Market Report: Spain
Few markets are as vibrant or buoyant as Spain right now.
A lot of business comes via the territory’s status as a key market for the huge influx of Latin, trap, and urban music stars from across the Atlantic, plus there are a number of huge, well-established festivals that attract hundreds of thousands of fans annually.
“The surge in events, festivals, concerts, and international acts hitting Spain presents an exhilarating challenge, making it an incredibly exciting time for the market,” says Ana Valdovinos Valentin, GM of Ticketmaster Spain.
“The live music industry in Spain never ceases to amaze us”
“The live music industry in Spain never ceases to amaze us,” adds Sergio Arribas, account management team lead of DICE Spain. “According to the Association of Spanish Music Promoters (APM), in 2023, the live sector made a total income of €578m in ticket sales – a growth of 26% compared to 2022. This growth seems to have no ceiling – it’s clear that culture and leisure are a fundamental pillar in the lives of Spanish people.”
Primary ticketing
Competition is strong here. The main companies by billing volume are Ticketmaster and entradas.com (acquired by Eventim in 2014), alongside El Corte Inglés – the grand chain of department stores.
Enterticket and Entradas a tu Alcance remain significant, but one important development is the acquisition of Spanish ticketing operator Tecteltic Online – the owner of Entradas a tu Alcance – by Vivaticket, a provider of integrated ticketing software solutions.
DICE also has a presence here. For the electronic scene, the market is shared between event discovery app Xceed, Resident Advisor, and several newer/local companies – Wegow, OneBox, and Tomaticket – which offer a range of digital platforms for promoters.
Distribution of sales
The enduring popularity of El Corte Inglés as a purchase point has helped prolong the life of physical tickets, especially with regard to older fans, but digital has fast become the standard.
“Digital tickets are at 80% across all events, and last year, we launched many digital-only events”
“Digital tickets are at 80% across all events, and last year, we launched many digital-only events,” says Valdovinos Valentin. “Ticket purchases are mostly made digitally, especially through online platforms and mobile applications, which are easy to use and convenient – there is a big trend towards the complete digitisation of the purchasing process,” adds Andrea Calleja, a promoter at Get In.
Secondary ticketing
The resale of tickets continues to worry promoters and fans alike, with Viagogo and StubHub prevalent, particularly with the most in-demand shows. To combat this, several companies have implemented regulated marketplaces and fan-to-fan platforms.
“One of the biggest initiatives we launched was EVENTIM.Pass, our groundbreaking digital ticket format designed to combat ticket fraud and resale,” says Jérôme Delagnes of Eventim. “This way, customers can securely manage their tickets exclusively through the entradas.com app.”
TicketSwap limits resale markups to 20% above face value, while DICE uses unique QR codes. “The user doesn’t get the QR code until two hours before the event to prevent bots from accessing the purchase of multiple tickets and reselling those QRs,” says Arribas
Cultural analysis
Innovation from ticketing companies is prevalent in Spain, no doubt due to the level of competition. “Some ticketing companies, like Ticketmaster, are already using dynamic ticketing and some have integrated diversified payment solutions or are starting to work with AI,” says Calleja.
Innovation from ticketing companies is prevalent in Spain, no doubt due to the level of competition.
Ticketmaster have also teamed up with Live Nation Spain for The Spanish Wave initiative, designed to bring more Spanish talent onto the global stage.
Eventim have introduced Ticket + Hotel + Train packages, enabling customers to book everything in a single, seamless transaction, while See Tickets recently incorporated the Cultural Bonus into their ticket purchasing options. “This government initiative aims to promote the purchase of entertainment and cultural events among people who have just turned 18,” says the company’s Adriana García-Abril Ruiz. “They receive a bank card with a balance to spend on cultural and entertainment events.”
Country Profile: Spain
Spain has become one of the world’s leading destinations for festival and live music tourism, achieving a record turnover of €578m in 2023, a 26% increase from the previous year, according to the Anuario de la Música en Vivo 2024 by the APM (Asociación de Promotores Musicales de España).
