Harvard's prestigious business school opines on a wide range of topics. Even with this in mind, it's surprising to see them address the future prospects for Jazz in America. Rohit Deshpande, a professor at the school, recently partnered with Wynton Marsalis to do a case study on Jazz. This was done from a marketing lens and focused in on many of the challenges the genre must overcome to continue bringing in audiences.
Harvard Business School published an in depth case study on the subject, but they also did a podcast with the author presenting some highlights. There's some sobering thoughts about future prospects, but this quote stood out to us most.
“Not only has the popularity of jazz declined, but interest in attending live concerts has declined. Actually, a very significant decline in the last ten years in two critical age groups: 18 to 24 and 25 to 35. Jazz has an aging audience and a big issue for an institution like Jazz at Lincoln Center is, how do you get young people interested?”
The author touches on wide ranging topics from audience familiarity to aging demographics. This might not be good news by itself, but for lovers of the genre to overcome this, we must accept where we are to get to where we want to be.
What stood stood out to you about this researcher's assessment? Let us know in the comments.
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