‘Power of Live’ report finds concerts and fests are cutting through the digital noise

Live is very much alive. And, despite the dire warnings of naysayers, it’s not losing clout with younger generations, a new report claims.

Concerts powerhouse Live Nation today released The Power of Live, an international study which found the live music experience was very much a rite of passage for young people in today’s digital world.

Pitched as the largest global study on live music, the 18-page report explores the attitudes of 22,500 music fans in the context of a plugged-in age, with more than 70 percent agreeing that live music experiences are among life’s richest rewards.

Respondents ranged in ages from 13 to 65 and were polled from 11 countries, with two-thirds of Gen X, Y and Z (spanning ages 13-49) reportedly attending at least one concert or festival each year, with a majority of those attending multiple shows.

U.S.-based LN says this is reflected by growing demand in the number of music fans attending its own events, with attendance vaulting to 86 million in 2017, up 21% increase from the previous year.

The study goes deeper still, asking participants to rate their emotionally intensity to concerts, and comparing that feeling to streaming music and video games, and they were probed with the age-old question, whether live music was better than sex (apparently respondents said they were 10% more likely to value live music over sex).

The Power Of Live

Australia was, naturally, among those markets tested. Broadly, Australians were on a par with global trends. The Great Southern Land, however, ranked 10th among all regions in terms of respondents who had attended a live music event in the past year (63 percent), down 5 percentage points on the global average and just ahead of Japan (51 percent).

Though it’s unclear just how Australia’s live industry performed last year (LPA’s 2017 Ticket Attendance and Revenue Survey is due out any day now), our live music fans report being “one of the most affluent regions, globally, of live music goers,” the LN study finds.

“They are also one of the only groups of live music goers (along with Germany and Canada) who aren’t more affluent than sports event goers, although the difference is nominal (+5 percent for sports event goers),” the report boasts.

Also, Australia’s Millennial live music goers appear to be “an amplified version” of their global counterparts, the number revealing they are likely than most live music-going folks of their age to seek breadth of experience, depth of experience and they’re more likely to plan for the occasion.

Download Festival Australia stage

The findings of the report “prove that live music is more important now than ever before,” notes Roger Field, CEO of Live Nation Australasia, “with fans in Australia and around the world believing live music is one of the most powerful human experiences and one of the best ways to cure digital overload.”

Its results, adds Field, “are consistent with the growing demand for concerts and festivals that we see locally and around the world.”

The Power of Live was conducted in partnership with research agency Culture Co-op. Jump in here.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.