See Tickets boss Rob Wilmshurst has warned the coronavirus crisis will have severe long-term ramifications for the UK's live music industry.
Ticket sales have slowed to a crawl since the government told consumers to avoid mass gatherings, with hundreds of events having to postpone or cancel outright.
Speaking in the latest issue of Music Week, which explores the impact of the pandemic on the ticketing sector, Wilmshurst said it could take years for the business to fully recover.
I hope I am very wrong but I think the UK music segment will be hit hard
Rob Wilmshurst
See Tickets
"The industry has taken a huge knock but it is nothing compared to wider and global society," he said. "The global economic impact will be huge, businesses will go bust, jobs will be lost.
"Our industry rose alongside a strong and growing economy, people could spend, so they did. Now they may become financially stretched, discretionary spend will decline, so that will hit for the short term.
"Artists may be unwilling to travel into the UK and/or Europe and even if they are not, I am sure artist fees will rise, stretching consumer spend further. I hope I am very wrong but I think the UK music segment will be hit hard."
Headquarted in Nottingham, Vivendi-owned See Tickets' music client list includes Glastonbury, SJM Concerts, Kilimanjaro, Universal Music Group, Alexandra Palace, One Inch Badge and Communion Music. The company has multiple offices in Europe and the US, which helped its preparations for what was to come.
"Fortunately, we were well organised and had rehearsed working from home for all departments for a few weeks," said Wilmshurst. "It was clear what was going to happen.
"The effects were gradual until the ban on events kicked in. I think the biggest issue right now is how long this will go on for. Having overseas operations in Europe gave us advance warning of the types of problems that would be thrown up."
Wilmshurst advised the industry to look for internal solutions where possible.
"It’s easy to call for government aid and the like but we are not an ‘essential’ industry so we need to help ourselves as best we can in the first instance," he said. "First and foremost without customers we have nothing so let’s sort them first. What we have seen is a lot of goodwill within the segment and everyone realises we are sharing the same boat."
