Goldman Sachs report salutes concerts ‘resilience’

The strength of the live business has led Goldman Sachs to raise its forecast for the global music industry for this year and beyond.

The investment bank and research firm has published the latest edition of its Music in the Air report, which projects overall revenue growth of 7.9% year-on-year in 2024, and expects it to sustain that rate of growth throughout the decade.

Central to its forecast, as per Music Week, is the performance of the live sector, which achieved net revenue growth of 25% in 2023 – hugely outperforming its forecast of just 6%. The live market is now 20% above pre-Covid 2019 levels.

“This is driven in our view by a strong schedule that featured many artists who had not toured since pre-Covid, in particular Taylor Swift and Beyonce, driving both attendance (owing to larger venues) and pricing power (due to perceived scarcity of these artists in the short term),” states the report.

“This also once again demonstrates the resilience of concert spending amidst elevated inflation and pressure on consumer spending”

“This also once again demonstrates the resilience of concert spending amidst elevated inflation and pressure on consumer spending, and the growing structural demand for experiences, particularly amongst Gen Z and Millennials.”

Goldman Sachs is forecasting the industry’s 2024-30 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will increase from 7.4% to 7.6%, delivering a 12% increase in global music market net revenue to $116.5 billion by 2030.

It predicts live music to be worth $35.1bn in net revenues this year, increasing 47.3% to $51.7bn by 2030, while also raising its CAGR forecast up to 2030 by approximately 1.6 points to 6.6%.

Research for the report was conducted by Lisa Yang, MD, media & internet, global investment research, along with fellow Goldman Sachs analysts.

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