Touring statistics of successful acts

62strat

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5:29p, 8/2/22

AG

This is some cool data here.

https://data.pollstar.com/Chart/2022/07/072522_top.touring.artists_1020.pdf

Amazing to see the lack of correlation of # of tickets sold compared to gross ticket sales. A band like Metallica, selling almost 20m tickets vs Paul McC, selling half as many tickets, but the same gross $.

Or clearly the highest $/ ticket artist, Beyonce.. with over $1b in gross revenue, but only a fraction of the # of tickets sold as most other $1b artists. DMB has just 7% more gross revenue than Beyonce, but over 2.5X the tickets sold... or ZZ Top with just as many tickets sold as Beyonce, but ONE FOURTH of the revenue.

Look at Madonna vs. Garth Brooks, both sold 11m tickets and change.. madonna grosses $1.4b, Garth only $320m, 20% of her.. an average of just $28 a ticket.

Some telling info in here! All the pop artists have a premium $/ticket... or, maybe in the case of someone like garth brooks, a huge chunk of his touring days were a long time ago.

Anyway, thought I'd share this with the board as I found it quite interesting, being a numbers person.

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amercer

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7:34p, 8/2/22

AG

Tickets have gotten REALLY expensive for popular acts. And not just because of inflation.

It's kind of like how big 90s artists rank really high in albums sold. That was the peak CD buying era, as the economy was great and streaming wasn't a thing.

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62strat

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In reply to amercer • 9:26p, 8/2/22

AG

amercer said:
Tickets have gotten REALLY expensive for popular acts. And not just because of inflation.

It's kind of like how big 90s artists rank really high in albums sold. That was the peak CD buying era, as the economy was great and streaming wasn't a thing.

streaming counts towards albums sold, fyi. That's why you see Rhianna, Taylor swift, Bieber, Kanye, and Ed Sheeran among the top 20 selling artists of all time. They are in the company of artist that have been around for twice or more as long, like MJ, eagles, queen, Madonna, etc.

Contrary to your statement, not many 90s artists are among the best selling of all time. Garth brooks, shania, Mariah, metallica.. that's about it.

cbr

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10:43p, 8/2/22

AG

My exposure to the industry was fascinating. Essentially management knew exactly what acts could sell what number of tickets in advance. Basically there were about 15 acts in the world each year that could sell out reliant (nrg) and they could pick the total sales within 1000 every time. It was bizarre. Guy making those calls was an aggie as well. Great guy.

h1ag

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4:00p, 8/3/22

AG

This is purely anecdotal and not necessarily related to anything but the Madonna/Garth comparison reminded me of the time I went to see George Strait at the Patriots stadium in MA. It was the second to last show in his farewell tour. Place was half empty and a group of us southerners in grad school were amazed we got tickets for $12. His next show was at Jerryworld and the back row of the nosebleeds were going for $4-500 each. Same thing seeing Garth at the Garden in Boston vs my brothers experience seeing him in Nashville.

I guess the takeaway is if you want to see big country artists cheaply, well probably don't pay for airfare and lodging to come, but if you're already up here, deals abound.

Wheatables02

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5:55p, 8/3/22

AG

Garth's current tour has fixed pricing. Every seat in the stadium was $97. I saw him in lower level endzone seats for $198 total. You can't beat that nowadays.

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62strat

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In reply to Wheatables02 • 8:48p, 8/3/22

AG

Wheatables02 said:
Garth's current tour has fixed pricing. Every seat in the stadium was $97. I saw him in lower level endzone seats for $198 total. You can't beat that nowadays.

that doesn't stop scalpers though. Most artists aren't charging astronomical prices for close up seats, but they are impossible to get over the scalpers, who resell for 5-10x.

And paying the same for nosebleeds as first few rows doesn't seem right to me. I have no issue with seats being priced according to location. There are plenty artists where I don't care to be up close, I just want to check them out, but $100 would stop me from pulling the trigger.

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