What is the impact of COVID on background music?
Background music providers serve any business or organization with a need to fill open space with music. Retail stores and restaurants make up a large portion of those “open spaces.” There are about 1 million retail stores in the U.S. and 660,000 restaurants.
COVID has taken a toll. According to a Forbes article that was updated just today, 14,463 retails stores have closed so far in 2020. That’s about an 84% increase over the average store closings of the prior three years. It’s more difficult to find hard statistics on restaurants, but it’s fair to say they were hit at least as hard as retailers, especially in tourist destinations such as New York City and Orlando.
Declines in those industries have directly impacted background music providers. In our case, we’ve experienced some account suspensions, and unfortunately a few have permanently closed.
On the other hand, there are some business realities on the positive side for background music providers. COVID has reminded us that we are social creatures; we like to get out. For many, doing without the shopping or restaurant experience has reminded them of that fact. This means there’s a resilience in the businesses serving them.
Also, in reality actual closures represent a very small fraction of businesses served by background music.
In fact we’ve added new customers. Some used the time to look for a new approach and others just needed a change.
American business always seems to bounce back, and retailers and restaurants will bounce back too. A vaccine is coming soon and many citizens and state governments are wary of future closures.
It may be hard to see it at this moment, but the future is bright!