Music festivals as mediators and their influence on consumer awareness

Cultural products compete for public awareness in markets with high uncertainty, oversupply and a short product life cycle. Altogether, this means that only a small fraction of all releases generate the necessary consumer awareness to achieve a significant commercial success. This paper aims at identifying the informational function music festivals serve in cultural markets and how it translates into consumer discovery of cultural supply. To do so, we empirically measure informational spillover effects to performers at an established music festival. We hypothesize that this effect stems from the reputation attached to the brand equity of cultural organizations, is asymmetric, as it decreases with the success of the performer such that lesser-known performers profit more than well-known ones. Empirical results are consistent with our hypotheses.