Pollstar’s 2024 Year-End Executive Survey: Part One

For many in the live business, but not all, 2024 was another gangbuster year. For some segments, there were more tours playing more shows in more territories than ever before. Pollstar Boxoffice reports for the Top 100 tours for 2024 showed a greater volume of shows along with higher average ticket prices offsetting lower average attendances – which for many meant increased revenues, but more work. It wasn’t that way, however, for every segment of the industry. The market was softer, though inflation thankfully slowed, but interest rates remained relatively high and many businesses faced lower margins while some consumers felt more economically strapped. There were also more tours and festival cancellations than ever before for a variety of reasons, including softer ticket sales, severe weather conditions and health and well-being.

Participants

Eddie Clemens
Head of Music Tour Marketing, UTA

Bobby Dee
CEO & Founder, Bobby Dee Presents

Alex Hodges
CEO, Nederlander Presents

Randy Hutson
CEO Music & Live TV, PRG

Brent Fedrizzi, Melissa Ormond & Rich Schaefer
AEG Presents

Cara Lewis
Founder & CEO, Cara Lewis Presents

Jackie Nalpant
EVP and Managing Executive, Wasserman Music

Lesley Olenik
SVP Global Touring, Live Nation

Frank Riley
Founder and Agent, High Road Touring

Mitch Rose
Head of North American Music, CAA

James Rubin
Co-Head of Global Hip-Hop, WME

Jen Sandstrom
VP of Programming and Booking, SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater and Hollywood Park

Andrew Saunders
VP of Entertainment, Hard Rock Live

Mike Smardak
Founder, Co-CEO, Outback Presents

What tour, festival or show meant the most to you this year and why?

Eddie Clemens: Bad Bunny’s “Most Wanted Tour.” After the massive success of the “El Último Tour Del Mundo” in 2022 playing to stadium crowds across North and South America, it was amazing to be a part of taking a step down to more “intimate” arena venues and going to places that haven’t traditionally been strong Latin music markets like Tulsa, Oklahoma; New Orleans and Louisville Kentucky, among others. 

Bobby Dee: The “Fuerza Regida No Te Enamores” tour stood out for me this year. It was incredible to watch this young, dynamic Mexican regional band not only grow as musicians but also take on the role of savvy entrepreneurs. 

Alex Hodges: Of many meaningful tours, a standout tour for me was Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. 

Randy Hutson: One standout moment was the “SWEAT Tour” with Charli XCX and Troye Sivan. It showcased our ability to blend bold creative solutions with logistical expertise. 

Brent Fedrizzi: In response to the devastation of Hurricane Helene, Global Touring, along with partners WME, MakeWake and Q Prime, produced Concert For Carolina, headlined by Luke Combs and Eric Church, raising over $24.5 million towards local disaster relief. 

Cara Lewis: Travis Scott’s penultimate U.S. “Utopia Circus Maximus” tour stop at MetLife was nothing short of extraordinary. MetLife was supposed to play in the original routing for the first leg of “Utopia” in 2023 but didn’t work out due to venue availability.

Jackie Nalpant: I’m blessed with an amazing roster of artists, all of whom had great years, but if I had to pick a single moment it would have to be Chappell Roan’s performance at Lollapalooza in Chicago. She commanded one of the biggest-ever audiences at the festival; some of the drone shots of that massive crowd are literally jaw-dropping. She met the moment and delivered a legendary performance.

Lesley Olenik: 2024 has been full of amazing tours, but a few that really stand out for me are Charli xcx and Troye Sivan’s Sweat Tour, Billie Eilish’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR and Gracie Abrams’ The Secret Of Us Tour. The energy of Charli and Troye’s sold-out Sweat tour was unparalleled and became a cultural phenomenon. Billie keeps raising the bar with each tour—this is her first time performing in the round, her production has hit new levels, and she’s touring more markets than ever before. Gracie sold out her entire theater tour instantly and is already moving to arenas next year, showing her impressive growth as an artist and connection with her fans. Both Billie and Gracie’s sold-out tours will continue into 2025 with global legs, including Gracie’s first-time touring Asia, and Charli has already sold out a run of 2025 headline arena dates including 4 nights at Barclays Center.

