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Mid-Year 2014 North American (10/100): 6. Elton John | 8. Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band | 13. Cirque Du Soleil - Michael Jackson "The Immortal" | 14. Jay-Z | 53. Santana | 65. Arcade Fire | 70. Kanye West | 74. Rod Stewart | 83. Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band | 95. Neutral Milk Hotel
World-Wide (9/100): 4. Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band | 11. Beyonce | 13. Elton John | 25. Cirque Du Soleil - Michael Jackson "The Immortal" | 36. Jay-Z | 61. Arcade Fire | 77. Arctic Monkeys | 79. Rod Stewart | 98. Santana
I usually feel pretty accomplished when comparing my own concert going to these lists but this year despite seeing more shows than normal I have less in common. Of course looking at what's there I don't necessarily feel like I've missing out on much but still just interesting for what it says about popular trends in concert business.
North American (3/100): 1. Rolling Stones | 36. Stevie Wonder | 66. Bob Dylan
World-Wide (3/100): 3. Rolling Stones | 65. Stevie Wonder | 97. Bob Dylan
How did New Kids On The Block make over $20 mil last year? Who is paying that kind of money for them?
35-40 year old women who usually saw them as their first concert when they were 12. I work with a few who go see them every time they come to town (which is at least once a year) and these gals drop a LOT of money on New Kids. They not only buy the $75 tickets, they clean out the merch booth. I give those guys credit. They all managed to stay alive, functional, and more or less in good shape until their fanbase was old enough to build a nostalgia wave.
How did New Kids On The Block make over $20 mil last year? Who is paying that kind of money for them?
35-40 year old women who usually saw them as their first concert when they were 12. I work with a few who go see them every time they come to town (which is at least once a year) and these gals drop a LOT of money on New Kids. They not only buy the $75 tickets, they clean out the merch booth. I give those guys credit. They all managed to stay alive, functional, and more or less in good shape until their fanbase was old enough to build a nostalgia wave.
Ya, I could see them drawing a certain amount from a nostalgia factor. It just surprises me that their ticket prices/tour revenue is so high. But like you said, good for them if they're able to get it. I just don't understand it
Ya, I could see them drawing a certain amount from a nostalgia factor. It just surprises me that their ticket prices/tour revenue is so high. But like you said, good for them if they're able to get it. I just don't understand it
If you look at that list, it's very heavily weighted toward nostalgia, with bands either touring on no new material (Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, Elton John, Rush, etc) or filling arenas based primarily on their back catalog (U2, Bob Seger, Dave Matthews, etc). Somewhere along the line, promoters figured out that people my age had the disposable income to drop $125 to hear that song they lost their virginity to in high school.
How is the tribute to the Beatles less than 30 spots behind Paul McCartney?!
I would say its because people love the Beatles so much. Also it is easier and cheaper to catch a tribute band. DSO is a big draw around here they always sell the Orange Peel out and come pretty close at Pisgah Brewing which is in a giant field.
Post by notdarkyet on Jul 30, 2015 19:45:01 GMT -5
Also I think they tour extensively hitting lots of markets the big tours skip over. They tend to do 2 nightly shows out at medium sized theater every few days. They did 38 cities in 26 weeks this way totaling almost 70 shows so that's nearly 2 shows per town routing through 2-3 locations each week. Also Paul only did 3 shows in North America so that helps them keep pace although even if he had only played 2 gigs he still would have been ahead of them slightly the way the averages are. Still crazy I'll grant you!
Ya, I could see them drawing a certain amount from a nostalgia factor. It just surprises me that their ticket prices/tour revenue is so high. But like you said, good for them if they're able to get it. I just don't understand it
If you look at that list, it's very heavily weighted toward nostalgia, with bands either touring on no new material (Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, Elton John, Rush, etc) or filling arenas based primarily on their back catalog (U2, Bob Seger, Dave Matthews, etc). Somewhere along the line, promoters figured out that people my age had the disposable income to drop $125 to hear that song they lost their virginity to in high school.
Bonnaroo isn't on the festivals list (nor are many other fests you'd expect to be) so maybe don't they report their financials but seems reasonable to guess they make around $25 million off the ticket sales, right? Simply unfathomable how much Coachella does! I don't know how they possibly accommodate 99,000 people in a space smaller than Bonnaroo. I went back in 2009 and I think they were selling about 60-70,000 then and it was already quite crowded.
North American List: 4. Rolling Stones | 9. Billy Joel | 34. Stevie Wonder | 54. Jerry Seinfeld | 56. Paul McCartney | 95. Steely Dan | 97. The Beach Boys 119. Neil Young | 152. Bob Dylan | 174. Sufjan Stevens
Worldwide List: 10. Rolling Stones | 13. Paul McCartney | 18. Billy Joel | 50. Stevie Wonder | 87. Jerry Seinfeld | 96. Bob Dylan | 97. The Beach Boys
My Rolling Stones show at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (and 13 out of the 14 shows the Stones played this year) made the list for Top Grossing single shows at #39 and my Paul McCartney in Columbus was one of his 2 to do the same at #199.
