2024-03-14 21:53:55
Not only thanks to the extraordinary interest in seeing singers Taylor Swift and Beyoncé live, more people went to concerts last year than before the pandemic. One hundred of the world’s most successful performers sold concert tickets for 9.17 billion dollars, equivalent to about 212 billion crowns, which is 46 percent more year-on-year.
According to the AP agency, last year people definitely put fears about the spread of the coronavirus behind their heads and replaced the home entertainment, which was predestined by hygiene measures in 2020 and 2021, with live music. While the independent club scene in many countries continues to struggle with declining attendance and the effects of inflation, big events are attracting more and more people.
The change in the behavior of the public is illustrated by the recently published figures of the largest concert promoter, Live Nation, which also operates in the Czech Republic and not only from business in the field of music. It earned a record 22.7 billion dollars worldwide last year, which represents a year-on-year increase of 36 percent.
In the last pre-pandemic year of 2019, concerts under the banner of Live Nation were visited by 98 million people around the world. The following year, when the coronavirus began to spread, the company organized only a minimum of them. 35 million people came in 2021, still associated with wearing masks, social distancing and limiting the total number of visitors, but the following year it was an unprecedented 121 million people and last year even more, 145 million visitors worldwide.
The outlook for this year is no less optimistic. “It’s going to be a great year,” CEO Michael Rapino told investors. “And we have even greater expectations from 2025, when it looks like one giant stadium tour after another awaits us,” he advises.
According to the AP agency, although Live Nation controls most of the market, spokespeople for other promoter groups also say the same.
Singer Taylor Swift may make another billion dollars this year. | Photo: ČTK/AP
The overall result for 2023 was positively influenced by the currently most popular singer in the world, Taylor Swift, who took in more than a billion dollars and broke records with her The Eras Tour. With this result, she also surpassed British singers Ed Sheeran and Elton John or the band U2, who held the top spot earlier.
Pollstar.com magazine estimates that Taylor Swift will repeat the result this year. If she plays all 65 planned concerts around the world, she will once again take in over a billion dollars, and in total her tour will stop somewhere around 2.16 billion dollars.
Last year, apart from Taylor Swift, the greatest interest in the world was, in this order, the concerts of the singer Beyoncé, the rocker Bruce Springsteen with The E Street Band, the Coldplay group, the singer Harry Styles, the American country star Morgan Wallen, the British Ed Sheeran and the singer Pink.
The table of the top ten is closed by two Canadians, the singer The Weeknd and the rapper Drake.
But while Taylor Swift earned an average of $17.3 million from one concert, thanks to merchandising, that is advertising items from beer mugs to T-shirts, Drake only earned $4.3 million, Pollstar.com compares.
He points out that inflation contributed to the record numbers. Last year, the average price of a concert ticket rose by 23 percent to about 130 dollars, around 3,000 crowns.
According to Pollstar analysts, it is a positive sign that for the first time since 2008, when singers Madonna and Céline Dion sold the most concert tickets, the first two places were occupied by women. Although pop-music remains a clear driver in terms of live entertainment, the most successful performers include representatives of country, Latin American music, rap and R&B as well as rock.
The global concert industry has grown virtually continuously since the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009. Still, in 2019 it looked like it was starting to hit the limits. Two years of isolation caused by the pandemic have now shown that the market can grow much higher than analysts expected, Pollstar.com concludes in its analysis.
According to experts, not only the music segment will grow in the coming years. According to an October estimate by the consulting company Allied Market Research, the live entertainment market, which includes everything from sports matches to conferences in addition to concerts, could double by 2032 compared to the current state.