Multi-Hyphenates: A Look At Out-Of-The-Way Markets Punching Above Their Weight

The top of the annual Concert Market Rankings rarely change much. New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago and Boston shuffle around, rarely letting any upstarts shoulder their way into the top five.

It makes sense: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are the country’s three largest media markets; Vegas is the entertainment capital of the world and Boston is the center of gravity in New England.

Most of the list more or less mirrors market size. Vegas, Austin and Nashville punch above their weight, but none of that is surprising, given that trio’s collective importance in live music. 

Deeper into the rankings, markets emerge with names that sound suspiciously like a conductor’s calls of upcoming stations.

“Albany! Schenectady! Troy!”

“Harrisburg! Lancaster! Lebanon! York!”

“Johnstown! Altoona! State College!”

“Fort Smith! Fayetteville! Springdale! Rogers!”

As the last two examples — which include the homes of Penn State and the University of Arkansas, respectively — show, markets in the great beyond benefit from the inclusion of major college towns, which come pre-installed with music-hungry undergrads and sizable arenas and stadiums, which draw major artists even if, on a surface level, the population wouldn’t justify a visit and that can help a market overperform.

Take Missoula, Montana (its market name comes unhyphenated). 

It has a population of 77,000 or so, but it’s home to the University of Montana and, importantly, the school’s Washington-Grizzly Stadium. Missoula jumped an impressive 27 spots in the CMR this year, up to 66. And three shows in one week in August — headlined by P!NK, Tyler Childers and Pearl Jam — accounted for more than $13 million of the roughly $19 million reported gross. The big shows grab the headlines but Missoula was also bolstered by a steady club and theater schedule, headed up by the venerable 1,500-cap Wilma Theatre, which drew acts as varied as Canadian country-folk favorite Corb Lund and prog-metal stalwarts Queensrÿche.

That’s illustrative of what these small metros and micropolises offer the industry. 

Though besmirched as places that are merely on the way from somewhere else, that can be a boon. Playing Pittsburgh and Toronto? Why not add a stop in Albany and gross $566,242 on 8,247 tickets at the New York capital’s MVP Arena, as The Postal Service did on its 2024 tour?

Smaller, heavily-punctuated markets still have arenas and stadiums, though as minor-league towns, they’ll be smaller. And often they have historic theaters which have survived precisely because they haven’t been muscled out by the moneyed modern venues that have made times tough on legacy clubs (see page 4). 

And when summertime comes, the cheap and plentiful open land on the outskirts means amphitheaters, as the top-debuting Springfield, Missouri, market demonstrates with its new Thunder Ridge Nature Arena (see page 32), proof a new venue can change everything.

For baby bands, the Hyphen Circuit provides valuable experience away from the prying eyes of the major coastal metros. For the eternally-touring established acts who seemingly never leave the road, there’s a chance to sell tickets without risk of violating a radius clause.

These markets will fluctuate wildly on the rankings year-to-year, particularly if they draw (or don’t) a major act for a one-off. The Johnstown-Altoona-State College market, for example, leapt 24 spots entirely on the back of one Luke Combs show at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium which accounted for almost 70% of the market’s total gross. But even without the marquee doorbusters, they also prove an important point: live is everywhere because the appetite for it is universal and the Hyphen Circuit plays a critical role in the ecosystem.