Something else interesting I came across in the annual report was this chart showing #1 grossing tour in North America for each of past 30 years:
Year Artist Gross(millions) 2017 U2 176.1 2016 Beyonce 169.4 2015 Taylor Swift 199.4 2014 One Direction 127.2 2013 Taylor Swift 110.6 2012 Madonna 133.7 2011 U2 156.0 2010 Bon Jovi 108.2 2009 U2 123.0 2008 Madonna 105.3 2007 The Police 133.2 2006 The Rolling Stones 138.5 2005 The Rolling Stones 162.0 2004 Prince 87.4 2003 Bruce Springsteen 115.9 2002 Paul McCartney 103.3 2001 U2 109.7 2000 Tina Turner 80.2 1999 The Rolling Stones 64.7 1998 Elton John 46.2 1997 The Rolling Stones 89.3 1996 KISS 43.6 1995 Eagles 63.3 1994 The Rolling Stones 121.2 1993 Grateful Dead 45.6 1992 U2 67.0 1991 Grateful Dead 34.7 1990 New Kids On The Block 74.1 1989 The Rolling Stones 98.0 1988 Pink Floyd 27.6
*bold = Tours I saw that year
The worldwide list looks like this:
2017 U2 316.0 2016 Bruce Springsteen 268.3 2015 Taylor Swift 250.4 2014 One Direction 282.2 2013 Bon Jovi 259.5 2012 Madonna 296.1 2011 U2 231.9 2010 Bon Jovi 201.0 2009 U2 311.6 2008 Madonna 281.6
1 199.4 Taylor Swift 2015 2 162.0 The Rolling Stones 2005 3 156.0 U2 2011 4 138.9 U2 2005 5 138.5 The Rolling Stones 2006 6 133.7 Madonna 2012 7 133.2 The Police 2007 8 127.2 One Direction 2014 9 123.0 U2 2009 10 121.2 The Rolling Stones 1994 11 116.4 Kenny Chesney 2015 12 115.9 Bruce Springsteen & E St. Band 2003 13 114.9 Garth Brooks 2015 14 112.9 Cirque du Soleil/Michael Jackson 2012 15 110.6 Taylor Swift 2013 16 109.7 Rolling Stones 2015 17 109.7 U2 2001 18 108.2 Bon Jovi 2010 19 107.3 Bon Jovi 2013 20 105.3 Madonna 2008 21 104.7 Bruce Springsteen & E St. Band 2012 22 103.5 Pink Floyd 1994 23 103.3 Paul McCartney 2002 24 98.0 The Rolling Stones 1989 25 97.7 Taylor Swift 2011 26 96.5 Kenny Chesney/Tim McGraw 2012 27 96.0 Beyonce / JayZ 2014 28 94.5 Bruce Springsteen & E St. Band 2009 29 94.3 Katy Perry 2014 30 94.0 Celine Dion 2008 31 92.5 Barbra Streisand 2006 32 90.9 Kenny Chesney 2013 33 90.2 Roger Waters 2012 34 89.5 Roger Waters 2010 35 89.3 The Rolling Stones 1997 36 88.8 Tim McGraw / Faith Hill 2006 37 88.0 Elton John / Billy Joel 2009 38 87.9 The Rolling Stones 2002 39 87.7 The Rolling Stones 2013 40 87.4 Prince 2004 41 86.8 *Nsync 2001 42 85.9 Madonna 2006 43 84.6 Kenny Chesney 2011 44 83.3 Justin Timberlake 2014 45 82.5 Britney Spears 2009 46 82.2 Kevin Hart 2015 47 82.1 Backstreet Boys 2001 48 80.2 Tina Turner 2000 49 79.9 U2 1997 50 79.5 Madonna 2004
Post by notdarkyet on Jul 15, 2016 14:21:18 GMT -5
New update is here! Links available in OP.
Last year I had seen 10 of top 100 North American tours and 9 out of 100 Worldwide. Even less than that this year for me with just 7/100 in both lists but they are higher placed than last years.
North American (7/100): 2. Bruce Springsteen | 10. Guns N Roses | 12. The Who | 17. Madonna | 20. Paul McCartney | 23. Pearl Jam | 35. Paul Simon
World-Wide (7/100): 1. Bruce Springsteen | 4. Madonna | 10. Paul McCartney | 24. The Who | 27. Guns N Roses | 49. Pearl Jam | 56. Paul Simon
Post by 3post1jack1 on Jul 15, 2016 15:19:24 GMT -5
Thanks for the info, this stuff is fun. Beyonce is whipping the shit out of this whole list, wow. At #1 she grossed $49.4 million more dollars than Bruce at #2.
Bonnaroo isn't on the festivals list (nor are many other fests you'd expect to be) so maybe don't they report their financials but seems reasonable to guess they make around $25 million off the ticket sales, right? Simply unfathomable how much Coachella does! I don't know how they possibly accommodate 99,000 people in a space smaller than Bonnaroo. I went back in 2009 and I think they were selling about 60-70,000 then and it was already quite crowded.
