Between the Grammy Awards, the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, this season has been buzzing with live entertainment productions. And there's more to come later this year with the first Super Bowl-style halftime show during the World Cup.
In an era of abundant, on-demand content at our fingertips, the scarcity comes in the form of a "shoulder-to-shoulder" experience. And feeling like we're part of the unrepeatable moment-even, perhaps, when we're not there-has become the grand challenge of producers and creators.
The latest episode of Business and Society features two clinical assistant professors from University of Michigan's Ross School of Business who delve into the inner workings of the music and entertainment industry. Marcus Collins and Gregg Latterman draw on their industry experiences to explore the human connection that synchronous viewing experiences provide, the evolution of live production design for the sake of at-home audiences and the ways music reflects the zeitgeist.
Collins and Latterman also discuss the impact of artificial intelligence, the power of novelty in successful music and the crucial role of artists in finding, building and maintaining an audience when the consumers call the shots.
"We're in a world of scarcity," Latterman said. "We have abundance of anything we want at our fingertips at all times. So when we are able to have things like the Super Bowl or World Cup in the United States or Grammys or a concert at the Big House with Zach Bryan, it's like we're looking for those scarce, in-person live experiences that you don't get if you don't go.
"Scarcity is becoming important. In the live experience it's even more so. We want to say we were there."
