After an explosive rebound following the Covid-19 pandemic, evidence is mounting that growth in the live music scene is beginning to slow down.
The latest bit of evidence comes from music analytics company Chartmetric, which published data on Tuesday (May 20) showing a considerable decrease in the share of artists touring last year.
“It’s not just emerging artists opting out,” the Chartmetric report stated. “Mid-level and even superstar performers are also seeing a noticeable decline in their tour schedules.”
The analytics company surveyed 1,000 artists at each career stage – superstar, mid-level, and emerging – and found the share of mid-level touring artists fell from 19% in 2022 to just 12% in 2024. Among superstar artists, the share of touring fell from 44% in 2022 to 36% in 2024.
The survey defined a “touring artist” as one who performed at least 10 shows in the space of a year.
Chartmetric’s report blamed the phenomenon on a number of factors, including rising travel and accommodation costs, low ticket sales for some artists’ shows, and a massive increase in visa application fees for foreign musicians in the US, which last year rose to $1,615 per musician, from $460.
Other factors that may be playing a role in this include a shrinking number of smaller venues, which may be most pronounced in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. News reports suggest that artists are playing a smaller number of shows on tours and skipping more cities and towns than they used to, amid a growing shortage of venues.
At the superstar end of the market, Chartmetric’s data backs up anecdotal evidence of declining demand for some tours: Witness, for example, last year’s tour cancellations by Jennifer Lopez and the Black Keys amid lower-than-expected ticket sales.
However, the data overall paints a decidedly mixed picture. In its latest earnings report, concert giant Live Nation reported a double-digit percentage increase in ticket sales, to 95 million as of mid-April. Stadium ticket sales were up 80% compared to the same period a year earlier.
“It’s not just emerging artists opting out… Mid-level and even superstar performers are also seeing a noticeable decline in their tour schedules.”
Chartmetric
CEO Michael Rapino said of a potential pullback in consumer demand: “We haven’t felt it at all yet.”
However, in a recent Q&A session, Live Nation CFO Joe Berchtold indicated that the company is not in a phase where it’s aggressively raising prices. He stressed Live Nation is focused on optimizing price points, which may mean lower prices at the back of the house offset by higher prices for the most in-demand seats.
In its earnings report, Live Nation said its average get-in price at stadiums in the US was down 8% YoY, to $60.
All the same, Berchtold said the indicators Live Nation looks at to see a decline in live events – such as lower prices on the ticket resale market – aren’t flashing warning signs.
“We haven’t seen that play out in pricing on the secondary [market],” he said.Music Business Worldwide
