Survey: Youth 12-24 Go To 50% Fewer Concerts Than They Did A Decade Ago
Income from touring was supposed to help make up for falling artist income from recorded music sales; and more than one label 360 deal has been calculated on the same premise. But a new Edison Research survey of 12 to 24 year olds shows that ticket sales may not produce the future revenues that so many are aiming for.
Infographic: 2000 vs 2010 Concert Attendance For 12 – 24s
In 2000, 24% of fans age 12 – 24 went to three or more concerts a year. Now on 12% do. In fact, the number of young people that will not attend any concert in a year jumped from 43% to 64%. Edison blames the economy, but a broader array of factors including increased competition from other entertainment sources and high ticket prices and fees may also be play a role in the decline.
Where do 12 to 24 year olds discover the concerts they will go to. Recommendations from friends and family rule with radio and social networking also cited as important influencers.
Read the full Edison survey.
What do they define as a ‘concert’ ? And how many kids of that age now go to ‘shows’ instead of concerts ? As things get smaller and more spread out maybe the all ages warehouse ‘show’ is more appealing than say Kings of Leon at the Garden.
It would be very interesting to see what sort of effect ‘avg. ticket price’ has on these results.
This doesn’t really surprise me. It iss just a flip reverse on music industry these days.
We used to use tours to promote and album, now we promote tours with albums.
Bands are touring more often, so that special excitement of getting tickets to see a band because you don’t know when they will next be in your city again has gone.
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I wonder how much is also related to stricter alcohol laws making more shows 21+
The broader culture hasn’t valued the live concert experience like it used to. The last time I saw a musical event as part of a TV show was Ozomatli on Sex and the City a number of years back. Before that was the famous Good Times episode when Rerun bootlegged the Doobie Brothers. The difference is that in the Good Times episode it seemed that EVERYBODY was going to concerts all the time– it was part of what you did. In the Sex… episode, it was background. With the change to the 21+ drinking age and $3-$10 ticket surcharges for under agers– a tax on being young– and simultaneous skyrocketing of ticket prices in general, it is no wonder kids said “Pfft. I’ll play X-Box or go to an all ages DJ dance party for $5.” Let’s not forget about the across the board cuts to music education in schools, as well. As a culture we have failed our greatest art form…