Many companies in the concert and touring markets have been scratching their heads during the recession, as to what our future may hold. Since many corporations held back their marketing dollars the concert, touring, and festival markets saw less funding from their usual corporate sponsors. This had also affected the event production companies who provided their services for corporate events and meetings.
In 2007 the concert industry started to see a decline in ticket sales, but a growth in revenue due to increased ticket prices. The average ticket to one of the 100 top-grossing shows cost $66.90, up $4.83, or %8, from 2007 and more than double the average price in 1998. I believe the increase in ticket prices was a direct reflection of the lack of corporate sponsorships in the market due to recession.
The concert goers ticket purchasing habits were much the same in 2007 and 2008 with ticket sales requesting “Best available” and big concerts being sold out within days or weeks, and a month or more before the actual show date. Big concerts were selling out from front seats (highest price) to back seats.
By July of 2009 ticket sales trends began to change. Concert seats began to sell out from front and back, leaving the middle seats to sell last. As if there were the serious concert goers and the broke ones. By early October seats were selling from the back to the front. This last trend began in the midwest and then spread to the East and then West coasts. By this past winter the concert goers began to resort to bargain tactics such as avoiding ticketing fees by purchasing tickets from the actual venues to save 10-15% on their ticket purchases.
Regardless of the ticket sales trends, Pollstar reported 2009 to be the best for concert attendance over any other year in the decade. Over 40 million tickets were sold with an annual revenue of $2.5 billion. To keep the fans coming artists and promoters kept ticket prices low. Ticket prices fell 7% to $63.00, the only recorded drop since 1996 when Pollstar began tracking ticket sales.
As of now the summer is looking like a strong one for ticket sales. In April Southern California music festivals Stagecoach and Coachella saw record attendance despite not selling single day passes and only three day passes. The Austin City Limits festival in October has sold out all its three day passes for its event in Texas before announcements were made as to which artist would be performing!!
Though all this information above only represents the 100 top-grossing concert tours and the nations top festivals, I believe the medium to smaller markets have suffered as they’re competing with the much larger national touring acts and promoting agencies. This information would lead me to believe that more people are saving their entertainment budgets for bigger events as opposed to regularly going to concerts and supporting local shows. Most local promoters and smaller touring acts do not report to Pollstar but represent a sizeable portion of the market.
Many regional production companies have reported a decrease in business with the recession while the larger national touring companies have not.............
