Session 17 - Digital and audience
Tracks
Room C2.01 - Consumer Behaviour
| Tuesday, June 25, 2024 |
| 16:00 - 17:30 |
Speaker
Claire Roederer
Mme/Mlle
Chris Hand
Kingston University
Do online arts and music attract different audiences? Exploring the overlap in online and in-person audiences.This is a timely study which is much needed post-pandemic with significant implications for practitioners, further elaborating on these would be welcome for the conference. Is it worth arts institutions investing the time, resources and effort needed for online options at a time of funding cuts? What is the best path forward for audience development? Perhaps there may be policy implications here as well.
Extended Abstract
Digital access to arts has increasingly attracted research attention, with studies focussing on how audiences engage digitally with arts (e.g. Walmsley, 2016) and how online and in-person attendance may trade-off each other (e.g. Ateca-Amestoy and Castiglione, 2022 Covid-19 lockdown restrictions to live performances and exhibitions led to many arts venues developing initiatives to enable audiences to engage digitally (Hadley, 2020; Waldman, 2020; Hylland, 2022). Subsequently, both audience appetite (Statista, 2020) and investment in the digital arts experience grew (Ross, 2020; Sverker, 2021). The ability to watch arts events online, either live or pre-recorded, has the potential to overcome at least some of the barriers to arts participation, albeit as an imperfect substitute (digital for analogue, to borrow Hylland’s, 2022, terms). This study assesses how far the audience for online arts and music overlaps with the offline audience in England after Covid restrictions were lifted.
The study draws on the Participation Survey 2021/22 (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, 2022). The survey was commissioned by the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as a successor to the Taking Part survey. The data was collected between October 2021 and March 2022 producing approximately 33,000 responses from across England.
The survey asked respondents about watching live arts events including theatre, visual arts, or literature online and also about watching pre-recorded events. Similar questions were asked about watching live or pre-recorded music or dance events. The survey also asked about attendance at arts events in person: exhibitions of art, photography or sculpture; play drama, musical, pantomime, ballet or opera; events connected to books or reading; live music events and live dance events. Whilst these don’t map perfectly onto the categories used for online viewing, they are close enough to make comparisons.
Our results suggest that the online audience for live and pre-recorded arts is smaller than the audience for live and pre-recorded online music and dance events. A strong overlap is found between watching theatre, visual arts or literature events online and attending them in person. There is less of an overlap for watching music or dance events online (perhaps because digital music is more established, for example through streaming). Duplication of purchase (Ehrenberg, 1972) is used to explore the extent of cross-purchase patterns. Duplication of purchase examines the proportion of attenders at art a who also attend art b. The Duplication of purchase “law” suggest that that the proportion of a’s audience who also attend b should reflect b’s overall penetration rate. Here though it is used to highlight patterns of cross-purchase. The results show that over 60% of people who watched arts events online, either live or pre-recorded, also attended events in person. There also appear to be overlaps between watching arts and music events live online and between watching pre-recorded arts and music events, the latter perhaps suggesting that time constraints drive some audience members’ choices.
The duplication of purchase analysis is complemented with a second approach, a bivariate logit model (see e.g. Greene, 2018, for an introduction), which is used to explore differences in the profiles of online and in-person arts audiences and music audiences. Given the low penetration rate for live online arts events (approximately 6%), for this analysis watching arts events live or pre-recorded are combined into a single online arts variable. The bivariate probit model allows the relationship between the two dependent variables (attending arts live and watching arts events online in one model and attending music and dance events online and live in the second model) and a set of predictor variables (age, sex, rural location, and socio-economic position) to be tested simultaneously and allows for a test of whether the profiles differ.
Model estimates for both arts and music show a significant overlap between in-person and online audiences (again with a smaller overlap in music than in arts). The results show that being female, belonging to a higher socio-economic group, being located in London increase the likelihood of attending arts in person and online, whilst the presence of children in the household reduces the likelihood of attending either. However, the effects on online attendance are smaller than for in-person, suggesting that an online channel does help reduce some barriers to engagement. For music we see a bigger difference. Socio-economic group significantly affects attendance at music and dance events in person, but not online, whilst being female significantly reduces engagement with online music and dance events. The results also suggest that the audience for in-person music and dance events is younger and for online events it is older.