Frank Riley: High Road had many successes in 2024 (thankfully !)…but the one with the longest, continuous run was Mitski. And that demonstrated to the world around us that an original artistic vision, executed well…was something to continue to aspire to.
Andrew Saunders: It was an exciting year for us as we opened new Hard Rock Live venues in Rockford, Illinois, and Bristol, Virginia, and are looking forward to opening the doors at Hard Rock Live in Ottawa, Ontario, towards the middle of 2025.

What was your business’s greatest success in 2024?

Dee: We doubled the number of shows we hosted compared to last year and sold out most of them. It was an incredible achievement and a testament to the hard work our team has put in.

Hodges: Opening a brand-new venue – The Backyard in Sacramento. We created a full-fledged venue out of an open unused space behind Rock & Brews restaurant at Cal Expo, booked seven shows in the first season and earned a Pollstar Award nomination for New Venue of the Year.

Melissa Ormond: More stadium shows than ever before with Luke Combs, Zach Bryan, Kane Brown, Journey/Def Leppard and ATEEZ.  I think our pricing strategy has paid off for the artists who have embraced platinum and dynamic pricing, cutting down secondary activity and earning more money for themselves.  Our approach of being very intentional with the festivals produced in 2024 was highly successful.  Overall, we had a strong year with many standouts including Stagecoach, Electric Forest, Buckeye Country Superfest, Portola and Camp Flog Gnaw.

Mitch Rose: As a department, CAA Music had our best year ever. We’ve been able to build on top of our incredible successes over the past few years and I don’t see an end in sight. We had so many great artists stepping into the next stage of their careers, like Sabrina Carpenter, Shaboozey, Charli XCX, Troye Sivan, etc. Next year we have a ton of acts touring that we’re really excited about – Gracie Abrams, Shane Gillis,  Post Malone, Jelly Roll and so much more.

James Rubin: Travis Scott’s “Circus Maximus” global tour. He broke so many records this year across so many levels – most tickets sold by a solo rapper ever, 1.7 million tickets across 76 dates, biggest merch takes at multiple stadiums across the globe, the list goes on and on.

Jen Sandstrom: SoFi Stadium’s greatest success this year was its ability to seamlessly program sports and music, hosting a variety of events, including international soccer matches and concerts by global artists. Strategic cross-promotions and programming further amplified this achievement.

Mike Smardak: 2024 has been an exciting year of growth for many of our touring comedians. Nate Bargatze embarked on his biggest arena tour yet, Bert Kreischer headlined another banner year for the “Fully Loaded Comedy Festival,” Leanne Morgan and Shane Gillis each headlined their first arena shows, Tony Hinchcliffe sold out two Madison Square Gardens with Kill Tony, and Nikki Glaser will eclipse 70,000 tickets sold this year alone.

What were the greatest challenges you faced?

Clemens: Managing the continued growth of volume in the live business. Trying to navigate the traffic of tours announcing, going on sale, and playing out while also putting together effective strategic marketing campaigns to drive success and ticket sales. 
Dee: Honestly, the biggest challenge was adjusting to the realities of selling out shows amid the current economic climate. It took a lot of flexibility and strategy to make sure we could still deliver while keeping consumer confidence high.

Hodges: The second half of the year presented challenges, with a greater-than-normal number of show cancellations. Economic pressures – rising energy and consumer costs, increased inventory creating buyer fatigue, election-year uncertainty, higher costs of traditional marketing, limited ad availability – and extreme weather like “heat domes” and “bomb cyclones,” created a difficult environment for our work. Additionally, new ticket transparency laws in California led to sticker shock for the consumer, further impacting the market. 

Rich Schaefer: Overpricing and overshooting on venues has been a problem for years, but, now that sales seem to be normalizing a bit, it’s more important than ever to play the right rooms at the right ticket price which of course affects fees. Other than the standard challenge of inflationary pressure, the weather is one of the biggest challenges we face on festivals.  We work very hard to mitigate the impact of weather-related evacuations to minimize the impact on artists and fans.

