising, music companies have had to face even more losses.

Whether it is a transformation of the industry or the expansion to other markets, it would be beneficial to listen and understand the greater environment than crying or yelling about the harsh reality. Within Taiwan’s music industry, even though it has been oriented towards the overseas mandarin speaking market for a long time, we tend to take pride in our decades of cultural and industry advantage and only export what we have but not listening to. Actually, we have only very limited knowledge about other cultures and industries.