Takeaway
The audience for online arts in post-Covid England is still largely a subset of the audience for arts in-person. At first glance this might suggest that online channels do not provide a way of reducing the effect of barriers to participation. However, the bivariate probit regression results suggest a more subtle effect in that the effect of financial and social barriers (captured by socio-economic status) and time constraints (proxied by the presence of children in the household) are reduced by online arts access. For music and dance events the differences are more striking in that female respondents are less likely to attend music and dance events online, whilst the effect of age reverses: age has a negative effect on attending in person and a positive effect on attending online. Overall, online access to arts and music does not overcome barriers to participation, but it does play a role in reducing the impact of some of the barriers.
References
Ateca-Amestoy, V. and Castiglione, C. (2022) “Live and digital engagement with the visual arts”, Journal of Cultural Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-022-09466-3
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (2022) Participation Study 2021/22, UK Data Service. SN: 9012, DOI: 10.5255/UKDA-SN-9012-1
Ehrenberg, A. (1972) Repeat Buying: theory and applications, London, North Holland.
Greene, W.H. (2018) Econometric Analysis, 8th edition, New York, Pearson
Hadley, W. (2020). COVID-19 impact: Museum sector research findings, International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts. Available at: https://www.culturehive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/art-fund-covid19-research-report-final.pdf [Accessed 31 08 2023.]
Hylland, O.M. (2022) “Tales of temporary disruption: Digital adaptations in the first 100 days of cultural Covid lockdown”, Poetics, 90, 101602, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2021.101602.
Ross, E. (2020). How is UK theatre surviving Covid-19? Backstage, 11 May. Available at: https://www.backstage.com/uk/magazine/article/uk-theatre-covid-19-70685/ [Accessed 31 August 2023.]
Statista (2020). Theatre and the West End in the United Kingdom, Statista, December 3, Available at: https://www.statista.com/topics/3689/theatre-and-the-west-end-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/#topicOverview [Accessed 31 August 2023.]
Sverker, H-C. (2021). Classical music goes viral: Memeings and meanings of classical music in the wake of Coronavirus. Open Library of Humanities. 7(2) 1-23.
Waldman, J. (2020). Supporting a reimagined future, Art Quarterly. 60-61.
Walmsley, B. (2016) “From arts marketing to audience enrichment: How digital engagement can deepen and democratize artistic exchange with audiences”, Poetics, 58, 66-78
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2016.07.001
The study draws on the Participation Survey 2021/22 (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, 2022). The survey was commissioned by the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as a successor to the Taking Part survey. The data was collected between October 2021 and March 2022 producing approximately 33,000 responses from across England.
The survey asked respondents about watching live arts events including theatre, visual arts, or literature online and also about watching pre-recorded events. Similar questions were asked about watching live or pre-recorded music or dance events. The survey also asked about attendance at arts events in person: exhibitions of art, photography or sculpture; play drama, musical, pantomime, ballet or opera; events connected to books or reading; live music events and live dance events. Whilst these don’t map perfectly onto the categories used for online viewing, they are close enough to make comparisons.
Our results suggest that the online audience for live and pre-recorded arts is smaller than the audience for live and pre-recorded online music and dance events. A strong overlap is found between watching theatre, visual arts or literature events online and attending them in person. There is less of an overlap for watching music or dance events online (perhaps because digital music is more established, for example through streaming). Duplication of purchase (Ehrenberg, 1972) is used to explore the extent of cross-purchase patterns. Duplication of purchase examines the proportion of attenders at art a who also attend art b. The Duplication of purchase “law” suggest that that the proportion of a’s audience who also attend b should reflect b’s overall penetration rate. Here though it is used to highlight patterns of cross-purchase. The results show that over 60% of people who watched arts events online, either live or pre-recorded, also attended events in person. There also appear to be overlaps between watching arts and music events live online and between watching pre-recorded arts and music events, the latter perhaps suggesting that time constraints drive some audience members’ choices.
