Why are Americans splurging on live music?
Remember that whole “revenge spending” thing coming out of the pandemic? You know, back in 2021 and 2022, when we all splurged on travel and theme parks and concerts, the experiences we couldn’t have when we were in lockdown?
Well, some of those spending patterns seem to have some staying power. Concert promoter Live Nation told investors Monday it had its most active summer concert season ever, with profits from its concert division up 39% year over year.
Madonna, Coldplay and Bad Bunny were some of the biggest concert draws in 2024 — it cost an average of $209 a ticket to see the material girl on her “Celebration Tour.”
Serona Elton, University of Miami music industry professor, said coming out of the pandemic, live music is just a bigger part of our lives and our budgets.
“We’ve now come out of revenge-spending era, except that we now we have an even more deep understanding of how important those experiences are to us. And we are now in a different mindset of prioritizing our spending,” she said.
Concerts aren’t just a place to go see live music from your favorite artist.
They’re also increasingly one of the few places you can hang out with people who share your interests — you know, outside a Reddit thread.
“Especially in a world where there’s a lot more divisiveness, the chance to be able to go to a Taylor Swift concert to be with other Swifties, who have a fairly like-minded mentality about how they approach the world, is a big deal,” said Wenny Katzenstein, a consumer strategy specialist at Deloitte Consulting.
Although there may be some downsides to concerts increasingly serving a social purpose, music critic Steven Hyden has noticed an evolving norm at the 20 or so shows he’s been to this year: groups of friends talking through the concert.
“There’s always, like, a pretty big section of the audience that doesn’t seem to care about the music on stage. If you ever do ask them to stop talking, there’s like an indignation that comes into play,” he said.
Like, “How dare you! I paid 200 bucks for these seats, I can talk as much as I want.”
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