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2024
The Shared Impact of Touring and Streaming
+143%
For instance, ODESZA routinely saw streaming volumes double in the week and market of a performance (+143% on average).
+32%
Other artists, like Blake Shelton, still enjoyed reliable growth but at lower rates (+32% on average).
+42%
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.
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.
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.
Case Study: Beyoncé
Beyoncé's U.S. Tour
Atlanta date
L.A. date
Beyoncé's Renaissance Tour Announced
Beyoncé's European Tour Kicks Off
(5/10/23), Stockholm)
Beyoncé Releases
Renaissance Tour Movie
Below, you can see how ticket sales and streams are closely related in the 15 markets that Phish played over the year.
Phish ticket sales & Streaming volumes
New York
Hover over dots for market info
Denver
New York
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)
Los
Angeles
Chicago
Albany,
NY
Philadelphia
MARKET-LEVEL ON-DEMAND AUDIO STREAMING
(ON-DEMAND audio streams in 2023 in the MARKET the event was held)
TICKET SALES DATA: Billboard Boxscore
phish: Nick Karp
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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.
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.
Expected Ticket Sales Per 1,000,000 In-Market Audio Streams:
673
For every 1,000,000
in-market audio streams*, Caroline Polachek can generally expect to sell 673 additional tickets.
*Over the course of 2023
TICKET SALES DATA: BILLBOARD BOXSCORE
TTB: David McClister
Fonseca: Christopher Polk
Polachek: Gilbert Flores
See the chart below to help visualize what these figures mean in practice:
Hover over artist/band name
in legend for
isolated info
TICKET SALES BY STREAMING VOLUMES
NumBer of tickets sold
(PER SHOW)
TICKET SALES DATA: BILLBOARD BOXSCORE
ARTISTS' ON-DEMAND AUDIO
(On-Demand Audio streams in 2023 in the MARKET the event was held)