Audience mobility and patterns of concert attendance: a social network approach to the study of omnivorousness

In this paper we use a social network approach to analyze audience mobility and patterns of attendance of concert audiences in and between institutions, based on ideas developed by Agneessens and Roose (JMS, 2008). We want to contribute two things to the existing literature. First, we analyze if and to what extent people combine concerts of the same or different music genres, thereby offering an alternative approach to the conceptualization and measurement of omnivorousness. We probe into what characteristics are associated with a univorous or a more omnivorous attendance pattern. We expect age and educational attainment to be related to a broader musical taste, i.e. to a higher chance of attending concerts of different genres. Second, from a marketing-the-arts perspective, such an approach gives insight into the effectiveness of promotional strategies. Does a concert hall that aims at a loyal audience indeed attract people who only attend concerts of that house, whatever the genre? Or are genre boundaries more pertinent than institutional loyalty when it comes to attending different concerts?