More buzz, more vibes: Impact of social media on concert distribution

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of social media on decision-making regarding concert locations in the music industry. The use of social media allows musicians to communicate directly with their current and potential fans, which provides useful information about where concerts will be more successful. In particular, with the use of social media, musicians are likely to reach out relatively unexplored regions in choosing their concert locations. To examine the effect of social media use on the distribution of concert locations, we introduce an empirical methodology, using a zero-inflated generalized linear mixed model with a log link function. The model accounts for potential heterogeneous locational and temporal traits, allowing us to measure the impact of characteristics of the population on location selection. The parameters estimated from this model support an argument that the use of social media encourages musicians to pursue unexplored markets that they may not have considered before the use of social media.