For the live performance enterprise, 2023 was a champagne-popping yr. The worst of the pandemic comfortably within the rearview, reveals large and small have been promoting out, with mega-tours by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Drake and Bruce Springsteen pushing the trade to file ticket gross sales.
This yr, as with a lot of the financial system, success on the street appears extra fragile. A string of high-profile cancellations, and sluggish 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 whole enviornment excursions. Within the case of the Black Keys — a standby of rock radio and a preferred touring draw for almost 20 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. By a consultant, Azoff and Moir mentioned that they had “amicably parted” with the band.
At Coachella, normally so buzzy that it sells out effectively earlier than any performers are introduced, tickets for the second of the California pageant’s two weekends have been nonetheless obtainable by the point it opened in April.
These points have stoked headlines a few live performance enterprise that could be in bother. However the actuality, many insiders say, is extra advanced, with no easy rationalization for issues on a variety of excursions, and a enterprise that could be leveling out after a few extraordinary years when followers rushed to reveals after Covid-19 shutdowns.
“I feel it’s normalized again to the pre-Covid period,” mentioned 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 wrestle.”
In a press release, Reside Nation mentioned that up to now this yr, gross sales are up from the identical level in 2023, with over 100 million tickets offered. “Yearly,” the corporate mentioned, “some occasions naturally fall off for varied causes, and in 2024 throughout all venue varieties we’ve seen a 4 % cancellation fee — which is flat to final yr.”
Along with Swift’s Eras Tour, which continues to be a phenomenon in Europe, sizzling occasions this yr 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 reveals is one other attainable P.R. headache for Reside 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. Reside Nation has denied these allegations.
The important thing fear all through the enterprise is that ticket costs, which have been rising steadily for years, might now be so excessive that they’re deterring followers from all however their once-in-a-lifetime, bucket-list reveals. Tickets, even for a lot of main excursions, not vanish immediately.
When Billie Eilish put her newest enviornment 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 yr, has additionally lagged. Even with tickets as little as $44.50, the opening-night live performance in Kansas Metropolis, Mo., in July, nonetheless has 1000’s of seats on the market in any respect ranges. To the chagrin of underperforming acts, the energy 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 yr, the common ticket worth for one of many prime 100 excursions around the globe was $131, up 23 % from the yr 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, mentioned that beneath the extent of pop superstars like Swift, artists have turn out to be aware of the financial pressures going through their followers.
“The meat of the enterprise is made up of issues like traditional rock packages,” Martin mentioned. “These individuals are way more worth delicate. Working-class individuals are involved about groceries and the worth of fuel.”
No single rationalization can cowl the vary of issues within the reside market this yr. Some excursions, just like the Black Keys’, might 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 Useless spinoff Useless & Co., and the band later praised Azoff’s “give attention to 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 publish after the tour was deserted, the group mentioned it will “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 will not be sufficient to simply pack venues throughout the nation. Lopez, although nonetheless a film star and a tabloid characteristic, has not had a success music in a decade. Tickets to see the continuing enviornment tour from Justin Timberlake have been obtainable on each the first and secondary markets, with costs on StubHub generally falling effectively beneath face worth.
Followers exterior of high-demand markets like New York and Los Angeles don’t all the time 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 elements go into the worth of the ticket, from the prices of fuel and crew salaries — which have risen for the reason that pandemic — to bigger-picture economics amortized over the course of a complete tour. World promoters like Reside Nation and AEG typically provide artists a assured fee overlaying all their reveals; an even bigger assure signifies that costs have to be larger to recoup that funding.
Dan Wall, Reside Nation’s govt vp of company and regulatory affairs, mentioned that whereas promoters might recommend pricing based mostly on a deal assure, “it’s the artist’s workforce that finally decides ticket costs.”
Armchair evaluation of ticket gross sales has turn out to be yet one more component of recent fandom to be memed and weaponized, upping the stakes. As trade watchers on social media race to exhibit the dominance of their favorites, display grabs of obtainable seats for upcoming concert events have gone viral, resulting in media protection.
“I really feel like folks on-line simply kind of realized you could take a look at seat maps and see how reveals are doing,” mentioned Sam Hunt, an govt on the touring company Wasserman Music. “So I feel a part of it’s that perhaps not a ton has modified within the touring enterprise — not each swing is a house run — however individuals are paying extra consideration to it and having a usually 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, mentioned in an interview that his two teenage daughters have been fascinated by seeing blockbuster excursions this yr from acts like Rodrigo, Drake, Eilish and Swift.
However after the household, dwelling exterior Toronto, spent large 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 worth is now the common,” Russell mentioned. “You’ve bought to be actually choosy and picky.”
