2023 was an insanely success year for live music: report

Pollstar, the bible of the touring industry, has issued its report for 2023. Long story short: it was a MONSTER year. In fact, it was historic.

“Total grosses for the 2023 Worldwide Top 100 Tours were up 46% to $9.17 billion from $6.28 billion the year previous; average grosses were up a whopping 53.2% to $2.37 million per show from $1.54 million.”

Other notes:

• The top 100 tours sold 70 million tickets, up from 59 million in 2022.
• The average ticket price was US$131.81, up more than 23% from last year.
• Taylor Swift’s Eras tour brought in more than US$1 billion. Beyonce’s tour took in $579 million.

However, enough though the top 200 clubs saw an increase (US$410 million in revenues from 10 million tickets), clubs below a certain level are really, really struggling. The big problems are operating costs, too many other entertainment choices in the marketplace, staff shortages, and rising rents.

Bottom line? The rich got WAY richer while those at the bottom–the venues that cultivate the next generation of superstars–are stlll on life support.