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The Wide World Of Promoters: Australia Takes 10 Spots On Pollstar’s Mid-Year Chart
Gary Miller/Getty Images – Just Flying In:
Twenty One Pilots’ “Bandito” tour hit Latin America, Europe and Australia before heading back to North America in May for another full tour leg.
Live Nation (which crossed the billion-dollar mark with $1,186,179,283 in gross ticket sales) and AEG Presents, unsurprisingly, take the No. 1 and 2 spots on Pollstar’s mid-year Top 100 Promoters ticket sales chart but, beyond that, the chart is very much a worldwide affair, with 41 promoters based outside of the U.S.
The promotion titans may be based in the U.S., but they conduct tons of international business themselves, with major attractions like U2 and Shawn Mendes scheduled to hit Australia and Asia later in 2019.
“Now artists can sell out stadiums in Milan or Cape Town and we needed to build a global business to service them,” Live Nation president and CEO Michael Rapino recently told Pollstar. “That’s been our consistent strategy then, today and still. As big as we are, we’re only a 30% market share of the global business,” Rapino said. “You’ll be hearing me talk about this global story and our pursuit of growing globally for the next five, six, seven years.”
In addition to promoting internationally, the big promoters continue to acquire and partner with regional players, a recent example being AEG Presents’ partnership with Australia’s Frontier Touring (No. 11).
The announcement of Frontier’s partnership with AEG came just weeks after rivals Michael Gudinski and Michael Chugg mended fences and re-formed their business ties.
Frontier was the highest-ranking Aussie promoter on the chart, with 727,625 tickets reported and a total gross of nearly $61.5 million.
Australia was well-represented on the chart with 10 promoters from the country making the Top 100, including Frontier, TEG Dainty (No. 17), Adrian Bohm Presents (No. 36), Chugg Entertainment (No. 37), Bluesfest Touring (No. 59), TEG Live (No. 65), Roundhouse Ent. Pty (No. 73), Illusive Presents (No. 78), Secret Sounds (No. 79), St. Jerome’s Laneway Fest. Pty (No. 84), and TEG Life Like Touring (No. 96). The three TEG companies listed share the name but operate as separate companies.
OCESA/CIE was the highest-ranking promoter based outside of the U.S., coming in at No. 3, with 2,431,999 tickets reported. The Mexican promotion giant handled business at Mexico City venues like Auditorio Nacional, Teatro Metropolitan, Palacio De Los Deportes and Foro Sol, as well as full tours from the likes of Chayanne, Timbiriche, and Luis Miguel as well as theatrical productions like “Mentiras,” “Hello Dolly,” and “Les Misérables.”
Semmel Concerts was the highest-ranking German promoter on the chart, coming in at No. 5 with 1,645,100 tickets reported so far.
Company founder Dieter Semmelmann was the subject of a Pollstar cover feature earlier this year, and he told Pollstar the unprecedented growth the industry is seeing likely won’t last forever.
“The productions are getting increasingly sophisticated and, in combination with the international tours, are jacking up ticket prices.”
Germany was generally well represented on the chart, with six promoters in total, including Semmel, FKP Scorpio (No. 16), Undercover (No. 63), C2 Concerts (No. 66), Contra Promotion (No. 74), and Dirk Becker Entertainment (No. 88).