ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the live audience experience of a music performance contributes to the value of the performance. It also examines audience-reported responses to the nature of their experience at a performance, and then analyses these reports in the context of research on the specific qualities of the live performing arts experience. The chapter concerns what the audience sees, hears and experiences during a performance, based on focus groups and surveys conducted immediately after a performance with the audiences of five music companies. It focuses on the audience's experience of the live performance because the very elements of 'being there' contribute to the qualities identified as important to the audience. For many years it was accepted that quality in the performing arts was the rationale used for government subsidy and sponsor investment, and resulted in increased attendance and audience satisfaction for performing arts companies.
