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UK stadium gig rush reignites ticket price debate

Valentine’s Day marked one of the biggest mornings of UK onsales in living memory, as fans rushed to snag tickets for stadium outings for the likes of Beyoncé, Black Sabbath and Kendrick Lamar & SZA.

The shows have added to an already jam-packed summer schedule of outdoor shows in 2025, with superstars such as Coldplay, Oasis, Dua Lipa, AC/DC, Lana Del Rey, Imagine Dragons, Guns N’ Roses and Sam Fender also lining up to perform at the biggest venues.

The latest scramble has reignited fan and media chatter about the price of entry for major concerts, with some ticket types for Beyoncé’s upcoming Cowboy Carter Tour seeing hikes of up to 50% from her last outing two years ago.

The superstar returns to London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (cap. 62,850) this June for a six-show run in support of the Award-winning album, with ticket prices ranging from £71-£950. Beyoncé sold out five shows at the same venue two years ago during her Renaissance World Tour (RWT), the second highest-grossing tour of 2023 after Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

The run grossed $579.8 million and sold 2.8 million tickets across 56 shows in North America and Europe, according to Billboard Boxscore. That venture took the Grammy Award-winner to 39 cities across 10 countries, while the upcoming trek will only visit eight cities in three countries, seeing Beyoncé play 29 total shows.

While the touring route has tightened up, ticket prices have predictably risen from her outing two years ago. Prices for seated tickets have risen by at least 20%, with the cheapest option available for these dates starting over £71.

Standing tickets took a greater hike, rising by up to 50% from 2023 prices. Fans looking to stand at the Cowboy Carter Tour can expect to pay a minimum of £220, and almost £500 to stand nearer the stage in the ‘club’ option. General standing tickets for RWT ranged from £106.80-£177.50.

“This expansion is driven by increasing consumer demand for live experiences”

Ticket prices are on the rise across all levels of touring, with Pollstar reporting average ticket prices rose 3.91% in 2024 to $135.92 (£107.80), and momentum is showing no signs of slowing.

“This expansion is driven by increasing consumer demand for live experiences fuelled by flagship concerts and residencies of global superstars and the proliferation of large-scale events in general,” said FKP Scorpio CEO Stephan Thanscheidt in a recent interview with IQ.

Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) boss David Martin credits past research by former Spotify economist Will Page for signalling the direction of travel.

“Even back in 2022, it was evident that much of the ‘boom’ that was being witnessed in live music was due to high value, major, large-scale shows,” Martin tells IQ. “Add inflation which impacts both artists’ costs and fans’ wallets, along with the lasting audience impacts of the pandemic and the trend for the biggest artists to host their own events and residencies and it’s easy to see the drivers of increased prices.

“While it is positive to see demand at that level, I’m concerned about the impact on mid-level and grassroots artists. If fans are spending huge sums on one-off events, it appears that there is a real danger that they’ll attend fewer shows elsewhere.”

Some artists are seeking ways to keep costs down for fans. Coldplay have offered a limited number of Infinity Tickets, priced at £20/$20/€20 each plus taxes and fees, across their record-shattering Music of the Spheres World Tour. For their return to Wembley Stadium for a historic 10-night stand in autumn, the band’s second London stint on the same tour, fans could score standing tickets for £112.75.

The rise in general ticket prices for top stadium shows has also been more than matched across premium offerings — Beyoncé’s VIP pit sections in front of the stage come at the price of £850, while Black Sabbath fans seeking a side-stage premium experience could fork out just under £3,000.

“Clearly there’s some quite fascinating trends in our culture right now”

The cheapest tickets available for the “greatest heavy metal show ever” start at £197.50, while general admission standing starts at £262.50. The July reunion will see Black Sabbath’s original lineup – Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – top the bill, marking Osbourne’s final performance and the first time the quartet have played together in 20 years. More than 150,000 fans reportedly joined the queue for tickets when they went on general sale at 10am today.

Meanwhile, those looking to see Kendrick Lamar & SZA’s UK/EU outing this summer can expect to spend £75-£750 for tickets, with GA standing starting at just under £160. Other tours set to descend on stadiums across the UK this summer include Linkin Park, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, and Robbie Williams, to name a select few.