“This success is a result of Spain’s long-standing appeal as a tourist destination, combined with excellent weather conditions and a rapidly evolving event sector that now rivals historically dominant markets,” says Santiago Santamaría, global head of communications, public and institutional relations at Fever, a global live entertainment discovery platform.
In a crowded and diverse promoter landscape, complete with big-hitting indies, corporate ex-indies, festival-focused operators, and regional specialists, key companies include Live Nation, which holds stakes in Mercury Wheels and leading Latin promoter Planet Events; Córdoba-based Riff Producciones; Madrid-based La Sordera; Doctor Music (now part of CTS Eventim); Universal-owned Latin specialist GTS Live; AEG Presents; and Bilbao-based Last Tour and Barcelona-based Primavera Sound.
There’s also Producciones Animadas, Concert Studio, TheProject (which organises more than 400 concerts a year, including the Voll-Damm Jazz Festival in Barcelona), Houston Party Music, Proactiv Entertainment, Just Life Music and Ground Control in Madrid, Zaragoza’s Siamm Producciones, Valencia’s Music Republic, and Murcia rock specialist Madness Live!
“This success is a result of Spain’s long-standing appeal as a tourist destination, combined with excellent weather conditions and a rapidly evolving event sector that now rivals historically dominant markets”
Touring in Spain benefits from this robust, extensive network of national and local promoters, state-of-the-art venue infrastructure, and one of the largest and most vibrant festival circuits in the world. “Spain has become a gateway for Latin acts in Europe – Karol G’s amazing sold-out arena and stadium tour this summer is proof of that,” says John Reid, president of concerts for Live Nation Europe. The shows sold 240,000 tickets – the highest number of tickets any artist has ever sold in Spain.
However, several challenges do persist, particularly for international artists and productions. “Our geographical position on the southwestern edge of Europe often complicates logistics, especially for artists performing in small- to medium- sized concert venues,” says Santamaría.
“Currently, one of the challenges is the economic recession that the world is going through. Fans are carefully selecting which concerts they want to go to, and artists that were successful in the past have been affected by this,” says Francisco José Méndez, director general of La Sordera.
“The fees of international artists and the higher logistical and production costs of many international tours are the main challenges,” adds Joan Pons, director of communications for Primavera Sound, which also promotes many concerts as well as the world-renowned festival. “Experience also tells us that it is always much better to offer a routing that involves several concerts in our territory – that’s why, in addition to Primavera Barcelona, we have Primavera Porto a weekend later.”
“Spain has become a gateway for Latin acts in Europe”
When it comes to breaking new artists, innovation and meeting the demands of Spain’s digitally savvy music fans are crucial. “The marketing strategies that continue to work are street ads, social media campaigns, and here at La Sordera, we’ve been implementing paid campaigns from Spotify that have been working very well,” says Méndez.
It has also become increasingly clear that traditional marketing methods, such as OOH (out of home), are no longer enough, and promoters need to understand the cultural nuances and consumer behaviours specific to each region.
“Festivals are still the ideal place to discover new artists,” says Pons, something that Santamaría agrees with. “For emerging artists, Spain’s main festivals are a fantastic showcase to open up new audiences and position themselves in the music landscape. But at the same time, it’s more vital than ever to build a solid base of loyal fans and tour the country’s venue circuit, even if this sometimes means playing in less glamorous places and clocking up thousands of miles in a van.”
With Primavera making their “most ambitious bookings” up to two years in advance, it’s clear Spain’s bubble is unlikely to burst anytime soon. Secondary cities like Valencia and Seville are rising in prominence and creating new opportunities for promoters and artists. This growth, combined with continued investment in venue infrastructure, is cementing Spain’s status as a key player in the global touring landscape.
Arena Market: Spain
The live music market in Spain is currently in rude health according to those working at the arena level.
