Features of Listeners' Motivation in Choosing to Attend Virtual Concerts

Nowadays, modern technology is playing an increasingly important role, it is constantly evolving and bringing new things to our lives. The entertainment industry is one of the first areas of life to undergo major technological changes. It consists of many different areas, but at the centre of our attention is the music industry, namely concerts. Following streaming services, where users can listen to music legally or illegally, concerts also moved into the digital space. If, at first, they were simple attempts to make shows more interesting and different from each other, then later, they grew into a separate direction and type of concert. Virtual concerts have emerged; they are characterised not only by the presence of at least a few elements created thanks to various virtual, but also by the possibility of being completely created and reproduced inside virtual reality. Such strong changes have occurred largely due to the pandemic and have triggered a change in consumer behaviour and the concert market as a whole. Today, virtual concerts are held quite regularly and have become both a stand-alone event and an integral part of some other events. However, consumer behaviour and preferences have not been studied with due frequency, resulting in event organisers failing to target and satisfy the needs of as many attendees of these events as possible. This gap affects the entertainment market and a wide audience's perception and consumption of new technologies. Thus, within the framework of our master's thesis, we asked the following research question: What motivational complex is behind the choice to attend virtual concerts? Our research object is motivation as a driving force behind the choice to attend virtual concerts. Our research subject is the features of motivation that lead listeners to attend virtual concerts and the interrelation of these motivation factors. And the purpose of our research is to define listeners motivation in choosing to attend virtual concerts. The objectives of our study included: - Describe the theoretical aspects of motivational theories. - Sample, analyse and describe the theoretical foundations of motivation for attending virtual concerts. - Describe the development and characteristics of virtual concerts - Analyse the concept of enjoyment in the context of the entertainment industry - Identify and describe motivations for attending virtual concerts and their correlation through an empirical study - Identify and describe the correlation between the satisfaction of basic needs and the motivation for attending virtual concerts. - Identify the factor influencing the whole set of motivations for choosing to attend virtual concerts. The study's relevance is primarily because the entertainment industry, and concerts in particular, are rarely studied in the context of psychological analysis, where attention is paid to the interaction and mutual influence of the one who entertains with those who are entertained. Therefore, researchers neglect the complex emotional and sensory experience and the more technical aspects of consuming entertainment in its various forms. However, this is where the practical relevance of our study lies, which is to present the motivations for attending virtual concerts as a single complex, the unifying factor of which is enjoyment. So, our research problem is the influence of emotional satisfaction and degree of received or perceived enjoyment on motivation in choosing to attend virtual concerts. Enjoyment and pleasure as a psychological aspect of entertainment consumption is an extremely unexplored aspect by researchers. Pleasure is often interpreted exclusively as one of the central functions of entertainment aimed at the consumer or audience. However, researchers have overlooked the role of pleasure in motivating the listener. The scientific novelty of our paper consists in the study of the peculiarities of listeners' motivation in choosing to attend virtual concerts, which consist, firstly, in the special correlation between the satisfaction of basic needs and motivations for attending these concerts; and, secondly, in the significant influence of the satisfaction of the need for pleasure in the experience of virtual concerts on the motivational complex and the final choice of the consumer.