Live music is about to come under the spotlight in a ground-breaking research experiment that will seek to examine whether the differences between live and recorded music that people say that they experience are evident in their neurological and biological responses. The project, a world-first, is being carried out by a cross-instutional Manchester-based research team known as MANCS (Music, Audiences, Neuroscience, Cognition and Society) and Manchester Camerata. It will be led by Dr Michelle Phillips of the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) alongside co-leads Dr Jason Taylor of University of Manchester and Dr Duncan Williams of University of Salford.

That the research experiment is being carried out now is particuarly pertinent given what the live music industry has gone through during the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Adapting to the challenges imposed by Covid-19, many different ways of reaching audiences with music have been tried over the last couple of years, such as livestreaming or shared recordings. Live music is a very important part of the UK economy and its future, and that of the venues that it fills, and these have come under incredible pressures.

There have been recent experiments on attitudes to live and recorded or livestreamed music, but much of this has relied upon people self-reporting their experiences. A study in 2021 by MANCS and collaborators, led by Dr Michelle Phillips, conducted with 280 UK participants found that, although most people had livestreamed performance during the Covid-19 lockdowns, they still preferred live music. Response to music has been studied previously using neurological measures (EEG – electroencephalography – is one of the most popular techniques) and physiological methods (for example galvanic skin response – which looks at reactions in terms of someone being excited, stressed or relaxed). However, these measures are rarely used together due to the expertise and technology required. The experiment at the heart of this research is game-changing because it will simultaneously measure both neurological and physiological listener responses to both live and recorded music.

Dr Michelle Phillips, Deputy Head of Undergraduate Programmes at RNCM, says,”Music is important to people around the world, and we know that live music is a special experience due to factors which are difficult to replicate in a livestream or recording. What we don’t know, and what we hope to find out in this study, is whether our non-conscious responses (neurological and physiological) show that we find live music to be a different experience to livestreamed or recorded music performance. If this is the case, our results will be useful for anyone involved in live music – performers, venues, educators, policymakers – as the study will provide evidence for the demand for live music (which cannot be met by non-live means such as televised or streamed performance), and the need for this industry to continue to make a full recovery following the pandemic, and to be supported to do so.“

Max Thomas, Creative Producer at Manchester Camerata, says, “Manchester Camerata prides itself on being relentlessly pioneering and has a long history of collaborative research. This project is essential to us and our industry and has the potential to help shape the future of both digital and live programming. After taking part in live streams during covid which reached over a million people and continuing with our digital UNTOLD film series after restrictions ended, to find out exactly what the impact of us playing live in a room to our audience versus a recording is incredible.”

This collaborative experiment between MANCS and Manchester Camerata will take place over the weekend of 17 and 18 September 2022. It will begin with 22 members of the general public listening to Manchester Camerata musicians performing extracts from their concert repertoire – both live and recorded versions. Each participant will be wearing EEG and GSR specialist equipment under lab conditions. The results will be analysed by the MANCS research team and published in the coming months.

Helping to support the project is the Centre for Cultural Value at the University of Leeds as part of its Collaborate fund, which focuses on developing innovative new research partnerships between cultural sector practitioners and academics. The Centre has funded various aspects of the project, including postdoctoral researcher Dr Ioanna Filippidi, who is based at the RNCM, and University of Manchester PhD researchers Josie Kearney and Stephen Ball.

Professor Ben Walmsley, Director at the Centre for Cultural Value, says, “It’s really excting to see the use of pioneering research methodologies. This project represents the importance of collaborative research between academics and practioners to answer the real-world and timely questions of the cultural sector.”

MANCS brings together researchers from University of Manchester, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Salford. In addition to its ambitious research projects, its vision is to create a world-class creative research laboratory in Manchester that has a state-of-the-art performance space dedicated to the study of different art forms including music, dance, drama and comedy.