For the live performance enterprise, 2023 was a champagne-popping 12 months. The worst of the pandemic comfortably within the rearview, exhibits massive and small have been promoting out, with mega-tours by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Drake and Bruce Springsteen pushing the trade to document ticket gross sales.
This 12 months, as with a lot of the economic system, success on the highway appears extra fragile. A string of high-profile cancellations, and gradual gross sales for some main occasions, have raised questions on an overcrowded market and whether or not ticket costs have merely gotten too costly.
Most conspicuously, Jennifer Lopez and the Black Keys have canceled complete area excursions. Within the case of the Black Keys — a standby of rock radio and a well-liked touring draw for almost twenty years — the fallout has been extreme sufficient that the band has parted methods with its two managers, the trade big Irving Azoff and Steve Moir. Via a consultant, Azoff and Moir stated they’d “amicably parted” with the band.
At Coachella, often so buzzy that it sells out nicely earlier than any performers are introduced, tickets for the second of the California competition’s two weekends have been still available by the point it opened in April.
These points have stoked headlines a couple of live performance enterprise which may be in bother. However the actuality, many insiders say, is extra complicated, with no easy clarification for issues on a spread of excursions, and a enterprise which may be leveling out after a few extraordinary years when followers rushed to exhibits after Covid-19 shutdowns.
“I feel it’s normalized again to the pre-Covid period,” stated Wealthy Schaefer, the president of world touring at AEG, the corporate behind excursions by Swift and the Rolling Stones. “Sizzling acts are going to promote tickets. Center acts are going to promote, however take longer. And acts that don’t have lots of warmth on them are going to battle.”
In a press release, Dwell Nation stated that to this point this 12 months, gross sales are up from the identical level in 2023, with over 100 million tickets bought. “Yearly,” the corporate stated, “some occasions naturally fall off for varied causes, and in 2024 throughout all venue sorts we’ve seen a 4 % cancellation price — which is flat to final 12 months.”
Along with Swift’s Eras Tour, which continues to be a phenomenon in Europe, sizzling occasions this 12 months embrace excursions by Olivia Rodrigo, Coldplay, Morgan Wallen and Zach Bryan. Different festivals, like Lollapalooza in Chicago, have had notably sturdy gross sales.
Nonetheless, distinguished cancellations of high-priced exhibits is one other potential P.R. headache for Dwell Nation, the proprietor of Ticketmaster, which final month was sued by the Justice Division over accusations that it operates an unlawful monopoly that stifles competitors and leads to excessive costs and costs. Dwell Nation has denied these allegations.
The important thing fear all through the enterprise is that ticket costs, which have been rising steadily for years, could now be so excessive that they’re deterring followers from all however their once-in-a-lifetime, bucket-list exhibits. Tickets, even for a lot of main excursions, now not vanish immediately.
When Billie Eilish put her newest area tour on sale in April, for instance, upper-deck seats at some venues have been going for over $200, and took weeks to promote.
A joint tour by the rapper Future and the producer Metro Boomin, who shared a pair of No. 1 albums and a chart-topping hit single earlier this 12 months, has additionally lagged. Even with tickets as little as $44.50, the opening-night live performance in Kansas Metropolis, Mo., in July, nonetheless has hundreds of seats on the market in any respect ranges. To the chagrin of underperforming acts, the power or weak point of gross sales is now evident in actual time on Ticketmaster, which shows blue dots for each unsold seat (and pink dots for ones being supplied for resale).
Final 12 months, the typical ticket value for one of many high 100 excursions all over the world was $131, up 23 % from the 12 months earlier than, in keeping with Pollstar, a commerce publication that tracks live performance tickets.
Steve Martin of Paladin Artists, a reserving agent for traditional rock acts like David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, stated that beneath the extent of pop superstars like Swift, artists have change into aware of the financial pressures going through their followers.
“The meat of the enterprise is made up of issues like basic rock packages,” Martin stated. “These persons are rather more value delicate. Working-class persons are involved about groceries and the worth of gasoline.”
No single clarification can cowl the vary of issues within the dwell market this 12 months. Some excursions, just like the Black Keys’, could merely be a matter of the band overestimating demand.
In 2021, the Black Keys left their longtime supervisor for a brand new partnership with Azoff and Moir, who additionally work with John Mayer and the Grateful Lifeless spinoff Lifeless & Co., and the band later praised Azoff’s “deal with touring and promoting our tickets.” However even after a brand new album — the band’s twelfth — was launched in April, live performance gross sales lagged, resulting in the cancellations and a housecleaning behind the scenes.
In a social media post after the tour was deserted, the group stated it could “make some modifications” to its touring plan to supply a extra “intimate expertise.” A consultant for the band’s label didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the administration modifications.
Nostalgia alone might not be sufficient to simply pack venues throughout the nation. Lopez, although nonetheless a film star and a tabloid function, has not had a success track in a decade. Tickets to see the continuing area tour from Justin Timberlake have been obtainable on each the first and secondary markets, with costs on StubHub typically falling nicely beneath face worth.
Followers outdoors of high-demand markets like New York and Los Angeles don’t at all times have to rush the digital queue the second tickets go on sale. Some genres, like hip-hop, have a tendency to maneuver tickets extra slowly than others, however can nonetheless promote out earlier than showtime. The newest leg of Nicki Minaj’s tour, for instance, is a sea of blue dots.
Many components go into the worth of the ticket, from the prices of gasoline and crew salaries — which have risen for the reason that pandemic — to bigger-picture economics amortized over the course of a complete tour. International promoters like Dwell Nation and AEG typically supply artists a assured cost overlaying all their exhibits; an even bigger assure implies that costs should be larger to recoup that funding.
Dan Wall, Dwell Nation’s government vice chairman of company and regulatory affairs, stated that whereas promoters could recommend pricing based mostly on a deal assure, “it’s the artist’s workforce that in the end decides ticket costs.”
Armchair evaluation of ticket gross sales has change into yet one more factor of recent fandom to be memed and weaponized, upping the stakes. As trade watchers on social media race to show the dominance of their favorites, display screen grabs of obtainable seats for upcoming concert events have gone viral, resulting in media protection.
“I really feel like folks on-line simply form of realized which you can take a look at seat maps and see how exhibits are doing,” stated Sam Hunt, an government on the touring company Wasserman Music. “So I feel a part of it’s that possibly not a ton has modified within the touring enterprise — not each swing is a house run — however persons are paying extra consideration to it and having a sometimes internet-y response.”
Nonetheless, the notion amongst some music followers is that large-scale concert events are extra of a luxurious than they as soon as have been.
Cliff Russell, 39, stated in an interview that his two teenage daughters have been thinking about seeing blockbuster excursions this 12 months from acts like Rodrigo, Drake, Eilish and Swift.
However after the household, dwelling outdoors Toronto, spent massive for tickets to see Swift’s Eras Tour in November — with prices totaling close to $3,000 for 4 tickets, “not counting transportation, parking, souvenirs” — spending one other $300 per ticket for upper-deck seats to see one other pop star simply wasn’t within the playing cards.
“What was as soon as a holy grail ticket value is now the typical,” Russell stated. “You’ve acquired to be actually choosy and picky.”
