Will Concert Ticket Sales Continue to Rise Despite Economic Woes?

StubHub, the online concert ticket site owned by eBay (EBAY), just released its annual concert ticket report on 2008 sales. It gives some interesting insight into the entertainment economy. Without a doubt, concert tickets are a consumer spending luxury, but the folks at concert promotor Live Nation (LYV) remind me that people only attend an average of one and a half concerts a year, so it's the kind of special occasion they may not cut back on.

The question is, in a consumer pullback, what do they keep spending on? StubHub is the world's largest ticket marketplace, where fans can both buy and sell tickets, a sort of an eBay for tickets. It sold tickets to 11,2200 concert events this year, with the gross dollar sales of concert tickets on the site up 40 percent from last year. Since there aren't 40 percent more concerts, that indicates that people are looking more to StubHub for deals, as opposed to going through the more traditional Ticketmaster (TKTM).

The average price of Tickets sold through StubHub was $159, up three bucks from the average price last year. Madonna's "Sticky & Sweet" tour was the highest grossing of the year, with an average ticket price at $306. The Jonas Brothers tour sold the most actual tickets in 2008, but the most successful tours were consistently the older artists.

For the third consecutive year, six of StubHub's top 10 selling tours of 2008 also toured 20 years ago or more: Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, AC/DC, Jimmy Buffett and Billy Joel. Not only are these musicians hugely popular, but their tickets are also hugely expensive, and their baby boomer fans pay up.

StubHub's report has an interesting note on the $100 ticket price benchmark. In its eight years monitoring this marketplace Stub Hub has established that the $100 price point is the true differentiator between established superstars and the rest of the industry. Artists who can bring in over $150 per ticket on average are largely what they call "veteran legacy acts."

The few notable exceptions were Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana), whose average ticket price was $209 and Disney's Jonas Brothers' whose aveage ticket selling price was $153. We always knew baby boomers will pay up, and aparently so will the parents of teen and tween girls. My big question is whether the overall price points will drop in 2008, and whether those differentiating price points for superstars and legacy stars will also take a fall.

Comments

[Jimmy Lathrop:]

Great article, Julia!

Hey CNBC, why don't we cut back on Charlie Gasparino's stream-of-consciousnes... alarmist redundant mumblings and give Ms. Boorstin more face time?

2008 Dec 13 01:09 PM

[Et tu, Brute!:]

Don't kid yourself. The Disney Franchise has already experienced a drop in attendance with the advent of the economic woes. If they're gonna cut back on their trips to Disneyland and Disney World, who in their right minds think they won't cut back on conusumer conert tickets?

2008 Dec 13 10:59 PM