75%+ of richest artists’ income is from touring

On average, the ten highest-paid artists made more than three quarters of their income last year from touring, reveals a new list of music’s biggest money-makers.

The list, compiled by Billboard, combines revenue from sales, streaming, publishing and touring. Of the top ten – Beyoncé, Guns N’ Roses, Bruce Springsteen, Drake, Adele, Coldplay, Justin Bieber, Luke Bryan, Kanye West and Kenny Chesney, in that order – only one placed artist, Drake, earnt more from recorded music than from live.

Beyoncé (pictured) brought in US$4.3 million from sales, $1.9m from streaming and $1.3m from publishing, but $54.7m from touring (her Formation world tour was the highest grossing of the year); for second-placed Guns N’ Roses, meanwhile, the figures are $771,700, $670,800, $499,600 and $40.4m, respectively.

Beyoncé’s Formation world tour grosses $256m

Drake, the sole exception to the rule, earnt $18.1m from streaming compared to $13.6m from touring. Kanye West’s streaming performance was also strong ($7.6m), although it was still under half the $15.4m he took home from live shows.

Added together, income from sales, streaming and publishing for the top ten totalled around $71.1m – or just 24.4% of the $291.7m they made from touring.

Music streaming is, of course, on the rise, climbing 9.9% in the first six months of 2017 alone. But –Drake aside – Billboard’s charts illustrate how even the world’s biggest artists are struggling to make significant money from streaming – and prove once again that it’s a good time to be in the concert business…

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LAMC apologises for GNR Singapore chaos

The promoter of Guns N’ Roses’ first concert in Singapore has apologised for the logistical issues that plagued Saturday night’s show, but ruled out giving refunds to the any of the 50,000 attendees.

GNR’s Not in this Lifetime reunion tour visited the Changi Exhibition Centre on 25 February, and while the performance itself was well received, promoter LAMC Productions was inundated with complaints from concertgoers unable to buy food and enter or leave the venue. There were reportedly queues of up to an hour to buy food and drink – which quickly ran out, leaving many unable to spend the pre-loaded money on their RFID wristbands – and delays on entry and exit, with some complaining of a wait of more than an hour for the post-gig shuttle bus.

Speaking to The Straits Times, LAMC co-founder Ross Knudson took responsibility for the problems, telling the paper that “maybe it [the show] was too big for us”.

He continues: “We needed a lot more staff, buses and F&B [food and beverage] and to manage the site better. […] I want to apologise for that. It’s a very big endeavour and a very challenging venue to do a show there, but I don’t want to make excuses.

“It’s a very big endeavour and a very challenging venue to do a show there”

“We’re not going to be refunding tickets, but we apologise.”

Unspent balances on wristbands will, however, be refunded.

Sandpiper Digital Payments (SDP) Asia, the supplier of the RFID technology, says it told LAMC before the show there were insufficient F&B facilities and entry queues for 50,000 concertgoers. In a statement, released today, SDP Asia director James Kane says the promoter was “made aware their plans were inadequate [ahead of time]. This pertains to entry, cashless signage, pre-event top up collection, top-up stations, F&B fulfilment, etc.

He adds, however, that “it is the final decision of the organisers and their team to follow or ignore the recommendations”.

The GNR concert was the second to be held at the 75-acre Changi Exhibition Centre, following a LAMC-promoted Metallica show in 2013.

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GNR sell 2m tickets in 2016

Guns N’ Roses sold more than two million tickets in 2016, tour promoter Live Nation announced today, making Not in this Lifetime the most successful rock tour of the year.

The tour, the first by the ‘classic’ line-up of Axl Rose, Slash (pictured) and Duff McKagan since 1993’s Use Your Illusion tour, kicked off in April with an intimate set at the 500-cap. Troubador in West Hollywood, taking in a headline slot at Coachella later that month and arenas and stadia in North and South America, culminating with two shows at the Palace of Sports (26,000-cap.) in Mexico City on 29 and 30 November.

In addition to previously confirmed Asian and Australasian dates for 2017, the band today announced another 35 European and North American stadium shows for 2017, including Slane Castle in Dublin, the London Stadium, the Stade de France in Paris, Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv and a headline slot at TW Classic in Belgium next July.

A full list of GNR’s new 2017 dates is below:

Europe

North America

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