Manuel Saucedo, GM of WiZink Center in Madrid (17,453), says, “The interest for live music keeps growing in Spain, and especially in Madrid. The live music calendar for 2024 and also for 2025 confirms it. Fans want to enjoy the experience of a live concert more and more. Also, it is very important for the rise of new genres and the generational renovation of both artists and fans.”
He does, however, raise concern about pricing potentially pushing away the next generation of concertgoers in Spain.
“Due to the general rise of all costs, ticket prices can definitely be a problem in the live music industry,” he says. “We have noticed a rise in prices that really worries us, affecting mostly the youngest part of the audience.”
“Due to the general rise of all costs, ticket prices can definitely be a problem in the live music industry”
Daniela Bosé is MD of the Palacio Vistalegre Arena (13,500 fully standing), one of the other major arenas in the country’s capital. 5 Seconds of Summer, J Balvin, and Milo J are among this year’s bookings, with genres like pop, rock, urban, Latin, K-Pop, and metal showing a city with eclectic tastes.
She says that consumer spending being squeezed is not a concern (for now) but says mid-level international acts are the ones finding it toughest. “International acts that have capacity for approximately 3,500 tickets are the ones suffering as they are not top international acts or local acts,” she suggests.
The Navarra Arena in Pamplona is expanding soon and will grow its capacity from 11,800 to 14,000. Moncho Urdiáin, GM of the venue, says revenues in 2023 were up 53% from 2022, and he expects this growth curve to continue this year, aided by bookings such as Luis Miguel, Marc Anthony, and The World of Hans Zimmer alongside sporting events such as the Karate World Cup and the Spanish Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship.
The venue has been focused on becoming greener and more accessible. “We have recently improved the climate management system, and we have changed the lighting to LED technology,” says Urdiáin. “In terms of accessibility, we have acquired some vibrating backpacks [a backpack filled with transducers that translate low frequencies into vibrations] for deaf people.”
“International acts that have capacity for approximately 3,500 tickets are the ones suffering as they are not top international acts or local acts”
With a capacity of 18,411, the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona is currently the largest indoor venue in Spain (although that will change next year – see below). Bookings this year include Andrea Bocelli, Maná, Pearl Jam, Luis Miguel, and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Carme Lanuza, its director, says its versatility is its strength, easily adapting to accommodate sporting, entertainment, and music events. It also includes the Sant Jordi Club with a capacity of 4,620.
She notes that cost of living is an ongoing concern in Spain, but counterintuitively, people are prepared to spend money on quality live events. “Life in general has become more expensive, but the way people want to live life has also changed, and luckily for this industry, unique experiences are one of their chosen types of leisure activities,” she says.
The darker side of this demand for tickets is the insidious rise of touting – an issue she insists needs to be addressed head on. “Ticket touts are still a problem for this industry,” she says. “Making progress in addressing this issue, which has such a detrimental effect on fans, is crucial.”
Last year, the venue invested in digitalisation of access for younger music fans, to help nurture them as the customers of tomorrow. “This online process has sped up entry for under-16s and avoided the need to print thousands of documents,” she explains.
“There is no venue like it in Spain. We are completely changing the mentality.”
Spain is about to experience the arena sector’s biggest step forward. Next summer will see the opening of the 18,600-capacity Roig Arena in Valencia, named after and bankrolled by Juan Roig Alfonso, the billionaire owner of the Spanish Mercadona supermarket chain. It will be the largest- capacity arena in the country.
Víctor Sendra, MD of Roig Arena, says, “There is no venue like it in Spain. We are completely changing the mentality.”
It will boast state-of-the-art design, including flexible facilities for crew to ensure load in and load out is as swift as possible. It will also have pioneering acoustic capabilities that are adaptable to different use cases (with the setting for sport being inherently different from that for music, for example).
Sendra claims this will help attract major acts (domestic and international) to Spain’s third-largest city, having huge economic repercussions for the area. “Everybody knows Valencia deserves this kind of venue,” he says.