With a growth of 26% in one year in turnover, which reached 579 million euros, 2023 was a record year that consolidates a cycle of progressive increases since 2014, when 173.5 million were invoiced, discounting the period affected by the pandemic, according to data from the Live Music Yearbook presented this Friday at the Madrid headquarters of the SGAE by the Association of Music Promoters.
“We don’t believe there is a bubble and we think, on the contrary, there is still a long way to go. Live music has become a form of leisure and access to culture that has become normalized compared to 10 years ago and the sector evolves organically and progressively year after year,” said Albert Salmerón, president of the APM. . Even so, Salmerón has recognized that the large international tours have had a great weight in the figures: “Last year was unique, because many events accumulated after the years of the pandemic stop and we thought that there could still be a drop in ticket sales, but it wasn’t like that.” Stadium concerts in Barcelona such as those of Coldplay, Bruce Springsteen or Beyoncé, in fact, have contributed to Catalonia appearing in first place in the ranking with 26.35% of the national turnover compared to Andalusia and, in third place, Madrid .
However, those who sold the most tickets throughout the year were Spanish artists such as Manuel Carrasco (more than 365,000 attendees in 28 concerts), Melendi (308,000 spectators in 37), Joaquín Sabina (253,800 in 31), Marea (178,500 in 25) and Men G (160,000 in 19). Internationally, the best figures were for Coldplay (more than 221,000 attendees in 4 concerts), followed by Harry Styles (120,000 in two concerts), Bruce Springsteen (115,850 in two concerts), The Weeknd (105,600 in 2 performances) and Morat (97,300 in 13).
In terms of festival attendance, the one that received the largest audience was Arenal Sound in Borriana (Plana Baixa, Castellón), which brought together 300,000 people, ahead of Primavera Sound Barcelona (243,000), Viña Rock (240,000), Mad Cool (202,000), the FIB (180,000), Primavera Sound Madrid (150,000), O Son Do Camiño (134,000), Resurrection Festival (132,500) and, in Barcelona, ??the Sónar (120,000) and the Cruïlla (76,000).
Attendance at cycle festivals has also been recorded, among which the Marenostrum Fuengirola (Málaga) stands out, which has achieved first place with 189,063 tickets sold, followed by Noches del Botánico de Madrid (152,288), Las Noches del Malecón de Murcia (131,262) and the Voll-Damm Barcelona Jazz Festival (92,906 attendees).
In any case, Salmerón also recalled “that not all tickets are sold so easily”, since “the concert halls above all are suffering and there is work to be done, because they are also our laboratory, our R&D”.
Among the challenges of the future, for Salmerón, are to obtain “tax deductions that are equivalent to the audiovisual sector so that there is no comparative harm”, “minimize the impact” of the resale of tickets and the creation of an Institute of Music or another organization that represents them from the public administration.
