The Economic Power Of Performing Arts

Let's be honest - the arts have managed , very eloquently, to put themselves into a very helpless economic position.

Spending more than earning which equals the continues rush to "find " money.

But let me give you some numbers here that will put certain beliefs in perspective and, at best, challenge its truth.

The global independent artists and performing art companies market is expected to grow from $156.04 billion in 2020 to $181.39 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.2%. The growth is mainly due to the companies rearranging their operations and recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges.

The market is expected to reach $244.6 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 8%. ( Compound Annual Growth Rate)

This is some serious cheddar. It actually compares to the GDP of very small countries (Central African Republic, Bhutan, Belize). Gross domestic product (GDP) is the total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period. That means that the performing arts industry globally has produces the monetary market of a small country.

On the other side, here are some numbers that showcase how much financial impact the pandemic actually had on the performing arts.

Nationally ( this is US ONLY!!!!), financial losses to nonprofit arts and culture organizations are an estimated $16.3 billion, to date. 99% of producing and presenting organizations have cancelled events—a loss of 523 million admissions and $16.6 billion in audience spending at local businesses (e.g., restaurants, lodging, retail, parking). The total economic impact of this lost financial activity is $5.6 billion in lost government revenue and 959,000 jobs negatively affected.

48% laid off or furloughed staff, while 90% of those are expected to return to pre-pandemic employment levels, 52% estimate that it will take until 2022 or beyond.

Approximately two-thirds of organizations with in-person programming remain closed to the public in 2021.

35% have targeted a 2021 re-open date.

42% have no target date. 41% lack the financial resources needed to restart in-person programming. Of this group, 68% report it will take 3+ months to assemble those funds; 15% are not confident they can do so at all.

88% make their artistic product available online or through social media.

Just 19% of those generate enough revenue from virtual programing to cover the costs ( I wonder what costs were covered though.... operational costs or just the cost of bringing shows online- I was not able to find any insight to that question, yet!).

Artists/creatives remain among the most severely affected segment of the nation’s workforce, having lost an average of $47,564 each in creativity-based income since the pandemic’s onset.

At the height of the pandemic in 2020, 63% experienced unemployment. As recently as March 2021, the percentage of job losses at nonprofit arts organizations is 5 times the average of all nonprofits (-31.8% vs. -6.6%)

? 52% have been unable to access or afford food at some point in the pandemic and 43% have not visited a medical professional due to inability to pay.

? 78% have no post-pandemic financial recovery plan.

? 95% have lost creative income. 74% had events canceled.

? Black, Indigenous, artists of color (BIPOC) had higher rates of unemployment than white artists in 2020 due to the pandemic (69% vs. 60%) and lost a larger percentage of their creative income (61% vs. 56%).

So , what are all of these numbers actually represent - Performing Arts have a great impact on human kind...and on the world wide economy.

It's a powerful entity that deserves the frontpage of any paper or media outlet. The financial impact this industry has seen during the pandemic shows us how financial fragile it also is. Businesses need to stay competitive within the economy in order to survive and..... well THRIVE.

-A POTENTIAL SOLUTION-

When dreaming out R.I.S.E. Media I " had to" do some projections in order to see if this is actually a market that could have a great ROI ( return of investment).

Let me show you the performing arts market POTENTIAL in numbers if there is a platform that assists with diversifying its availability ( not only in theaters), accessibility ( 24/7), community building (A community based and owned platform that creates revenue for creators and users alike by monetizing creative assets .) P.S. I just read an article about this project - Lens Protocol. They have figured out a way how to literally own your data, have control over it and - individually- MAKE MONEY FROM IT.

There are about 37 million performing artist's worldwide and 123K performing arts organizations.

First I figured out the Total Addressable Market (TAM), ( also referred to as total available market. It is the overall revenue. In accounting, the terms sales and opportunity that is available to a product or service if 100% market share was achieved.)

Assuming performers making $500 extra and organizations $1000 extra a year ( which is a very conservative assumption) the TAM for a new platform like R.I.S.E. Media is, sit down, please...

$18,623,000,000 BILLION ( this is huge)

If only 1.25% ( about 370K users worldwide) of this available market would use a platform like R.I.S.E. Media's we could add $927,627,600 million into the pockets of performing artists and arts organizations. ( It would be intriguing to find out how much money performing arts organizations have to raise yearly... when asking google I only found grant possibilities)

Don't tell me that this kind of money that is pure revenue would not make a difference.

2022 is the year where more and more people are engaging into the power of web3. It is time that we, as an industry and individuals understand what potential we have been given.

It is time to RISE.

@risemedia.group