Can superstars still rely on fans who spent on concerts like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé did last year?

Can superstars still rely on fans who spent on concerts like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé did last year?

Taylor Swift and Beyoncé are raising serious concert money in 2023. This year, Swift continues her legacy tour and other pop stars like Olivia Rodrigo and Bad Bunny will take the stage as Americans are expected to continue spending on live music — albeit at a slower pace compared to last year.

Americans are spending big on concerts in 2023, selling out major stadiums and boosting hotel revenues. That’s impressive, given that inflation has risen and interest rates are at their highest level in two decades.

While there’s evidence of a slight slowdown this year, (ticket sales for the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival are slower, joining other festivals that have seen similar sales declines, according to Billboard), it’s unlikely there’s going to be a sharp pullback anytime soon. .

The broader US economy is expected to remain strong through 2024, with Federal Reserve officials expecting it to continue growing and unemployment to remain low (but higher), according to their latest economic projections.

This means fans will have the disposable income needed to snap up concert tickets as employers continue to increase jobs and workers continue to achieve good wage growth, according to economists There is also a long-term trend of people focusing their spending more on experiences, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic kept fans stuck at home for over a year. Demand for concerts remains robust and experts say musicians are taking advantage.

“With a strong job market and economy, consumers can continue to spend on these tours — and there’s certainly still demand,” Liz Anderson, content strategist at job site Appcast, said in a statement to CNN. “And today’s biggest artists are successful businessmen supported by a large team of advisors. They’re not stupid – they look at the numbers and know when to take advantage of high demand.”

Don’t fans need to recover financially first?
Tickets to see Taylor Swift and Beyoncé last year weren’t cheap. That means plenty of fans are likely to break the bank in 2023 to see either (or both) of those two artists — in addition to other touring acts last year like Bruce Springsteen and Coldplay.

It stands to reason that they may need to sit outside and save some money or pay their cards first before attending another expensive concert. Not to mention that inflation has continued to affect people’s budgets in recent years.Beyoncé released “Cowboy Carter” on March 29, her eighth studio album featuring 27 songs rooted in country music. Unsurprisingly, the album’s songs have already seen massive success, breaking streaming records and topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The pop icon has yet to announce a tour to promote the album, but some fans have already started speculating about X, joking that he really will have to wait until next year. According to Fed surveys, consumers have indeed become more price sensitive in recent months.

Swift released her eleventh studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on Friday, and it surpassed Beyoncé’s streaming record in just a few hours, becoming Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day in 2024. Swift’s latest set of music has been released ” album double,” which consists of 15 additional songs.

But the economy is still doing well and fans who might not have had enough dough last year to attend one of Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour shows, can afford tickets to see their favorite stars live now.

Consumer spending is powered by the job market, and US consumers won’t stop spending on concerts unless they absolutely have to because they’re laid off or employers stop hiring, economists say. Neither has happened and no recession has occurred.

Experienced user spending
The United States is one of the richest countries in the world, as measured by gross domestic product per capita, according to the latest projections from the International Monetary Fund. It’s a trend that’s been in the works for decades, raising the nation’s standard of living, which is the main reason why Americans have enough income to spend on experiences in the first place. to the middle class to the point where there’s more disposable income being spent on experiences,” said Pawan Joshi, senior vice president of product and strategy at business software company E2open.

“We will grow at a more moderate pace, but I would say the resilience and desire to keep doing what we do will always drive us to attend these events and create more ways to entertain ourselves,” he added. .

Shutdowns during the pandemic and Americans who may have given up saving for expensive down payments to buy a home, amid a persistently unaffordable housing market, could also contribute to rising savvy consumer spending.

“This pandemic is causing a permanent change in choices, especially for the younger generation. People used to make bucket lists of what they wanted to do in retirement, but now they’re saying ‘why wait until retirement?’” Jeanelle Johnson, partner and co-head of the travel, transportation and hospitality sector at PricewaterhouseCoopers, previously told CNN.