Pollstar mid-year report: Aussie promoters and venues among world’s successful

Australian promoters and venues, as well as an Australian act, rated well in Pollstar magazine’s mid-2015 report.

Six companies ranked among the world’s Top 100 highest ticket selling promoters between January and June, while 15 venues made it in five other categories.

Frontier Touring ranked at #8 in Top 100 Promoters, after selling 932,426 tickets in the six months. It was the Michael Gudinski’s led company’s latest achievement, after recently scoring the most amount of nominations in the contemporary music categories of the Helpmann Awards.

Nine Lives was at #26 (229,996 tickets), Bluesfest at #45 (175,414), Chugg Entertainment at #46 (168,647), Dainty Group at #81 (83,667) and Adrian Bohm Presents at #84 (81,008).

Not included as an Australian entry was Live Nation Australasia whose sales were incorporated into its global parent company, which topped the list with 10.4 million ticket sales. Austin, Texas-based C3 Presents, which owns the in-hiatus Big Day Out, was at #19 after selling 486,104 tickets for its concerts around the world including Lollapalooza.

The sole Australian act in the Top 100 Worldwide Tours were 5 Seconds of Summer, whose gross of US$15.5 million from playing to 320,314 fans over 34 shows put them at #52.

In the Top 100 Arenas, Perth Arena was most successful, at #25 after shifting 236,227 tickets.

Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena was at #32 (211,792), Sydney’s Qantas Credit Union Arena at #49 (156,545), Brisbane Entertainment Centre at #55 (144,564) and Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion at #94 (72,763).

Vector Arena in Auckland was New Zealand’s most successful venue, at #45 after shifting 169,666.

Melbourne’s Palais Theatre was sole Australian entrant in Top 100 Theatres, at #26 with 106,951.

The Top 100 Clubs list had Melbourne’s Corner Hotel at #27 (55,557) and Sydney’s Newtown Social Club at #97 (18,667).

Five were among the Top 50 Outdoor Festival Sites. Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium lead at #9 (116,234) followed by Byron Bay’s Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, home of the Bluesfest and Boomerang festivals, at #12 with 105,475. At #23 was Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium (73,632), at #30 was Sydney’s Allianz Stadium (62,650) and at #41 was Sydney’s ANZ Stadium (51,131).

Bluesfest also figured in the Worldwide Concert Gross category at #14: its February 4, 2015 date with Ben Harper and Paulo Nutini grossed over $9.8 million (A$12.8 million).

The 51,896 people drawn to Brisbane Riverstage put it at #12 in the Top 50 Amphitheatres.

Pollstar, US-based bible of the international live music sector reported that the global concert industry is “off to a record start” after grossing $3.4 billion and moving nearly 57 million tickets sold in the first half of 2015. That is up 5.8% over the previous year.

It also revealed that “the North American concert business is “shaping up to be a record year for the industry.” The Top 100 Tours generated a combined gross of $1.43 billion, which is up $402 million or 39% over 2014. A record 18.8 million tickets were sold by the Top 100. That is up 3.5 million or nearly 23% over last year. It also eclipses the previous industry record of 18.6 million in 2012.

The average ticket price also hit an all-time high at $76.20 – nearly 13% over mid-2014. It is also much higher than the previous industry high of $70.91 in 2013.

The Top 50 Global Tours did a combined $1.73 billion, which is up nearly 5% over 2014 but still short of the 2013 record of $1.85 billion. The total tickets sold was 19.9 million, which was well up on last year’s 18 million but still short of the 2013 record of 21 million. The average ticket price of $87.13 declined by $4.58 or 5% from last year’s record $91.71.

The biggest grossing international tour was by One Direction who have grossed $107.7 million and about to embark on a run of American stadiums.

At #2 were Fleetwood Mac who are having their biggest year so far with $92 million (and $65.9 million in North America). They were followed by The Rolling Stones ($867 million), Garth Brooks ($79.9 million) and Paul McCartney ($65.5 million).