Live Music grosses break records, but many shows are struggling [Pollstar Mid-Year Report]

Live music trade Pollstar’s annual Mid-Year 2024 Report shows a sector with its highest total grosses ever while showing real signs of a slowdown.

Overall, the live music industry is putting on more shows and charging more for tickets than ever before while selling fewer tickets at lower average per-show grosses.

In short, “2024’s mid-year state of the industry is that it’s mostly pretty friggin’ great, but not for everyone,” according to Pollstar. The report focuses on the top tours, and things appear to be worse lower down the live music ecosystem, with smaller and mid-level artists, venues, and festivals suffering from the increased competition.

In the UK, 50 music festivals have been canceled for this year, and in the U.S., established festivals like Coachella and Bonnaroo reported lower attendance. Pollstar sees hope in the launch of more than a dozen boutique fests, including Big Ears, Cruel World, Winter Jazz Fest, Solid Sound, and Movement Electronic.

Back in the top tier, for every canceled tour like J.Lo, Black Keys, and Busta Rhymes there are “newly-minted stars busting through” including Noah Kahan, Fred Again, Sleep Token, Chappell Roan, Carin León, Faye Webster, ATEEZ, Jessie Murph, Tate McRae, Lawrence, Benson Boone, RAYE, Pink Pantheress, Reneé Rapp and 310babii.

By The Numbers

Good News

• Total concert grosses are up 8.7% over this point in 2023
• The total number of shows is up 16.7% over 2023
• Average ticket price up 9.4% to $127.30

Bad News

• $1.37 million average per show this year – a 6.9% drop compared to 2023’s $1.47 million average
• .7% fewer tickets were sold in the first half of the year
• the average number of tickets sold per show is 10,767, down 14.9% percent compared to 2023
  • the 2024 ticket average is still higher than 2019’s average of 9,901, by 8.7%

photo via StockCake

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.