“Clearly there’s some quite fascinating trends in our culture right now,” observes Martin. “On one level, there’s an inexhaustible supply of new music, film, video, podcasts, books, substacks, and a whole mass of interesting niches and genres. It’s a complete cultural sprawl. On the other hand, there’s also that kind of ‘Barbenheimer’ effect, where audiences want to participate en masse for events by the likes of Coldplay, Oasis, Taylor Swift or Beyoncé. And they’re prepared to pay a premium for those experiences, even if it’s at the cost of others.”

 


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2025 tours update: Beyoncé, Backstreet Boys, Sam Fender

American boy band Backstreet Boys are the latest act to announce a residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

Produced by Live Nation, the Into The Millenium stint will comprise nine performances on 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27 July.

The five-piece will perform tracks from their best-selling album Millennium, alongside a selection of their greatest hits.

The iconic boy band will join a select group of artists – Kenny Chesney, U2, Dead & Company, Eagles, Phish and Afterlife Presents Anyma – in headlining the 17,600-seat Sphere, which launched in September 2023.

Beyoncé has added a fifth stadium show in both Los Angeles and New Jersey on Cowboy Carter Tour. With the newly added dates, she now holds the record for most shows of any artist on a single run at NJ’s MetLife Stadium and most overall performances at LA’s SoFi Stadium.

Produced and directed by Parkwood Entertainment and promoted by Live Nation, the outing will also visit London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Paris’s Stade de France, Chicago’s Soldier Field, Houston’s NRG Stadium, Washington D.C.’s Northwest Stadium and Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium. See the full list of dates here.

Sam Fender has extended his 2025 UK summer tour with the addition of three new dates.

Kendrick Lamar and SZA have added an additional London show to their Grand National Tour

The first of the new shows will be held in Manchester’s Wythenshawe Park on 16 August, before he takes to the Royal Highland Showgrounds in Edinburgh the following week 22 August as part of the Scottish capital’s Summer Sessions series. On 28 August, Fender will headline the VITAL Festival at Boucher Road Playing Fields, Belfast.

Support comes from Olivia Dean in Manchester and Edinburgh, with CMAT in Belfast. Further opening acts are yet to be announced.

These shows will follow Fender’s previously announced European and US tours through the spring, plus three sold-out stadium gigs at Newcastle’s St. James Park (June 12-15) and London Stadium (June 6). He will also appear at Radio 1’s Big Weekend festival in Sefton Park, Liverpool, on May 24 – bringing his UK summer line-up to eight dates.

Kendrick Lamar and SZA have added an additional London show to their Grand National Tour, on 23 July at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

After their record-breaking Super Bowl halftime performance, the tour—presented by Live Nation, pgLang, and Top Dawg Entertainment—will feature over 14 stadium shows across Europe and the United Kingdom this summer.

The Smashing Pumpkins have announced a series of major UK headline shows as part of their Aghori tour this August.

The American alternative rock band will perform in Gunnersbury Park, London (10 August), The Piece Hall, Halifax (12 August), Scarborough Open Air Theatre (13 August), and Colchester Castle (14 August).

Morrissey has also announced a string of 2025 tour dates in the UK and Ireland which will kick off later this summer.

The former Smiths frontman will head over to Dublin on 31 May for a gig at the 3Arena. From there, he will play two nights at the O2 Academy in Glasgow on 4 and 5 June respectively before wrapping up with a homecoming show at Manchester’s Co-Op Live on 7 June.

 


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Beyoncé announces new Cowboy Carter Tour dates

Beyoncé has added a handful of new stadium dates to her 2025 Cowboy Carter Tour following “incredible” fan responses and presale signup.

The Texan has announced a fifth and sixth night at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and a third night at each of Chicago Soldier Field, Paris’ Stade de France and Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium.

The general onsale starts this Friday, 14 February, with a BeyHive presale beginning tomorrow (11 February). There will also be a separate artist presale this week, as well sponsored presales taking place in select markets internationally.

The singer gave a preview of the tour, which is promoted by Live Nation and produced and directed by Parkwood Entertainment, with her Beyoncé Bowl halftime show during Netflix’s first-ever NFL 2024 Christmas Gameday. Her performance pulled in more than 27 million US viewers, with viewership for the programme since topping 60 million.

