Music Industry

2014 Has Been the Best Year for Stadium Shows in 20 Years

If it seems that there have been more big concerts and better attendance at those shows, you’re not wrong.  Stadium gigs haven’t done this well since 1994.  From Billboard:

Jason Aldean says that when his team first broached the idea of adding stadiums to his tour route in 2013, “I thought they were just talking shit. We were all just drinking a bit too much one night, and that’s something they came up with,” the country artist told Billboard backstage before headlining Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park on July 19. “Then I realized they were serious.”

Perhaps he and his team should do more brainstorming around a bottle. According to Billboard Boxscore statistics, Aldean’s graduation to stadiums has been a lucrative one. On Aug. 15, 2013, he sold out Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati and took in $667,590 from a sold-out crowd of 20,424. Not even a year later, Aldean’s Great American show grossed more than $2.6 million and attracted 39,196 concertgoers. Even with production expenses of more than $1 million, that’s a clear winner for all parties. Cincinnati wasn’t a fluke either. Aldean grossed $10.2 million more from four additional stadium shows in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. And the benefits appear to extend beyond ticket receipts. When Aldean performed his new single, “Burnin’ It Down,” in Cincinnati, only the second time he had played it live, the crowd’s enthusiastic response to the song foreshadowed its leap from No. 42 to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart dated Aug. 9 — the biggest vault to the top in the history of the ranking.

Aldean, 37, says “once we did a couple [of stadium shows], we thought, ‘All right, we’re onto something cool here.’ ”

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Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 37999 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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