EXPERT ADVISORY

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.”

“The ability to experience something shoulder-to-shoulder concurrently with people gives us a sense that we experienced it together,” Collins said. “Most of our content consumption is all asynchronous: We watch things on DVR. We watch them on playback. We see in our newsfeeds. But to be there to have experienced it. It’s a rare commodity these days.

“The immediate nature of media consumption combined with the scarcity of synchronous experiences—these shoulder-to-shoulder experiences make the content that we engage in feel more human because we are a part of it. We didn’t just consume it, watch it. We were part of the moment. … Once it’s been done we’re onto the next thing.”

Business & Society is co-produced by Matt Trevor of the Ross School of Business and Jeff Karoub of the Michigan News office. The audio engineer is Jonah Brockman and editorial production is provided by Mads Henke. Listen to all episodes of the podcast.