Beyoncé’s previous outing, Renaissance World Tour, was the second highest-grossing tour of 2023 after Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The tour grossed $579.8 million and sold 2.8 million tickets across 56 shows in North America and Europe, according to Billboard Boxscore.

The expanded list of Cowboy Carter Tour dates is as follows:

April 28, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium

May 01, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium

May 04, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium

May 07, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium

May 15, 2025 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field

May 17, 2025 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field

May 18, 2025 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field

May 22, 2025 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium

May 24, 2025 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium

May 25, 2025 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium

May 28, 2025 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium

June 05, 2025 – London, UK – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

June 07, 2025 – London, UK – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

June 10, 2025 – London, UK – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

June 12, 2025 – London, UK – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

June 14, 2025 – London, UK – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

June 16, 2025 – London, UK – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

June 19, 2025 – Paris, France – Stade de France

June 21, 2025 – Paris, France – Stade de France

June 22, 2025 – Paris, France – Stade de France

June 28, 2025 – Houston, TX – NRG Stadium

June 29, 2025 – Houston, TX – NRG Stadium

July 04, 2025 – Washington, D.C. – Northwest Stadium

July 07, 2025 – Washington, D.C. – Northwest Stadium

July 10, 2025 – Atlanta, GA – Mercedes Benz Stadium

July 11, 2025 – Atlanta, GA – Mercedes Benz Stadium

July 13, 2025 – Atlanta, GA – Mercedes Benz Stadium

 


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Beyoncé unveils Cowboy Carter stadium tour

Fresh off her Album of the Year win at the Grammys, Beyoncé has revealed the dates for her hotly tipped Cowboy Carter Tour.

Promoted by Live Nation and produced by Parkwood Entertainment, the 22-show run will kick off in April with four nights at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium and proceed to Chicago (Illinois), East Rutherford (New Jersey), London (UK), Paris (France), Houston (Texas), Washington D.C. and Atlanta (Georgia).

London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and East Rutherford’s MetLife Stadium will also get the four-show treatment, while Beyoncé will play two concerts each at Paris’s Stade de France, Chicago’s Soldier Field, Houston’s NRG Stadium, Washington D.C.’s Northwest Stadium and Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium.

Her D.C. stint will see her performing in the US capital on 4 July, in what is slated to be an Independence Day celebration for the ages.

Beyoncé’s previous outing, Rennaisance World Tour, was the second highest-grossing tour of 2023 after Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

The stadium tour grossed $579.8 million and sold 2.8 million tickets across 56 shows in North America and Europe, according to Billboard Boxscore. It became the biggest one-year sum for an artist in Boxscore history, dating back to the mid-1980s.

Beyoncé’s previous tour, Rennaisance World Tour, was the second highest-grossing tour of 2023 after Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour

The Renaissance World Tour is the seventh highest-grossing tour in the Boxscore archives. Swift joins her as the only two women and only American solo artists in the top 10. Beyoncé is also the only Black artist on the all-time ranking.

News of the Cowboy Carter Tour comes less than 24 hours after Beyoncé, the most nominated artist in 2025 and in Grammys history, finally won Album of the Year on her fifth try for Cowboy Carter. The 43-year-old also went home with Best Country Album and Best Country Duo/Group Performance for her track II Most Wanted ft Miley Cyrus.

It also comes after Beyoncé’s halftime performance during the NFL 2024 Christmas Day Halftime Show, which brought in an average viewership of 27 million for Netflix.

Beyoncé is one of a raft of artists that have announced stadium tours for 2025, which promises to be the biggest year yet for mega shows.

Artists including The Weeknd, Linkin Park, Imagine Dragons, Billy Joel, My Chemical Romance, Olivia Rodrigo, Robbie Williams, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Stereophonics, System of a Down, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Stray Kids, Sam Fender and Iron Maiden are all set for next summer’s circuit.

Read more about this year’s monster stadium year here.

 


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Does Beyoncé Bowl signal the future of concert streaming?

Viewership for Netflix’s Christmas Day live-streaming of two NFL games actually peaked with Beyoncé’s halftime performance, it has been announced, potentially signalling a valuable new market for the streaming giant.

For its first live-broadcast football games — part of a three-year deal of Christmas Day games — Beyoncé delivered a show-stopping halftime performance for Netflix, bringing in an average viewership of 27 million.

