Pollstar (12/17/18) Gensler, Andy
The live music industry posted record numbers this year, including a total gross of more than $10.4 billion and 152.1 million tickets sold. Moreover, Pollstar's combined gross of the Top 10 of its Worldwide Top 100 reached a new high-water mark at more than $2 billion. Artist Group International CEO Dennis Arfa attests to the 2018 bonanza, noting his own firm's range of tours and strategies mirrored an abundance of options for mounting a successful tour. "Overall, we are on track to sell 90 million tickets to concerts across more than 33,000 shows and spend more than $6 billion producing concerts, making us the largest financial partner to musicians," says Live Nation President Joe Berchtold. "Each of our divisions—concerts, sponsorship and ticketing—continues to grow and deliver as we fulfill an ever-expanding desire for concerts around the world." WME's Marc Geiger partly attributes the industry's success to the digital revolution and more consumers accessing music. "The explosion of technology and the attachment to the device you text and watch everything through has created this counterbalance of wanting to experience something with humanity, wanting to be part of something live," says CAA's Rob Light. "The two go hand in hand, so that communal experience of live events becomes more and more important in people's lives."
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