Spanish Ticket Sales Reach All Time High

Spain’s promoters association APM today, March 12, unveiled its annual yearbook containing the figures live music generated in 2024.

According to APM, revenue from live music ticket sales reached €725,609,673 ($790 million), which marks a 25.32% increase compared to 2023 (€578,995,737).

APM offers a breakdown of geographical regions, with the Community of Madrid leading the ranking, having contributed €185,370,550 ($202 million) to the tally, almost double the amount generated in 2023 (plus 96%). The autonomous community was therefore responsible for 25.55% of Spain’s overall live music revenues.

Catalonia ranks second with €138,577,703 ($151 million) generated, a slight decrease of 9.16% compared to 2023, making up 19.11% of the country’s turnover. Andalusia in third place reached €116,157,215 ($127 million) in 2024, growing by 21.34% compared to 2023 and representing 16.01% of the country’s total ticket sales.

In terms of the main cities, Madrid ranks first, with a total turnover of €185,370,550 ($202 million), followed by Barcelona with €113,488,811 ($124 million), which represents 81.9% of the total turnover of Catalonia. It’s also a decline of 14.37% compared to 2023. Ranking third is Seville with €35,399,042 ($38.6 million), a 61.08% increase compared to 2023, making up 30.48% of the total ticket sales generated in the Community of Andalusia.

A Most Favorable Climate For Live – Business In Spain Is ‘Muy Fenomenal’

The top 10 national tours, according to APM, are Melendi (41 concerts, 501,197 attendees, promoted by Riff Music); Estopa (25 concerts, 376,805 attendees, promoted by Heredia / various promoters); Robe (37 concerts, 280,901 attendees, promoted by The Project, Get In, RIFF, The Music Republic, Dromedario Records); the tour by the contestants of the 2023 edition of famous Spanish talent show Operación Triunfo (10 concerts, 143,023 attendees, promoted by GTS and Concert Tour); Rozalén (47 concerts, 84,640 attendees, promoted by RLM / various promoters); Pablo López :(37 concerts, 77,581 attendees, promoted by GTS); David Bisbal (12 concerts, 74,352 attendees, promoted by GTS); Malú (41 concerts, 72,091 attendees, promoted by Riff Music); SFDK (3 concerts, 69,040 attendees, promoted by MONOPROD/Green Cow Music/various promoters); and Manuel Carrasco (1 concert, 65,103 attendees, promoted by Riff Music).

Some highlights from Melendi’s tour, taken from the Pollstar Boxoffice, include two sold out gigs at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, Dec. 13-14, 2024, selling a total 32,114 tickets, grossing $1,872,688; and a sold-out Dec. 5 performance at the Navarra Arena, where he moved 13,238 tickets at a €641,368 gross.

The top 3 international tours of 2024 were Bruce Springsteen, promoted by Doctor Music, selling 275,885 tickets across five sold-out shows in Spain; Karol G, promoted by Live Nation, selling out the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium four times, selling 219,943 tickets; and Luis Miguel, promoted by Iglesias Entertainment, who sold 203,114 tickets across 12 concerts. “It is worth highlighting the presence of two Spanish-speaking artists in the top 3,” APM writes in a summary on the association’s website.

Bruce Springsteen performed three times at Madrid’s Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano, June 14-16, 2024, selling a total 161,379 tickets at a $16,950,250 gross, according to the boxoffice reports submitted to Pollstar; followed by two performances at Barcelona’s Estadi Olimpic De Montjuic “Lluis Companys”, moving a total 115,504 for $12,059,456.

When we spoke with Doctor Music CEO Neo Sala for our annual Spain Focus in summer of 2024, he touched on Bruce Springsteen’s three shows in Madrid and two in Barcelona, saying that if you added the two shows he played in Barcelona in 2023, he sold more than 350,000 tickets in a 14-month period. “An absolute record in Spain,” Sala said.

Pollstar also spoke with Riff Music president Chris Ortiz, who said the volume in the country was just insane: “If you have a show that’s hard to defend, you need to get out early, because people’s schedules are completely packed. We had a show in Seville with Melendi last night, an arena of 18,000 people, his biggest show ever in Seville, and probably twice the business he did on his previous visit. The night before, there were 50,000 people in the stadium watching ESTOPA, another Spanish band, which has a very similar fan base to Melendi. Five years ago, having those two shows on the same weekend would mean that both would have suffered. Now we’re here, and they’re both sold out, both acts doing record numbers. One on a Saturday night, one on Sunday night, same weekend in a city that is not Madrid or Barcelona.”

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