Average viewership during the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens matchup was roughly 24m, per Nielsen. Between the set of games – the other earlier in the day between the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers – Netflix reported a total of 65m watchers from across 218 countries and territories.

Its standalone special, the Beyoncé Bowl, has racked up another 50 million views on Netflix. The performance marked the first-ever halftime show for a Christmas NFL game.

“Bringing our members this record-breaking day of two NFL games was the best Christmas gift we could have delivered,” said Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, in a statement.

Beyoncé Bowl was produced by the star’s in-house team, Parkwood Entertainment, and film/TV production service Jesse Collins Entertainment, which also worked on both Usher and Rihanna’s respective Super Bowl halftime shows in 2024 and 2023.

With a performance crew of over 500, drenched in winter white, the 13-minute halftime performance marked the debut performance of her Grammy-nominated Cowboy Carter, with a tour announcement heavily rumoured to be coming in the next week.

“Artists aren’t just looking at the audio file or the creation of the LP or album”

A roof-raising, non-stop medley of songs, the 13-minute spectacle also featured Cowboy Carter collaborators Shaboozey, Post Malone, Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, and Tiera Kennedy and nearly 200 members of Texas Southern University’s Ocean of Soul Marching Band.

Artists are increasingly looking at concert filming, something the Houston native is aware of: Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé sitting as the 5th top-grossing concert film of all time and Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé is a Netflix staple. Seemingly every major artist — Taylor Swift, Coldplay, BTS, Olivia Rodrigo — has an accompanying film to capture their live performances.

In 2024 Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour film became the highest grossing in history in the concert or documentary genre, bringing in almost $300m at the box office before going on to generate even more income from streaming platforms.

“Artists aren’t just looking at the audio file or the creation of the LP or album. They’re far more engaged and looking at how audio/visual works in multiple platforms, in which cinema is just one,” said Marc Allenby, CEO of film distribution firm Trafalgar Releasing, to IQ. The London-based company led the distribution of the Renaissance film worldwide.

For tours where demand outweighs supply, an online alternative can be an accessible — and long-lasting — way for artists to reach their fanbases. The 99-time Grammy-nominated artist sold 2.8 million tickets on her Renaissance World Tour, grossing nearly US $580m, per Billboard Boxscore.

IQ will be digging deeper into the issue of concerts designed for broadcast and streaming in its next issue. 

 


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Oasis move the dial on national economics

UK ticket sales for the Oasis reunion tour have reportedly boosted ‘non-essential spending’ by British consumers to the highest level this year in September, in further proof of live music’s value to the economy.

The Oasis Live ‘25 Tour was the biggest-ever concert launch in UK and Ireland, with more than 10 million fans from 158 countries attempting to buy tickets for the group’s first shows since 2009.

The unprecedented demand for Oasis tickets bolstered a 36% annual jump in spending on shows and concerts, which contributed to a 2.7% year-on-year increase in non-essential spending, according to consumer card data compiled by Barclays.

Dynamic ticketing on these shows meant that some fans were charged more than £350 for tickets with an initial face value of £150 – a move that subsequently prompted an investigation by the UK government.

In the last year, blockbuster tours and festivals have significantly impacted the economy, both through consumer spending and inflation.

In the UK, it was recently revealed that the live music sector contributed a record £6.1 billion (€7.2bn) to the economy for the first time last year.

It was recently revealed that the UK live music sector contributed a record £6.1 billion (€7.2bn) to the economy

The growth in the sector last year was driven largely by concert revenues, which jumped by 19% year-on-year and accounted for nearly three quarters (73.5%) of the total, boosted by major tours by acts such as Beyoncé and Coldplay.

Concert tickets have also been shown to influence inflation. Earlier this year, The Bank of England faced a dilemma about whether to cut interest rates after official figures showed inflation proving stickier than initially expected. Some economists attributed the issue to consumer spending around Taylor Swift’s blockbuster The Eras Tour as it moved through the UK.

“While difficult to fully untangle, it’s certainly very possible that some Taylor Swift effects were at play here and could very well reverse out next month,” said Sanjay Raja, chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank.

This was also the case last year as confirmed by a 2023 report from the ONS which stated that prices for recreational and cultural goods and services had increased 6.8% in the year to May 2023, up from 6.4% in April and the highest rate since August 1991.