Nalpant: Keeping tickets out of the hands of scalpers and in the hands of actual fans.

Riley: The continuing issue of how money generated by touring artists is not fairly apportioned. Ticketing surcharges, facility management fees, house nuts, and the secondary market are all eating away at the vitality of original voices, and important music development.

How did your company adjust and/or innovate to market conditions that included some softer ticket sales, consumer price resistance, relatively high prices and interest rates, which in many instances meant lower margins?

Hodges: We worked through the challenges with increased vigilance and creativity in booking and marketing, repricing tickets, special offers, reconfiguring seating maps and seating locations, and even changing venues.

Hutson: While cancellations impacted the festival sector most significantly, we leaned into our global touring capabilities, which remain a core strength. Our international infrastructure enabled us to keep delivering for artists touring across continents, ensuring consistency and excellence no matter the region. This focus on global, long-term partnerships helped offset some of the disruptions.

Riley: By attempting to keep ticket prices relatively reasonable and to implement whatever programs available to keep tickets out of the secondary market.

Sandstrom: SoFi Stadium and YouTube Theater are well-positioned to service the evolving concertgoer looking for more options, especially premium offerings and experiences.  

Saunders: Frankly we haven’t felt any notable change in the demand for our shows – we believe this is due in part to the strength of the markets that we operate in, but also due to the nature of putting high-level artists in “underplay” situations which is something we pride ourselves on.

There were many show, tour and festival cancellations this year. How did you deal with them and how did they impact your business?

Hodges: Like many promoters, we experienced a greater-than-normal number of show cancellations. That fact noted, we saved many shows and mitigated losses with tactics like re-pricing, scaling down shows, working with artists and venues to adjust show costs, and offering additional amenities to enhance the consumer experience. 

Fedrizzi: Canceling tours is tough on our team and no one likes doing it, from both a morale and financial perspective.  We will always place the physical and mental health of artists and their teams ahead of anything else and in the cases where we had to cancel for those reasons, we roll with the punches and support them.  When canceling for other reasons, we work closely with the artists’ teams to make sure it’s handled in the best possible way for them.  We only want our clients to appear in the best possible light. Again, our intentional approach to festivals (talent, pricing, operations, experiential elements) in 2024 in the U.S. and overseas paid off.  We fortunately didn’t have any cancellations.

Lewis: It is unfortunate how many shows came down in Q4. I think at some point everyone including agents and buyers felt bulletproof based on the success of the first half of the year. We were lucky as our tours went up early and did well this year.

Rose: Everything is handled on a case-by-case basis, every tour is unique and what makes us so good at our jobs is that we’re able to work with our clients individually to handle their touring plans in the best possible way. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when you’re working in the live business but we’ve been very fortunate to have way more artists having extremely successful tours over the past year than the other way around.

Sandstrom: We were fortunate to not experience cancellations this year. However, we did observe a slight reduction in the velocity of sellouts and more late-buying trends. 

The globalization of the live business these days is seeming more important than ever. How did that impact your business in terms of your operations, exporting U.S. shows and/or having international acts here?

Dee: International markets have been a big win for us this year. We’ve had great success with cross-border shows, especially with artists from Latin America. The crossover appeal of these acts has expanded our reach significantly.
Hodges: Overall, it’s been very positive for us. In terms of globalization, we expanded our foothold in the J-pop and K-pop genres with artists like ADO, Hatsune Miku, Flow, aespa, Katseye, ZEROBASEONE, Agnez Mo, and Lauv. Additionally, our Latin business remains strong. 

Hutson: PRG thrives in a globalized live industry. Our worldwide footprint, with offices and teams across six continents, allows us to act locally while delivering globally. For example, supporting Linkin Park’s comeback tour – spanning Los Angeles, Hamburg, Paris, London, and South America – showcased our ability to seamlessly operate in every region. This adaptability has become a cornerstone of our success.

Nalpant: One of the biggest changes that has impacted all corners of the business is music being released globally at the same time instead of staggered across territories. You used to have to work off different release dates across multiple territories, which made building a global presence more complicated. Now, the simultaneous global release of music where everyone hears it at the same time makes it easier to build community at scale and increases your flexibility in scheduling tours. 

