Across nearly 1,000 shows in our sample, the median concert will yield 42% growth in local streaming during the week of the event, as compared to the eight weeks prior.
Contents
In 2023, Luminate’s U.S. Music 360 survey found that concert attendance and consumer expenditures have soared since the pandemic waned in 2022.1 Furthermore, Billboard’s year-in-touring report detailed record-high global concert grosses and attendance, with revenue among the year’s top 100 tours up 53% from before the pandemic.
The year was so colossal for the touring industry that Luminate — the preeminent entertainment data and insights company — and Billboard partnered to dig deeper. Together, they mapped a sample of artists’ live events to their local and national streaming volumes to evaluate how one might impact the other.
Introduction
Examining the top 500 acts in the U.S. (by gross live event revenues between November 1, 2022 to October 31, 2023), Luminate and Billboard filtered the population of artists down to n=255 music acts who played 10 or more shows to focus this analysis on “touring” musicians specifically. From this n=255, we then drew a random sample of 50 artists. On a discretionary basis, a handful of artists were added or removed from the sample to ensure proportional representation across genres and gross revenues. Every show from artists in our sample — nearly 1,000 in total — were mapped to each artist’s consumption metrics in each respective market to evaluate how the two interact with one another.
METHODOLOGY
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How Touring Impacts Streaming (Short Term and Local)
FIND OUT MORE
2024
The Shared Impact of Touring and Streaming
How Touring Impacts Streaming (Long-Term and National)
Can Local Streaming Volumes Anticipate Ticket Demand?
How Touring Impacts Streaming Short Term and Local
+42%
MALUMA: Gilbert Flores
EX: of MARKET-LEVEL STREAMING EFFECTS
(TOTAL ON-DEMAND AUDIO)
How Touring Impacts Streaming National and Long Term: A Beyoncé and Taylor
Swift Case Study
For instance, ODESZA routinely saw streaming volumes double in the week and market of a performance (+143% on average).
Can Local Streaming Volumes Anticipate Ticket Demand?
1Our data show that consumer concerns over COVID (at concerts) dropped consistently over 2022, and have stabilized at low levels since early 2023.
How to read: An index of 1.5 indicates the artist's On-Demand Audio volumes are 50% greater than the average of the eight-week period prior to the event, while an index of .80 would indicate ODA volumes 20% lower.
Hover over names in key for more info
+56%
+44%
+30%
TLC: Christopher Polk; SHAGGY: Michael Buckner
While local streaming growth is present for almost all of the artists in our analysis, the size of the growth can vary considerably: the +42% average is not one-size-fits-all.
+42%
+143%
+32%
Other artists, like Blake Shelton, still enjoyed reliable growth but at lower rates (+32% on average).
odesza: Meron Menghistab; shelton: Derrek Kupish
BEYONCé: CHRISTOPHER POLK
Beyoncé Releases
Renaissance Tour Movie
Beyoncé's U.S. Tour
L.A. date
Atlanta date
Beyoncé's European Tour Kicks Off
(5/10/23), Stockholm)
Beyoncé's Renaissance Tour Announced
BEYONCé on-demand audio in the u.S.
Case Study: Beyoncé
On a national level, artists also enjoy long-term above-average consumption throughout the duration of a tour.2
Not only do streaming numbers grow while on the road, consumption is also likely to grow following the tour’s announcement.
To exemplify how touring impacts consumption in the long term, see the timelines of Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour and Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour below. In addition to the touring window itself, various other touchpoints — building up to, during and even after the event — contribute to higher domestic consumption volumes throughout each tour cycle.
While Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are unique cases, and not necessarily representative of the "average" artist, smaller artists exhibit similar patterns as well.
These analyses — both the local/short-term and national/long-term — show that the recorded music business has much to gain by capitalizing on the higher levels of engagement and “buzz” an artist enjoys when they establish a footprint via live events.
Speak Now (Taylor's Version) released
Taylor Swift's U.S. Tour
Taylor Swift releases Midnights
Pre-release/ pre-tour "baseline" consumption
TAYLOR SWIFT on-demand audio in the u.S.
Case Study: Taylor Swift
SWIFT: Gilbert Flores
1989 (Taylor's Version) released
It’s clear that live events lead to a local and national boost in an artist’s consumption on streaming services. But can artists, managers, agents and promoters use streaming metrics to better anticipate ticket sales on an upcoming tour at the market level?
Marrying Luminate’s consumption data with Billboard Boxscore ticket sales, our analysis shows there’s a clear relationship between local streaming volumes and an artist’s ticket sales in said market.
New York
Phish ticket sales & Streaming volumes
Looking closer, the analysis also shows that Phish’s consumption volumes in Philadelphia — where their streaming volumes are uniquely high— might have warranted a few additional days in the market (December 2022).
NumBer of tickets sold
(FOR each week/event location)
MARKET-LEVEL ON-DEMAND AUDIO STREAMING
(ON-DEMAND audio streams in 2023 in the MARKET the event was held)
2,814
For every 1,000,000 in-market audio streams*, Tedeschi Trucks Band can generally expect to sell 2,814 additional tickets.
1,433
For every 1,000,000 in-market audio streams*, Fonseca can generally expect to sell 1,433 additional tickets.
It’s worth noting that the relationship between streaming volumes and ticket sales differs for each artist and genre (in addition to a wide range of other factors).
Or, put another way, we can look at an artist’s market-level consumption over an entire calendar year to estimate ticket sales in that market.
Scroll down to see three examples of this below.
673
For every 1,000,000 in-market audio streams*, Caroline Polachek can generally expect to sell 673 additional tickets.
TICKET SALES BY STREAMING VOLUMES
NumBer of tickets sold
(PER SHOW)
ARTISTS' ON-DEMAND AUDIO
(On-Demand Audio streams in 2023 in the MARKET the event was held)
See the chart below to help visualize what these figures mean in practice:
New York
Denver
Chicago
Philadelphia
Albany, NY
Los Angeles
Atlanta, GA
Seattle, WA
San Francisco/ Oakland, CA
Pittsburgh, PA
Nashville, TN
Syracuse, NY
Dayton, OH
Huntsville, AL
Wilmington, NC
Hover over dots for market info
*Over the course of 2023
TICKET SALES DATA: BILLBOARD BOXSCORE
TTB: David McClister Fonseca: Christopher Polk Polachek: Gilbert Flores
Hover over artist/band name in legend for isolated info
2At this level we don’t try to estimate the “effect size" of the tour on long-term consumption. Instead, we simply establish that there are above-average consumption volumes during the quarter of (and the quarter prior to) their tour.
Luminate is the preeminent entertainment data and insights company, unleashing access to the most essential, objective and trustworthy data across music, film and television.
TICKET SALES DATA: Billboard Boxscore
phish: Nick Karp
TICKET SALES DATA: BILLBOARD BOXSCORE
Luminate is the preeminent entertainment data and insights company, unleashing access to the most essential, objective and trustworthy data across music, film and television.
ABOUT US
Billboard is the ultimate global music destination with a renowned authority among artists, fans, and the industry, featuring unrivaled reporting on music news, issues and trends in addition to the industry’s definitive charts.
Expected Ticket Sales Per 1,000,000 In-Market Audio Streams:
Below, you can see how ticket sales and streams are closely related in the 15 markets that Phish played over the year.
Click here to read more on Billboard
Click here to read more on Billboard