The report came weeks after Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour was blamed for Sweden’s inflation rise after kicking off at Stockholm’s Friends Arena last month. The tour reportedly prompting a surge in restaurant and hotel pricing in the area as tens of thousands of fans arrived in the city.

“It’s certainly very possible that some Taylor Swift effects were at play here and could very well reverse out next month”

Michael Grahn, chief economist at Danske Bank, told CNN that the additional demand from Beyoncé’s fans was behind two-thirds of the price rises seen in the hospitality sector in May. As a result, Sweden reported higher-than-expected inflation of 9.7% during the month.

As a result of the economic impact of live music, A-list tours have become increasingly hot commodities for governments, with some bidding to secure exclusive concerts.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Singapore struck an exclusivity deal with Taylor Swift and her promoters to make the island nation her only Eras tour stop in Southeast Asia.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) authorised a grant for Swift to perform at the 55,000-cap Singapore National Stadium next month, allegedly on the condition she would not play any other countries in the region.

This ignited fierce competition among other Southeast Asian nations, with the Philippines pledging to build a “Taylor Swift-ready” stadium by 2028.

Unsurprisingly, Singapore’s investment in Taylor Swift paid off with the government later crediting live music with helping to rejuvenate tourism in Singapore.

A-list tours have become increasingly hot commodities in cities’ efforts to boost tourism

By August, the country had welcomed around 6.3 million international visitors in 2023, putting it on track towards meeting its goal of 12-14m.

In another high-profile case, it emerged that the Western Australian government paid A$8 million to subsidise two Coldplay concerts.

The band played two nights at Perth’s Optus Stadium – their first gigs in Western Australia since 2009 – in November 2023 as part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour, in what was hailed as a “major tourism coup” for the country’s fourth most populous city.

Presented by the WA government, through Tourism WA, and Live Nation, the Australian-exclusive gigs were promoted alongside hotel packages designed to encourage visitors to stay longer in Perth and explore the region further, creating additional economic benefits.

A Guardian report revealed that $8m (€5m) was paid to Live Nation in relation to the performances, which Tourism WA said injected “tens of millions of visitor spend” into the state’s economy.

It follows a similar disclosure around Coldplay’s four nights at the 50,000-cap Estádio Cidade de Coimbra in Portugal in May last year.

The concerts attracted controversy when it was revealed promoter Everything is New would receive €440,000 from the municipality and was exempted from “municipal fees and prices” for the shows. The authority also spent €28,000 on restoring the stadium’s pitch.

 


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The top 10 highest-grossing music concert films

Concert films are continuing to result in blockbuster business at the box office, with Usher the latest superstar artist destined for the big screen.

AMC Theatres Distribution, Trafalgar Releasing and Sony Music Vision announced this week that Usher: Rendezvous in Paris will arrive in 2,000 cinemas worldwide for a limited run from 12-15 September.

Usher: Rendezvous in Paris features footage filmed during the 45-year-old American’s eight-night residency at Paris’ La Seine Musicale in September/October 2023.

“He is the perfect artist to support our shared vision of creating global experiences around concert films for artists”

“We are excited to continue our partnership with Sony Music Vision and AMC Theatres Distribution to bring the energy of Usher to movie theatre audiences around the world,” says Trafalgar Releasing CEO Marc Allenby. “He is the perfect artist to support our shared vision of creating global experiences around concert films for artists that advance the evolution of the cinema into venues for all forms of entertainment.”

Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour (2023) earned US$267.7 million globally, according to Box Office Mojo, to become the highest-grossing concert/documentary film in box office history. Upon the film’s release in October 2023, The Eras Tour made $92.8m in North America and $30.7m internationally for a cumulative total of $123.5m, making it the biggest opening weekend of all time for a concert film.

Swift opted for a non-traditional release of the presentation, filmed over three nights in August 2023 at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium, that saw her work directly with AMC and avoid opting for distribution from a major studio.

Taylor Swift heads a top 5 also featuring Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, One Direction & Beyoncé

In terms of classic concert films (thus discounting the 2009 Michael Jackson’s This Is It documentary), Box Office Mojo data puts Eras at #1 in a top 5 also featuring Justin Bieber: Never Say Never ($99m) from 2011, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert ($70.7m) from 2008, One Direction: This Is Us ($68.2m) from 2013 and last year’s Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé ($44m).

