Personal lives are measured in minutes, major events in seconds. And COVID has forced our world to become even more virtual. Our world is obsessed with instant information. 

Digital addiction was already one of the commonest causes of anxiety, depression and complete mental breakdown, particularly among young people, before COVID, even more so during lockdown.

During the height of the COVID crisis, hundreds of millions have been forced to spend far more time online or on video calls than they would otherwise have chosen, and much of that will revert.

Before the pandemic began, the average 15-25 year old in the UK already spent an average of 4 hours a day on a mobile, checking for messages every 9 minutes, with time online directly correlated with risk of mental health issues.

But that is nothing compared to the Philippines, where a 2019 survey reported people saying that they spent an average of 10 hours online.

* "How AI Will Change your life - A Futurist's Guide to a Super-Smart World" - Patrick Dixon's latest book on AI is published in September 2024 by Profile Books.  It contains 38 chapters on the impact of AI across different industries, government and our wider world, including future impact of AI on virtual working, office working, jobs, and team building.

The music industry post-COVID will face meltdown and chaos, then rebound.

Before the COVID pandemic Music was still a $74bn a year industry, despite digital change, and spent $15bn a year on new recordings, ut big labels were already in crisis, threatened by streaming services which already generate $8bn a year in revenues. American music revenues collapsed from $14.6 billion in 1999 to $6.3 billion in 2009, but began to recover after slashing costs.

Over 50% of their revenues in some nations already come from digital streaming, which grew 45% in 2017 in the UK, with overall revenues growing by 10.6%.  But then COVID-19 hit, which resulted in three big changes.  Firstly, more time listening at home, and secondly complete freeze in live performances, and thirdly, great difficulty in bringing groups of musicians, writers, producers and others together to create new music.

Just before the COVID pandemic, 60% of music industry revenues were from live performances, up from 33% in 2000. And live music will return. Indeed the more virtual our lives, the greater the premium for breathing the same air as real musicians, hence buskers on the street continue to earn significant amounts if they are talented.

Despite talk of NFTs / non-fungible tokens, based on blockchains, being used to protect music copyright or in licensing, their use will be very limited over the next 5 years, mainly held back by massive energy requirements to run blockchains.

* "How AI Will Change your life - A Futurist's Guide to a Super-Smart World" - Patrick Dixon's latest book on AI is published in September 2024 by Profile Books.  It contains 38 chapters on the impact of AI across different industries, government and our wider world, including future impact of AI on the music industry, music production, performances, music composing and music streaming platforms.