Mid-Year 2024: Business Is Truly Global

It was Lucy Dickins who said, “the importance of international has become something of an industry mantra. There is certainly more globalization in the live music sector than ever before, and artists are taking advantage of it.

Wherever they want to go in their careers, we’ll ensure they get there.” Pollstar had reached out to WME’s global head of contemporary music for her 2024 Impact 50 honors earlier this month, and like most of the top execs on this year’s list, Dickins acknowledged the truly global nature of this industry.

The numbers of the world’s biggest promoter confirm it: Live Nation promoted 50% more international artists in its 2023 top 50 tours as compared to 2019, and this momentum isn’t about to cease in 2024. John Reid, president of Live Nation EMEA, told Pollstar, “We’ve had our biggest start to the year ever.” He confirmed what the U.S. biz is experiencing, namely “Latin, and country, and Americana genres gaining popularity right across Europe, as they have been for a while now. The fast growth of Latin music across Europe, without exception, presents us with a huge opportunity. I look forward to Karol G this summer on her sold out arena and stadium run.”

Karol G epitomizes the type of artist who can connect with fans globally no matter the language or background. She just sold out London’s O2 twice at press time, and was on her way to Paris for two sold-out Accor Arena performances. Her first-ever EU run will culminate in four concerts at the refurbished Santiago Bernabeu stadium in the Spanish capital of Madrid, July 20-24. But even on home turf, Karol G’s numbers are staggering. The Latin American trek of her “Mañana Será Bonito Tour” (Feb.–April) sold out every national stadium in the region multiple times. The LATAM leg alone sold 1,008,762 tickets across 27 shows, according to the Pollstar Boxoffice, grossing $111,296,660 in the process. That’s an average of 72,054 tickets and $7,949,761 gross per concert.

Then there’s country and Americana, which Reid described as “the new rock ‘n’ roll,” championed by “superstars in the making such as Benson Boone, and of course Morgan Wallen and Chris Stapleton, who we will see this summer as well.”

Wallen’s European dates include a headline show at BST Hyde Park in London, England. The AEG Presents event has gained a reputation for only picking the absolute cream of the crop of headliners each year, and it speaks volumes about the status Morgan Wallen enjoys overseas that he’s joined a lineup that includes Stevie Nicks, Shania Twain, Robbie Williams, Andrea Bocelli and more.

AEG Presents’ president, global touring, Rich Schaefer cited tours by Luke Combs, Zach Bryan and Kane Brown as highlights, when speaking to Pollstar for his Impact 50 honor, saying he was particularly “proud to see Kane Brown headline C2C this year, and see how that event has grown so significantly, as well as Kane and his team’s efforts to grow internationally.” Shaefer was referring to Country to Country Festival, which took place across London’s O2, Belfast’s SSE Arena, and Glasgow’s OVO Hydro the weekend of March 8-10. In the UK, AEG has partnered with SJM to grow C2C into the biggest celebration of country and Americana on the British Isles. In Germany, Semmel Concerts helped stage the event for the first time in 2019. It returned in 2024 following a three-year hiatus, taking over the space around Uber Arena in Berlin, and has already announced its 2025 dates.
With all of the above in mind, “it’s clear that live entertainment is still a top priority for fans everywhere. The sheer variety of live entertainment on offer makes it easier than ever to see up-and-coming acts, as well as your favorite stars, which means that there’s something to cater for everybody,” said Reid.

It allows artists and their teams to get creative when thinking about designing their own events, “whether that be in unique venues, new markets, live streams, or festivals around the world,” according to Dickins, who observes “an emergence of artist curated events that still has plenty of room to grow. It allows artists to control their own production and aesthetics while providing ways for fans to feel more connected and elevate their live event experience.”

Her client Adele is taking this approach to new heights, heading to Munich, Germany for her only European shows this year: a 10-date residency featuring a purpose-built 80,000-capacity stage on the city’s fairgrounds in August, promoted by Live Nation and Leutgeb Entertainment Group. Given the size of the stage and the capacity each night, it appears to be a whole new category of outdoor event. “This proves,” Reid concluded, “that we have a great opportunity to think creatively about our outdoor offering. The well-curated big camping festivals like Rock Werchter, Lowlands, and so on, go from strength to strength, and there’s growth too in city-based festivals which add to our portfolio.”