The top 10 is completed by 1970’s Woodstock ($34.7m), Katy Perry: Part of Me ($32.7m) from 2012, BTS’ Permission to Dance on Stage – Seoul: Live Viewing ($32.6m) from 2023, 2013’s Metallica Through the Never ($31.9m) and 2009’s Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience ($30.4m).

Dutch violinist André Rieu has been a forerunner in the space, occupying 13 of the top 50 spots, while Coldplay made history in October 2022 with the first ever live worldwide cinema broadcast of a concert from Latin America.

 


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Blockbuster tours and fests boost UK music tourism

UK music tourism increased by 33% in 2023 thanks to concerts from the likes of Beyoncé, The Weeknd, Harry Styles and Blur and festivals including Glastonbury, Boomtown and TRNSMT.

Around 19.2 million music tourists (national and international) attended live music events across the UK last year, up from 14.4 million in 2022, according to new research from UK Music.

This figure includes 1.014 million foreign music tourists (roughly in line with 1.053m in 2022) and 18.2m domestic music tourists (an increase of 36% from 2022 when the total was 13.3m).

London saw a 40% rise in music tourists from 4.9 million in 2022 to 6.9 million in 2023, while the South West saw an 86% increase from one million in 2022 to two million in 2023, and the North East enjoyed a 29% increase from 352,000 in 2022 to 489,000 in 2023.

“The UK’s thriving music industry continues to be one of our most powerful global exports”

Music tourism spending in 2023 also surged to £8 billion, a 21% increase from 2022 when the figure was £6.6bn.

That figure includes £4.2bn spent directly by music tourists attending concerts and festivals in the UK, including the cost of a ticket, on-site spend, travel, accommodation, and meals while travelling to events. A further £3.8bn was spent indirectly through the value chain, including costs such as fencing and security or a restaurant paying for ingredients.

Total employment sustained by music tourism increased too, surging 17% from 53,000 in 2022 to 62,000 in 2023.

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is likely to give a further significant boost to figures for 2024, making the UK one of the global touring centres, says umbrella association UK Music.

“The UK’s thriving music industry continues to be one of our most powerful global exports and an important driver of economic growth,” says UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy.

“In towns and cities across the country, the music industry provides entertainment, employment and inspiration to millions. This government will work hard to ensure our creative industries get the support they need to flourish, driving opportunity and economic growth into every community and inspiring the next generation of performers.”

“We’re looking forward to working with the new Government to ensure that all our towns and cities have thriving music ecosystems”

Despite the growth in UK music tourism, independent festivals and grassroots music venues are still struggling with rising costs and changes in ticket-buying habits.

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) reported that 50 UK festivals have completely closed or been postponed or cancelled for 2024, while the Music Venue Trust (MVT) reports that 125 venues in 2023 either shut or stopped live music.

“While music generates huge benefits for our local areas, beyond a handful of very successful musicians the opportunities for many artists are becoming increasingly squeezed,” says UK Music Chief Executive Tom Kiehl.

“Grassroots music venues and festivals, studios and rehearsal spaces are facing tough economic pressures and it’s vital that the music ecosystem that enables musicians and artists to perform is supported to ensure that everyone – no matter where they live – can have access to music.

“We’re looking forward to working with the new Government to ensure that all our towns and cities have thriving music ecosystems that support the growth of the industry – generating thousands more jobs, boosting economic growth and making their areas even more attractive to visitors.”

Last week, live music business organisations in the UK delivered their verdicts on the King’s Speech, which outlined the new Labour government’s legislative priorities.

 


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Stadium success: But at what cost?

One of the big stories of 2023 is the hot stadium summer. In some countries, stadium concerts took place almost every weekend during the warmer months, and there were incredible attendance figures reported, such as 1m people going to concerts in just one weekend in London.

With the opportunity to create eye-popping shows that more fans than ever get to experience, plus eye-popping income, the appeal of a stadium run is obvious. Yet, with higher production costs than an arena run or a festival tour, they’re not for the faint-hearted.

But what effect has this had on the rest of the business? It’s only a rare handful of acts and promoters that work on these blockbuster shows. The majority of the international touring business – and the majority of promoters’ income – is from club, theatre, and arena concerts.

