INDUSTRY RESEARCH : ARTISTS
WHERE ARE THE BIGGEST ARTISTS?
INTERNATIONAL
According to the Pollstar.com 2013 ticket sales matrix the top ten international artists toured Europe in April, May and June. North America through August and Latin America in September and finishing the year down under in Australia through November when most tours come to an end.
Internationally BonJovi, Beyonce, Pink, Justin Bieber, Bruce Springsteen Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Depeche Mode, One Direction and Paul mcCartney took the top ten grossing musical concert tours. Together they averaged 69 cities and 96 shows per artist while the median ticket price was around $94 usd. 154 million was the average gross sales per artist for the year and further segmented into a per show total of 23k tickets sold and 2.3 million in sales.
These artists had many single city/country concerts but most had various events in countries like the United Kingdom, France as well as Germany and Ireland with Australia becoming a great english speaking market for all averaging 3 nights per artist. Latin America as expected had Brazil and Mexico with the most concerts, as it should be in relation to their large populations.
NORTH AMERICA
North American tours tend to launch in March and April just in time for Spring Break and go on till the end of the summer in August. A seasoned artist will have between 25 and 50 shows per year.
Now, for the 2013 American circuit it was Taylor Swift, BonJovi, Kenny Chesney, The Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac taking the top five spots, together they averaged 40 cities and 46 shows per artist while the median ticket price was around $118 usd for the top 5. This was heavily skewed by the $226 usd ticket for the Rolling Stones tour. However, I am using the top 5 not the top 10 as with the worldwide charts but still get a similar $92 million usd as the average gross sales per artist for the year with a per show total of 23k tickets sold and 2.9 million usd in sales.
Anyway, while the cultural diversity and sheer populations of states like California, Florida and New York demands multiple dates it was the Northeast and their 100 million+ audience that was hard to resist for any artist in any genre. The cultural diversity, per capita incomes and large metropolitan centers with college and university concentrations made the North East states a promoters dream. States like Massachusetts and Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, Pennsylvania and DC who welcomed every musical genre from classical to rock and hip hop and of-course good old country.
Now don't get me wrong there will always be a descent market in the South East and Mid Central parts of the country for a little fiddle but traditionally these are states like North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas.