North American (7/100): 2. Bruce Springsteen | 10. Guns N Roses | 12. The Who | 17. Madonna | 20. Paul McCartney | 23. Pearl Jam | 35. Paul Simon
World-Wide (7/100): 1. Bruce Springsteen | 4. Madonna | 10. Paul McCartney | 24. The Who | 27. Guns N Roses | 49. Pearl Jam | 56. Paul Simon
I improved from the midyear Top 100 gaining 4 additional acts for the North American side of things and 3 for international bringing my totals to 11/100 and 10/100 respectively. Those shows were...
North American List: 2. Guns N Roses | 3. Bruce Springsteen | 12. Paul McCartney | 18. Kanye West | 42. The Who | 45. Pearl Jam 57. Madonna | 67. Paul Simon | 70. Bob Dylan | 71. Weezer | 96. The Beach Boys
Worldwide List: 1. Bruce Springsteen | 4. Guns N Roses | 7. Paul McCartney | 13. Madonna | 29. Kanye West | 49. The Who 64. Pearl Jam | 67. Paul Simon | 96. Bob Dylan | 99. Weezer
My Guns N' Roses show made the Top Shows in North America list at #111. This is still only their 15th largest grossing show of the year. Also of note is that Beyonce pulled in about $750,000 more at the same venue: $5.1 million for her vs. $4.3 for them.
I went on pollstar today to manage some artist notifications and there is a completely different look to the page. What's worse is they are now limiting artist tracking to a maximum of 25 per user. I currently have 149 so this obviously is not going to work for me. Fortunately songkick performs a similar function and is actually much simpler to work with but still lament losing a tool that has provided me with concert information for the past decade, especially since it appears to be the result of being bought out by the man named most powerful in music business by Billboard magazine in 2012, Irving Azoff. He also has a filled top roles within inforoo darlings like Ticketmaster, Live Nation and Clear Channel. Obviously the implications on these semi-annual reports are in questions especially since there are paywalls set up everywhere on new site to access date previously not offered on the main site (maybe they have existed in subscriber only pollstar pro but I don't know because I am not a booker and never had need to visit that side of things.) Anyway just thought I'd vent a bit and mark the passing of concert going resource unparalleled for so so long.
I wasn't sure with the new site owners would be making these reports freely available any more but pleased the answer so far appears to be yes. Here is the 2017 midyear link:
The usual ranked list of arenas, theaters, clubs, etc. are also included at first link above though the festival grosses only happen in the year end list.
2017 North American (7/100, 13/200): 1. U2 | 5. Guns N' Roses | 6. Roger Waters | 25. Kendrick Lamar | 38. Green Day | 42. Queen + Adam Lambert | 79. Rod Stewart 121. The xx | 129. Eagles | 142. LCD Soundsystem | 148. Radiohead | 170. Beach Boys | 191. Van Morrison
Worldwide (8/100): 1. U2 | 2. Guns N' Roses | 13. Roger Waters | 22. Green Day | 37. Queen + Adam Lambert | 43. Radiohead | 49. Kendrick Lamar | 83. Rod Stewart
2016 North American (7/100): 2. Bruce Springsteen | 10. Guns N Roses | 12. The Who | 17. Madonna | 20. Paul McCartney | 23. Pearl Jam | 35. Paul Simon
World-Wide (7/100): 1. Bruce Springsteen | 4. Madonna | 10. Paul McCartney | 24. The Who | 27. Guns N Roses | 49. Pearl Jam | 56. Paul Simon
2015 North American (3/100): 1. Rolling Stones | 36. Stevie Wonder | 66. Bob Dylan
World-Wide (3/100): 3. Rolling Stones | 65. Stevie Wonder | 97. Bob Dylan
2014 North American (10/100): 6. Elton John | 8. Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band | 13. Cirque Du Soleil - Michael Jackson "The Immortal" | 14. Jay-Z | 53. Santana | 65. Arcade Fire | 70. Kanye West | 74. Rod Stewart | 83. Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band | 95. Neutral Milk Hotel
World-Wide (9/100): 4. Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band | 11. Beyonce | 13. Elton John | 25. Cirque Du Soleil - Michael Jackson "The Immortal" | 36. Jay-Z | 61. Arcade Fire | 77. Arctic Monkeys | 79. Rod Stewart | 98. Santana
Post by The Foot Fuckin' Master on Jul 23, 2017 6:32:39 GMT -5
Fuck is this Eric Church dude such as big deal in the country world? Insane how that whole genre is so segregated from the rest of the live music world.
I looked back over the past 5 years promoters list that charts tickets sold and Live Nation has doubled it's number in that time. Their largest competitor AEG also increased as well but only(!) 40%.
Year - LN Tickets sold - AEG Tickets Sold 2012 - 25.1M - 10.2M 2013 - 33.2M - 13.6M 2014 - 30.7M - 11.0M 2015 - 29.2M - 14.7M 2016 - 44.3M - 15.1M 2017 - 52.5M - 14.4M
During this time period the concert business itself grew less than 20%, from 4.7 Billion in 2012 to 5.6 Billion in 2017. To put LN's 2017 number into perspective (52.5M), the total number of tickets sold for the entire Top 100 combined was just 66.8M!