As German promoter Scumeck Sabottka grimly noted last year: “We don’t just live on cake, we live on bread. And all the bread is gone.” His summary will feel familiar to many promoters around the world. Most countries are dealing with high inflation in some form; consumer spending is under pressure and – as has always been the case – when people are worried about money, they take fewer risks when it comes to seeing live entertainment. So, it’s the established or super-hot names that thrive, while the rest have to work harder than ever to sell tickets.

The public appetite for these mega events shows no sign of abating

So, are the stadium shows affecting the rest of the business? At the time of writing, Pollstar figures show the number-one selling tour in the world for the quarter to 25 September was Taylor Swift – her concerts grossed $756.m. With an average ticket price of $253.56, she had sold almost 3m tickets across 54 shows.

Number two was Beyoncé, whose average ticket price of $198.74 saw her gross reach $390.2m from almost 2m tickets. Interestingly, the third and fourth highest-grossing tours (Harry Styles and Coldplay, respectively), were each charging an average ticket price almost $100 dollars less than Beyoncé: $109.01 for Styles and $109.96 for Coldplay. Both acts sold in the region of 2.5m tickets.

The public appetite for these mega events shows no sign of abating. Live Nation’s Q2 2023 results showed attendance at its stadium shows was up 28% on the same period the previous year to a total of 8m fans. The company says the top markets for these mega-shows were Europe and Asia Pacific. For context, Live Nation’s arena dates saw an attendance increase of 19% to 10.7m people, largely in Canada, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.

Are these high ticket prices and higher-than-last-year attendances hitting people’s ability to buy tickets to an arena or club date? Detlef Kornett is co-CEO of DEAG, which owns promoters and ticketing companies across Europe, including Kilimanjaro Live in the UK; Wizard Promotions and I-Motion in Germany; and CSB Island Entertainment in Denmark. And while his company also promoted stadium dates this year, he says these massive dates not only affected the rest of the business but were also competing for audiences among themselves.

“One of the most notable effects of these large stadium tours is the diversion of ticket sales and audience attention”

“The smaller the market is, the tougher it gets. Bern, Switzerland, has a million people living in the wider vicinity, but within ten days, Guns N’ Roses, Muse, and Motley Crüe and Def Leppard all played stadium shows. It’s not only an issue in smaller markets. In the UK, the number of stadium shows were at a record level.

“[These concerts mean] the majority of artists are competing with those huge brand-name acts. It’s not just a matter of how big the consumer’s purse is and whether they also can afford to go to a show that might normally sell 5,000-7,000 tickets. It’s also about visibility. Budgets for stadium shows are high, brand recognition is high, market penetration is high, editorial coverage is focused on the biggest names. So, everyone else is competing with that.

“For some artists who have a steady enough following and have a good enough presence on the web, they won’t be affected by stadium shows. But for acts that don’t have a high enough level of interaction with their fans, it’s a lot harder.”

Filippo Palermo, co-founder and managing partner of Australian independent promoter and festival organiser Untitled Group, says: “One of the most notable effects of these large stadium tours is the diversion of ticket sales and audience attention. When major artists embark on stadium tours, they essentially absorb a portion of the available ticket-buying capacity in the market. Some people who would otherwise attend smaller shows might opt for the spectacle of a stadium tour.”

Neil O’Brien suggests packaging artists together could be a way of ensuring mid-level artists continue to make money

However, he adds: “I still believe there’s room for coexistence provided the right strategies are in place to cater to different segments of live music audiences.”

And, as AEG Presents France managing director Arnaud Meersseman notes in our market report (see page 18), “There are tentpole events and artists that perform extremely well; there are newer things that perform extremely well; and then there’s that whole middle area where it’s just a bog and things aren’t that great.”

Agency Neil O’Brien Entertainment in London represents acts such as Ocean Colour Scene, UB40, Dionne Warwick, Brand New Heavies, and Joe Bonamassa. Founder Neil O’Brien says he’s heard reports of the big shows squeezing the middle but says it’s about time the mid-level saw something of a ticket-price change.

“Although the costs of everything is going up and up, people are still going out for entertainment. On one end, ticket prices have gone up disproportionately. It’s the middle that needs to change a bit.” He says getting creative with bills and marketing is key to success and suggests packaging artists together could be a way of ensuring mid-level artists continue to make money.

