MEXICO CITY (AP) — Fueled by big stadium tours by artists like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, ticket sales are booming and live shows may continue to draw massive crowds this year, at a very different time than closure of concert halls around the world due to the pandemic.
Concert and event producer Live Nation confirmed this week what data has shown for more than a year, Covid is largely in the rearview mirror and millions of people are now looking for entertainment outside the home and are willing to spend a lot of money to do it.
Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, said in a regulatory filing this week that 2023 brought all-time highs in both attendance and ticket sales.
Attendance increased by 20% to a staggering 145 million in 2023, compared to the previous year.
In 2021, when venues began reopening with mask requirements, attendance was just 35 million. The company did not provide attendance figures for 2020, when COVID-19 began to spread. Attendance was 98 million in 2019.
Live Nation expects demand to continue to snowball.
“This is going to be a great year,” Chief Executive Michael Rapino told investors on a conference call Thursday. “As we look ahead to 2025, it looks like it’s going to be a monster stadium year again as that flow recharges itself.”
And while Live Nation controls a large portion of the live events sector, others are also predicting huge growth for the industry as a whole in the coming years.
In December, entertainment data firm Pollstar reported that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour was the first tour to cross the $1 billion mark in revenue and also predicted a big 2024 for Swift. The magazine projected that the Eras Tour will once again reach $1 billion within its current period, meaning Swift is likely to gross more than $2 billion across her entire tour.
In worldwide revenue, Swift’s tour was followed by Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. But overall it was a great year for music beyond top-notch touring.
Ticket sales for the year’s top 100 tours worldwide increased by 46% compared to 2022, with sales volume of $9.17 billion.
In North America, that figure went from $4.77 billion in 2022 to $6.63 billion last year.
Additionally, an October report from Allied Market Research forecasts that the global live events industry market, which includes everything from concerts to sporting events and conferences, would double in value, reaching $1.2 trillion by 2032.
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2024-04-08 11:37:56