This is JR, the producer of Plain English. Thanks for being with us for 300 lessons! Look for a special audio message from me and your fellow Plain English listeners tomorrow.
Lesson summary
Well thank you, JR, and thanks to all of you for joining us for Plain English lesson number 300. As always, this full lesson can be found at PlainEnglish.com/300.
Coming up today: live music venues (and the bands who play in them) are in trouble. Will they close, and what will be the effect on the music industry? The expression we’ll review today is “weather the storm” and we have a quote of the week.
Music venues struggling without concerts
Many businesses are adapting to the age of social distancing: restaurants are increasing delivery options and small shops are selling online. But what happens if your whole business is based on social density—not social distance?
That’s the position that live music venues are in today—and they have few options. When I say “live music venue,” don’t think of massive stadiums. Instead, think of places you might go to see a local or regional band, or the occasional national act. Think of places in city neighborhoods that can hold a few hundred or a thousand people.
In this crisis, they were the first to close and will be the last to re-open. The whole experience of enjoying a concert in these places is based on packing a lot of people into a room to enjoy the band up close and in person. The band feeds off the energy of the crowd. It’s not the same experience if there are only a smattering of tables, everyone six feet apart and seated quietly at a table—and a venue certainly can’t make money that way.
A recent survey found that ninety percent of independent music venues would close permanently in the next few months if the restrictions on live music aren’t lifted or if there is no government rescue package. Live music associations in the US and Europe have both petitioned for a share of their respective government recovery packages, but without luck so far.
It is sad when a business closes, but it’s a necessary, if difficult, part of the “creative destruction” that happens in times of economic change. The tragedy, though, would be a place that closes for a temporary reason, but is unable to ever come back. That might be the case with many music venues, and that’s because they are so big. Think about it: live music might not be feasible for another couple of years. But after that, we will still want, and be able, to see concerts again. But by then, it might be too late for many of the concert halls and music venues that we currently know and love.
Here’s why: If a concert venue closes today, the landlord—the building owner—will need to make some money from that space. This is just an economic reality. That building owner will probably divide the space and try to fill it with smaller tenants: shops, restaurants, apartments, whatever.
That’s fine for now, but let’s imagine that live music becomes viable again in two or three years. They can’t just go back to where they were because all those big spaces will have been broken up into smaller spaces. And there aren’t a lot of other big spaces for them to move into, especially in popular neighborhoods with high rents. It’s easy to break up a large space; it’s much harder to go the other way and assemble a large space out of many smaller units. For that reason, if music venues in dense, urban neighborhoods close due to the pandemic, they might not have the opportunity to return to those neighborhoods when the crisis passes.
That doesn’t mean there will be no potential for live music: it just means that concert halls will have to go elsewhere. That’s a tragedy for popular city neighborhoods, but it could open up opportunities for less-popular neighborhoods in big cities. Live music venues often lead the push for gentrification. They set up where rent is cheap and space is plentiful; apartments and shops fill in later as a neighborhood improves. That, again, is part of the ebb and flow of vibrant cities. However, it would be sad if it means we lose our favorite older locations, with so many memories.
Another worry is that large companies will come in and buy or lease all the concert venues. A big company might have a lot of cash available; a big company can weather the storm much better than an independent venue-owner can. That might sound good, but independent owners play a crucial role in discovering and promoting new bands and nurturing the talent in a city or a region. It’s a function that big companies or chains will not be able to replicate if they gobble up all the spaces.
It will take a while. Live music is not open in the US. The UK recently allowed some venues to open, but with everyone at a one- or two-meter distance from one another. In Newcastle, in the northeast of England, 2,500 fans went to a concert, all in groups of five or fewer, sitting on raised platforms that separate them from other groups.
Switzerland has said that events with 1,000 people can resume, but only after protections have been developed; the only problem is the Swiss government hasn’t specified what those protections might be. Germany’s large-event ban has been extended to the end of this year. France has allowed large events to start up again—but only in areas not heavily affected by the virus. Most observers think live music won’t be the same until well into 2021 or longer; venue owners and bands alike are trying to hang on until then.
Live calls with Plus+ members
This would be really sad if these great places closed. I’m thinking of all the independent concert halls I like—Schuba’s and Green Mill in Chicago, City Winery in New York, all those places on Broadway in Nashville or Bourbon Street in New Orleans—it would just be such a tragedy if they closed or were taken over by big companies or converted into apartments or whatever.
I think this would be a good topic for our live calls with Plain English Plus+ members. Our next one is coming up tomorrow, so let’s make this the topic for our live call on October 17, Saturday morning here in the US, Saturday afternoon in Europe, evening in Asia. If you’re a Plain English Plus+ member, come join us for that call, the details are on your dashboard. We’ll talk about your favorite live music, theater, or comedy venues.
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