Anna-Sophie Mertens, VP of touring at Live Nation UK, tells us she thinks an uptick in prices for mid-level shows is a necessary correction. “The UK at club- and theatre-level has, for the most part, been under-priced in my opinion, so we are seeing a rebalance in this area,” she says.

“I think we will see more and more stadium shows”

And it’s not just mid-level acts that are feeling the pinch. Vincent Sagar, director of independent promoter Opus One, wonders if festivals will be affected. “What we saw this year is many young talents such as Harry Styles and Taylor Swift went from arenas to stadiums without going through festivals first.” He notes that this year, the stadium industry has developed the ability to create a new generation of acts able to play such large audiences.

DEAG’s Kornett says the company analysed the effects of stadium tours on the rest of the industry, seeking to discover how to mitigate their effects. “It felt like there was no logic to what worked and what didn’t do so well. There were bands that for years always held solid and all of a sudden didn’t work. And there were bands that you felt were on the verge of selling half an arena, but they soared, and there’s no explanation for it.

“We did research. We did surveys. We wanted to get to the bottom of it, but there was no science to what worked and what didn’t. It is purely a matter of factors such as whether you went on sale in the same week as a huge show; if you did your marketing push at the same time as a stadium show tried to fill the upper tiers. That’s hard to predict and manage.” And he says that while 2023 might be an outlier in terms of sheer number of stadium shows, the trend is here to stay, and it’s only going to grow.

“I think we will see more and more stadium shows, as some of the big names managed to get the economics organised in such a way that they fare better doing a stadium show than a festival. If you’re confident your name can sell enough tickets, it has become a fully legitimate alternative to do your own tour rather than tour festivals. Of course, there may be other motivations to play festivals, such as to show a different side of your repertoire, re-engage with an audience you don’t get to usually, and so on. But for some, it’s economics: they have a big show, and they want to give the full experience, which you can’t really do at a festival.

“I don’t think we’ll see as many stadium shows in 2024, but it will remain at a higher level than 2019.”

The Global Promoters Report 2023, the latest indispensable guide to the industry’s leading promoters and touring territories, is out now.

 


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Taylor Swift, Beyoncé lead highest-grossing tours of 2023

The highest-grossing tours of 2023 have been revealed, with Taylor Swift and Beyoncé in the first and second spots.

Swift this year performed 66 shows in the US, Mexico and South America on The Eras Tour, generating more than US$900 million in ticket sales, according to estimates from Billboard.

While no official numbers have been reported yet, Swift’s tour should pass Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour ($939.1m) as the highest-grossing concert tour of all time.

Moreover, this year’s gross for The Eras Tour is expected to nearly double in 2024, becoming the first concert tour in history to gross more than US$1 billion.

Beyoncé meanwhile grossed $579.8m and sold 2.8 million tickets on her Rennaisance World Tour between 10 May and 1 October, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.

Beyoncé and Swift are the only two women and only American solo artists in the top 10 tours in Boxscore history

During Billboard‘s tracking period of 1 November 2022 and 30 September 2023, the Renaissance World Tour earned $570.5m and sold 2.7 million tickets, plus another $9.3m and 53,200 tickets in Kansas City on 1 October.

That makes it the biggest one-year sum for an artist in Boxscore history, dating back to the mid-1980s. Both Bad Bunny and Ed Sheeran grossed more than $434m in 2022 and 2018, respectively.

The Renaissance World Tour is the seventh highest-grossing tour in the Boxscore archives. Swift joins her as the only two women and only American solo artists in the top 10. Beyoncé is also the only Black artist on the all-time ranking.

Beyoncé and Swift lead a touring boom in 2023, with more tours than ever grossing above $300m (three), $200m (seven) or $100m (17).

Also in the top 10 highest-grossing tours for 2023 is Coldplay ($342.5m for 55 shows), Harry Styles ($338.2m for 69) and Morgan Wallen ($260.4m for 44).

In the bottom half of the top 10 is Ed Sheeran ($256.9M for 46), P!nk ($226.6m for 37 shows), Elton John ($210m for 65), The Weeknd ($192.5m for 35) and Depeche Mode ($175.2m for 47).

 


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