The duplication of purchase analysis is complemented with a second approach, a bivariate logit model (see e.g. Greene, 2018, for an introduction), which is used to explore differences in the profiles of online and in-person arts audiences and music audiences. Given the low penetration rate for live online arts events (approximately 6%), for this analysis watching arts events live or pre-recorded are combined into a single online arts variable. The bivariate probit model allows the relationship between the two dependent variables (attending arts live and watching arts events online in one model and attending music and dance events online and live in the second model) and a set of predictor variables (age, sex, rural location, and socio-economic position) to be tested simultaneously and allows for a test of whether the profiles differ.
Model estimates for both arts and music show a significant overlap between in-person and online audiences (again with a smaller overlap in music than in arts). The results show that being female, belonging to a higher socio-economic group, being located in London increase the likelihood of attending arts in person and online, whilst the presence of children in the household reduces the likelihood of attending either. However, the effects on online attendance are smaller than for in-person, suggesting that an online channel does help reduce some barriers to engagement. For music we see a bigger difference. Socio-economic group significantly affects attendance at music and dance events in person, but not online, whilst being female significantly reduces engagement with online music and dance events. The results also suggest that the audience for in-person music and dance events is younger and for online events it is older.
Takeaway
The audience for online arts in post-Covid England is still largely a subset of the audience for arts in-person. At first glance this might suggest that online channels do not provide a way of reducing the effect of barriers to participation. However, the bivariate probit regression results suggest a more subtle effect in that the effect of financial and social barriers (captured by socio-economic status) and time constraints (proxied by the presence of children in the household) are reduced by online arts access. For music and dance events the differences are more striking in that female respondents are less likely to attend music and dance events online, whilst the effect of age reverses: age has a negative effect on attending in person and a positive effect on attending online. Overall, online access to arts and music does not overcome barriers to participation, but it does play a role in reducing the impact of some of the barriers.
References
Ateca-Amestoy, V. and Castiglione, C. (2022) “Live and digital engagement with the visual arts”, Journal of Cultural Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-022-09466-3
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (2022) Participation Study 2021/22, UK Data Service. SN: 9012, DOI: 10.5255/UKDA-SN-9012-1
Ehrenberg, A. (1972) Repeat Buying: theory and applications, London, North Holland.
Greene, W.H. (2018) Econometric Analysis, 8th edition, New York, Pearson
Hadley, W. (2020). COVID-19 impact: Museum sector research findings, International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts. Available at: https://www.culturehive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/art-fund-covid19-research-report-final.pdf [Accessed 31 08 2023.]
Hylland, O.M. (2022) “Tales of temporary disruption: Digital adaptations in the first 100 days of cultural Covid lockdown”, Poetics, 90, 101602, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2021.101602.
Ross, E. (2020). How is UK theatre surviving Covid-19? Backstage, 11 May. Available at: https://www.backstage.com/uk/magazine/article/uk-theatre-covid-19-70685/ [Accessed 31 August 2023.]
Statista (2020). Theatre and the West End in the United Kingdom, Statista, December 3, Available at: https://www.statista.com/topics/3689/theatre-and-the-west-end-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/#topicOverview [Accessed 31 August 2023.]
Sverker, H-C. (2021). Classical music goes viral: Memeings and meanings of classical music in the wake of Coronavirus. Open Library of Humanities. 7(2) 1-23.
Waldman, J. (2020). Supporting a reimagined future, Art Quarterly. 60-61.
Walmsley, B. (2016) “From arts marketing to audience enrichment: How digital engagement can deepen and democratize artistic exchange with audiences”, Poetics, 58, 66-78
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2016.07.001
Anthony Palomba
Darden School of Business, University of Virginia