Olenik: With offices around the world and boots on the ground in major markets, we’re well-equipped to navigate the complexities of global touring. Our infrastructure allows us to manage operations, introducing new artists to the U.S., and expand U.S. artists into new markets worldwide. 

Riley: There is nothing easy about touring, and it is even more complicated with the increased fees and hurdles from immigration. We have tried to work with our international artists to plot out even further in advance so we have as much time as possible to ensure success.

Smardak: We were thrilled to have Christine Melko-Ross join the company as SVP of Global Operations this year. Christine will lead our Canadian operations and oversee our international business development and expansion strategy; her efforts will help grow our business internationally and in Canada, and will also introduce new opportunities for international artists to our touring model.

We are increasingly a data-driven business, with AI becoming ubiquitous. How have you seen data evolve this year and how has it impacted your decision making?

Dee: Data has become an essential tool for us. We’ve used analytics not just to optimize our shows but to refine our overall business strategy. It’s helped us make smarter decisions about everything from pricing to marketing and beyond.
Hutson: The integration of data and AI has refined how our clients approach planning and operations. AI-driven insights are enabling optimized routing for tours and real-time analysis of show needs, which minimizes waste and maximizes efficiency. Additionally, AI tools have enhanced pre-visualization workflows, giving artists and creatives a clear picture of their designs early in the process, saving time and resources.

Nalpant: I use data as a tool, but not as my guiding force. That comes from my gut and many years of experience. Data is just one tool in the toolbox.

Sandstrom: This year, we’ve witnessed a significant evolution in data, with a greater emphasis on real-time insights and predictive analytics. AI has been instrumental in unlocking the potential of this data, allowing us to identify trends, make data-driven forecasts, and optimize our operations. This data-driven approach has empowered us to make more informed and timely decisions, ultimately driving business growth and success.

Smardak: Data is only impactful if you know how to use it; it doesn’t matter how much data you have, it’s how the data is interpreted. 

If you had to sum up your 2024 in  24 words, what would you say?

Clemens: 2024 was an incredibly exciting, challenging, and inspiring year with continued self-growth, learning, and appreciation to be working with incredible clients, partners, and colleagues. 

Dee: Despite a challenging economic environment, as an independent promoter, I’ve broken records and achieved far more than I ever expected – and we’re just getting started.

Hodges: It started off strong, followed by a mid-summer downturn and challenges, but also opportunities as we got creative, wrapping the year with an uptick.

Hutson: 2024 was a year of adaptation and innovation, focusing on rising artists, global collaboration, and refining tools to shape the future of live entertainment.

Lewis: Live music is truly the heart of the entertainment industry. It is an honor and a privilege to facilitate a fan’s ultimate concert experience.

Looking to 2025, what are your predictions for the year ahead?

Clemens: I expect there to be continued growth in the live business with more artists touring on a global level. It’ll be more important than ever for fans to understand their audiences on a market-by-market level.

Hodges: We’re optimistic. As an independent promoter, we have more shows booked and more pending offers in more buildings than at this time last year. Early sales are even stronger than last year. 

Hutson: We anticipate 2025 will bring renewed energy in arena and stadium tours as major artists hit the road. With evolving technologies and renewed focus on sustainability, the industry will prioritize efficiency and eco-conscious solutions, which aligns with PRG’s commitment to innovation.

Lewis: I think business will continue to flourish but will need to be more intentional. We are always excited about creating new strategic opportunities in touring – tours, stadiums, festivals, one-offs, residencies.

Olenik: We’ll continue to see artists exploring new markets, as well as more growth from female artists with incredible women-led teams. We’ve already announced a huge slate of tours for next year, and many of the artists I work with are set to launch legs in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe/UK, as well as North America. Billie Eilish, Gracie Abrams and NIKI will all be touring internationally, Charli xcx is playing arenas and festivals, FINNEAS’ headline world tour kicks off in January – and much more to come in the new year.

Riley: More weather-related problems. More battles about how money is apportioned.