The final couple of years have been nice for the dwell music business. After being locked up with the pandemic for a few years, followers splurged on concert events and festivals in an orgy of “funflation,” that sense that life’s too brief and also you may as nicely get pleasure from it whilst you can, it doesn’t matter what it prices.
There have been a few glorious years as revenues exploded, shortly returning to pre-pandemic ranges. It’s now a $40 billion a 12 months enterprise with the highest 100 excursions grossing US$9.2 billion in 2023, which is almost twice as a lot the US$5.5 billion grossed in 2019.
Nonetheless, issues are getting somewhat cloudy. We would have reached some sort of breaking level.
I first wrote about this downside again in April when it appeared there was a scarcity of enthusiasm for this 12 months’s crop of music festivals. For the primary time in years, Coachella struggled to promote out. A worrying variety of Australian music festivals have been cancelled. Phrase within the U.Okay. was that festival-happy Brits have been sitting on their wallets, endangering many festivals. Since then, issues have solely turn into worse.
Eventually depend, no less than 40 British festivals have been referred to as off with many others on either side of the Atlantic both teetering or asserting that they’re completed after 2024. Jennifer Lopez cancelled her whole tour. The Black Keys’ area tour was postponed so it could possibly be scaled right down to extra intimate (learn: smaller) venues. Busta Rhymes referred to as off his Blockbusta tour. After scoping out a European tour, 311 has determined to name off every part, citing “rising prices of touring abroad.” Pink and Justin Timberlake have cancelled a few exhibits every. The Jonas Brothers have been going to Europe, however not anymore. Guitarist Robin Trower introduced he’s staying dwelling. I’ve heard from different mid-range acts — artists you’d assume might reliably draw good crowds — say that the economics of touring simply don’t make any sense.
Whereas it’s nonetheless early in the summertime touring season, promoters proceed to fret if punters will present up for gigs they’ve bought scheduled down the road. What’s happening?
The brief model is that folks have run out of cash. They’re having to make exhausting selections about which exhibits they’ll attend and which of them they’ll should miss.
Acts like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Madonna have drained financial institution accounts as individuals not solely attended native exhibits however travelled to out-of-market gigs. U2’s 40-night stand at The Sphere in Las Vegas — which was definitely worth the value of a ticket, by the way in which — grossed US$240 million.
With tickets for celebrity acts so costly, it’s straightforward to blow the annual allocation for concert events with only one or two exhibits, which means there’s nothing left over to spend on midrange or rising acts. With so many individuals fighting the price of residing, live performance ticket sticker shock comes into play. A present {that a} fan may attend on a whim is the primary to go. Informal music followers are staying dwelling to observe Netflix. Even hardcore followers are balking at spending $100 for nosebleed seats.
Ancillary bills have additionally gone up. It’s not unusual to see parking tons close to a venue cost $40 and above for an area. Inside, food and drinks prices extra. And should you journey away from dwelling to see a present, there’s the matter of transportation and lodging, each of that are hardly low-cost. Toronto lodge rooms for Taylor Swift’s go to in November are insane. Anybody wanting someplace to put their head for these couple of weeks in November will probably be shocked to study that $2,000 an evening is the going charge at many institutions.
The costs for top-tier exhibits are usually not coming down, both. I’ve heard business insiders lament that tickets for the largest stars are nonetheless too low-cost and on no account replicate their true market worth. On the similar time, although, they’ll admit that tickets for everybody beneath that stage are too costly. In the meantime, the secondary market of ticket resellers continues to make it troublesome for normal individuals to afford concert events. (Enjoyable truth: Common resale ticket costs appear to be dropping, a sign of … one thing.)
In the meantime, there are simply so many acts on tour — too many, the truth is. The market is saturated. However provided that some artists derive as much as 70 per cent of their income on the highway, they should tour to make ends meet. Staging a highway journey has additionally turn into dearer. Normal inflationary pressures are dangerous sufficient, however add in shortages of every part from gear to vans to buses to roadies, up-front prices have skyrocketed. The U.S. has additionally boosted the worth of visas for overseas acts, which is a matter unto itself. But when the general public has run out of cash — nicely, you’ll be able to see how the crises begin to pile up.
There additionally must be a lot consternation behind the scenes, too. One concern is the dwindling variety of smaller venues, a necessary a part of the dwell music system. When you’re an artist of a sure dimension, it doesn’t make monetary sense to play something larger. What number of artists have quietly determined to forgo a tour as an alternative of risking taking part in earlier than a sea of empty seats and shedding cash?
Whereas many are bullish on the way forward for dwell music — Goldman Sachs included — there are others who say that the present trajectory is unsustainable. And what occurs when the largest acts, many who’re of their 60s and 70s, disappear from the scene?
Perhaps when Taylor Swift lastly takes a break, everybody will have the ability to take a breath, replenish their live performance ticket funds, and issues will flip round. Or possibly not. What if the economics of dwell music dictate that the business wants extra venues like The Sphere? It’s actually simpler for acts to play residencies and have followers journey to them. How a lot might that situation drain away from the center and decrease finish of the market?
The dwell music business has at all times been dangerous. We would quickly discover ourselves in a state of affairs the place issues are even riskier.
© 2024 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
