Nearly 2/3 of Canada has seen a live show in 2017
Nearly two thirds of Canadians of all ages have attended a live entertainment event this year – with that number rising to almost three quarters among young people, reveals Nielsen’s latest Canada Music 360 report.
A total of 59% of Canadians have seen music or other entertainment live in 2017 – a 4% increase so far on last year – with 81% of those events dedicated to live music.
The figure for ‘millennials’, meanwhile, is even higher, reaching 70% among Gen Y-ers.
Other insights include:
- 48% of millennials in Canada say they attend music festivals, compared to 41% of the general population
- 34% of millennials attend club events where a DJ is playing, compared to 22% of all Canadians
- 57% of the general population have attended a live concert with one main headline act
Overall consumption of music is also up across the board, with increases in both streaming and traditional radio listenership.
“This is an exciting time for Canadian music, as the industry is experiencing tremendous growth at home and around the world,” comments Nielsen’s head of music for Canada, Paul Shaver. “With both new and established music platforms continuing to flourish, there’s never been a more dynamic time to be involved with this business.”
Last year’s Canada Music 360 found that over half of all music spending in 2016 was on live, with Canadians “attending more, and spending more of their money, on live events”.
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Grammys 2017 live performers see 207% sales bump
Live performances at Sunday’s 59th Grammy Awards generated an instant sales bump, with a 207% increase in downloads of the songs performed on the day of the show, according to initial analysis by Nielsen.
According to the market measurement firm, the songs shown in CBS’s 12 February broadcast sold more than 178,000 downloads that day, compared to 58,000 on 11 February.
“This immediate and impressive reaction proves the unparalleled power of the Grammy Awards to reach a wide audience and engage fans,” David Bakula, senior vice-president of global product leadership and industry insights at Nielsen Music, tells Billboard.
Beyoncé’s ‘Love Drought’ and ‘Sandcastles’, both performed at the Grammys saw the biggest sales bumps – 1,217% and 958%, respectively – with Adele’s ‘Hello’, which opened the awards, recording a 255% increase, selling 6,000 downloads on 12 February vs fewer than 2,000 on Saturday.
“This immediate and impressive reaction proves the unparalleled power of the Grammy Awards to reach a wide audience”
Other big winners included Katy’s Perry’s new single, ‘Chained to the Rhythm’, which rose 128% to 24,000; The Weeknd’s ‘I Feel it Coming’, which jumped 154% to 15,000; Keith Urban’s ‘The Fighter’, which increased 896% to 12,000; Bruno Mars’s ‘That’s What I Like’, which increased 354% to 23,000; and Maren Morris’s ‘Once’, performed with Alicia Keys at the Grammys, which saw a massive 7,430% increase to 6,000 downloads.
Awards-wise, Sunday’s biggest winners included Adele, who swept the major categories over rival Beyoncé; David Bowie, who posthumously won every award for which he was nominated; and Chance the Rapper, who won best new artist and won plaudits for his gospel-influenced performances.
A full list of winners can be viewed on The Recording Academy website, while Billboard has all the performances (ranked by senior editor Joe Lynch from “worst to best”).
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Instagram is gig-goers’ favourite social app
Instagram is American concertgoers’ social network of choice, with 83% of those active on social media at shows making use of the photo-sharing app – more than any other platform.
That’s according to new research by Nielsen, which also found found Instagram users are more likely to attend live music events – particularly shows with live DJs – with 39% of Instagrammers saying they’ve attended a concert with one main headliner (compared to 23% of the US general public) and 24% a music festival (compared to 11% of the general public).
(A study by MIDiA Research in June found 76% of US concertgoers post on social media while at the gig.)
In addition to taking photos and videos, music fans on Instagram (IG) are also more likely to use their smartphones for “various activities while attending live events”, such as buying music, visiting the artist’s website and ringing friends to let them hear the show.
In September Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino said the promotion giant is tapping into IG users to drive the sale of tickets. “[Instagram is] one of the best converters for us,” he explained. “If you’ve already liked Rihanna on Instagram and you’re following her, we use that data feed.”
An infographic showing Nielsen’s findings is below:
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Over half of Canadian music spending on live
Over half of all spending on music in Canada last year was on live events as concerts, music festivals and live DJs – along with paid streaming services – displace physical media and digital downloads in Canadians’ spending habits.
While “music listening in Canada remains as popular as it ever has been, driven by new music services and great new music by homegrown superstar artists (Drake, Bieber [and] The Weeknd to name a few)”, says market research firm Nielsen in its third Music 360 Canada report, released on Thursday, “what continues to change is how fans are accessing and engaging with music. While physical album sales continue to decline, Canadians are attending more, and spending more of their money, on live events.”
The report reveals that spending on concerts, festivals and DJs collectively make up 48% of the Canadian market (at 31%, 11% and 6%, respectively), with festivals and DJ events particularly popular among millennials and teenagers. A full breakdown can be seen in the graph below:
To buy the full report, email [email protected].
Collection society SOCAN released its 2016 financial results last week, revealing that concert revenues increased 4.9% to C$39.6 million in “another remarkable year” for Canadian music.
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US festival fans are boozy Hispanic millennials
American festivalgoers are more likely to be drink craft beer, be Hispanic and be born between the early 1980s and late ’90s than the average music listener.
Those are some of the findings from market research firm Nielsen, which recently released Who’s Headed to This Summer’s Major Music Festivals?, its latest report into the make-up and behaviour of attendees to the US’s largest festivals.
Nielsen found that nearly half (45%) of US festivalgoers are millennials – that is, those born roughly between 1981 and 1997 – and that attendees are 51% more likely to be Hispanic (with origins in Latin America) and 11% more likely to be “Asian” (Oriental, or south/south-east Asian) compared to music listeners as a whole – something it says isn’t surprising given that “this generation is [more] multicultural [than] any previous generation”.
Americans’ awareness of music festivals as whole has increased in recent years, with Lollapalooza, Coachella and the iHeartRadio Music Festival the most well known. Over half (52%) of the US general public has heard of Lollapalooza, with 36% recognising Coachella – up from 22% in 2013 – and 21% Bonnaroo.
Americans’ awareness of music festivals as whole has increased in recent years, with Lollapalooza, Coachella and the iHeartRadio Music Festival the most well known
While the musical line-up is festivalgoers’ single most important consideration when deciding which events to attend, there is also a strong regional element at play. “For example,” says Nielsen, “Coachella – held in California – largely attracts attendees from the western parts of the US.” Price is also key.
Festival fans aged 21 and over are larger consumers of almost every type of alcohol than the average music listener. US festivalgoers are 38% more likely to drink craft beer than the average music listener, and also count domestically produced wine, vodka, tequila and rum among their tipples of choice.
And around half of American festival attendees share their experiences digitally with friends via photos and text – so those who can’t attend, “and suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out), can be part of the experience too”.
American festivalgoers, then, concludes Nielsen, are “a large, young, diverse and music-loving group that also enjoys a good party”. Sounds about right.