Christopher BarrettAEG International president and CEO Alex Hill took to the stage at SXSW London to emphasise the global market dynamics driving the success of the live music industry.
Hill, who oversees all of AEG’s real estate, venue operations, and sports assets outside the US, outlined the huge growth in live event tourism, the globalisation of genre demand, the huge opportunity for infrastructure improvement in Asia, and live music’s relative resilience to cost inflation. He also spoke of the pressure on theatres and grassroots venues as a result of changed touring patterns.
Outlining the scale of the worldwide live music market, with the UK’s £6 billion industry being part of a global ecosystem worth more $35 billion, Hill said the digital evolution of the music industry had transformed live music touring in recent years.
“It has globalised music. It is having a huge impact on artists; markets are growing for them in a way that just didn’t happen before,” said Hill. “In London we are seeing Bad Bunny doing sold out shows at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, K-pop band BTS preforming stadium shows, and you’ll see a raft of country music artists selling out major shows, such as Garth Brooks at BST Hyde Park. That just would not have happened five years ago.”
Hill said the international demand for artists is growing at such a pace that some markets are playing catchup: “You can see demand expanding everywhere, and it’s quite obvious where the infrastructure is coping in those countries. While the UK, Europe and the US have a very strong venue infrastructure, if you go to Asia, where there are incredibly strong live music markets – Japan is the second biggest music market in the world – the infrastructure is not as up to date. So, what you will see is more venues being built in those markets to capitalise on that demand.”
The AEG boss emphasised the social and economic impact of live music, with the later clearly extending way beyond the ticket spend. He said the ancillary spending around live events had risen sharply in recent years, not least as a result of growing ‘gig tourism’.
“Gig tourism is a real thing; you see many more people travelling great distances to see their favourite artists. Taylor Swift in Paris for example, five times as many Americans travelled to Paris for those shows than for the 2024 Olympics that same year.”
While outlining that the wider live music ecosystem had remained relatively resilient to rising costs and the cost of living crisis, Hill acknowledged the significant impact that changing touring strategy is having on smaller, including grassroots, venues.
“Demand is not a problem in our industry, it is incredibly strong, but rising costs is something we’re all dealing with,” he said. “For almost any live event, if you’re a promoter or venue operator, costs are going up and that creates pressure on people to increase ticket prices. We all have to be very careful to do that in a sensitive way, so you are not impacting demand. Despite those cost pressures it is an incredibly resilient industry and people are much more prepared to spend money on live music or a sports event than almost anything else.
“We have seen structural shifts in the business and the society in which it works. At a grassroots level that has been really impacted. Because of the cost inflation, people are trying to find ways of touring that reduces costs, so they’re reducing the number of stops on their tour and trying to play bigger venues. It means the smaller clubs and theatres have been really struggling. Grassroots venues really need help to work this through, and that is important for us as an industry.”