The Empty Fields of Glastonbury: An Audience from Home—An Exploration of a “Concert Experience” changed by Technological Innovations

The purpose of this work is to introduce the double-sided nature of technology in the live music sector; an argument that is usually one-sided in the literature, or simply overlooked. Technology has notably changed the recorded sector of the music industry, but little has been written about the way the audience at concerts have changed because of technology. This thesis will investigate three sets of technologies–ticket scalping, social media and mobile devices, and live streaming–and identify how concert audiences have changed because of them.

The changes relate to how the audience value concerts, how they feel before, during and after concerts, and how they can experience concerts in different temporal and spatial ways. This dissertation reveals that technology is a double-edged sword that has damaged some parts of the experience for some people but has also created opportunities for the experience to be complimented. It also reveals that the overall negative claims against technological-based changes in the literature are, for the most part, exaggerated.

Conclusions are drawn through the analysis of multiple sources, from books, online sources, and statistics, to interviews and personal experiences. A concert-experience-based survey was also written and shared as primary research to compare with the mentioned literature. Throughout the dissertation, specific examples and case studies are also used to illustrate the changing landscape of the live sector and the audience’s experience and how they are due to technological advances.