Pollstar Live! Panel Preview: Women Are Driving Live – How Female Artists, Fans & Data Are Defining The Business of Touring

Pollstar Live!, the world’s largest gathering of live entertainment professionals, returns to Los Angeles April 14-16 and will be held at Loews Hollywood Hotel. The three-day conference is a flagship event for Pollstar magazine with compelling keynotes, panels, roundtables and the Pollstar Awards, celebrating the best in the business, along with plenty of opportunities to network and engage in insightful discussions.

Pollstar Live! kicks off with Production Live!, the one-day companion conference that features panels on all topics related to staging live events, including lighting, video, stage management, sound technique, concert production, regulations, security and more.

Click these links for the Production Live! and the Pollstar Live! schedules. Register for Pollstar Live! here.

Moderator
Thayer Lavielle, Managing Director, The Collective

Speakers
Ali Harnell, President & Chief Strategy Officer, Live Nation Women, Live Nation Entertainment
Lydia Asrat, Founder & CEO, 10Q Management
Alisha Strother, Head of Fan Insights, Live Nation
Christy Castillo Butcher, SVP of Programming & Booking, SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater & Hollywood Park
Jonathan Morgul, VP of Music & Entertainment Partnerships & Experiential Marketing, American Express

Female artists are driving revenue concentration at the top-end of the live market and female fans are driving volume, velocity and premium dollars. Together, they are reshaping pricing, touring strategy and the economics of live music.

 Top female artists dominate ticket sales volume, including Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, whose “Cowboy Carter Tour” was Pollstar’s 2025 highest-grossing of the year. Produced by Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment and Live Nation, the tour grossed a staggering $407,600,113 on 1.6 million tickets sold. Though the run played only nine stadiums, it set more than two dozen touring records and offered a new, efficient mini-residency model for large-scale touring productions.

Equally impressive, female fans are outpacing males in ticket purchasing. Women purchase earlier and attend concerts and festivals in larger numbers. Women are not just a segment – they have emerged as the primary force. If future tour strategy is not built around females, the industry risks under-optimizing a tour and leaving potential revenue on the table.

Growth opportunity exists. As reported in Pollstar, Live Nation Entertainment hit a new benchmark in 2025 with annual revenues passing $25 billion for the first time, a 9% jump from a record-setting 2024.

And the box office impact of women will be felt for the foreseeable future. According to Nielsen research, by 2028, women will control 75% of discretionary (non-essential) spending globally.

Female-led demand supports higher base ticket prices and dynamic pricing. Premium tiers resonate with female audiences. Multi-night stadium residencies attract fans who are willing to travel and attend multiple shows. With social and fandom ecosystems – friend groups and shareability – amplifying the conversation designing a targeted approach to reach female consumers matters more than ever.

On this panel, live leaders offer current insights, proven strategies and actionable takeaways to harness the revenue-generating power of women – artists and fans – in this female-forward era of live entertainment.