Since the end of the Covid pandemic, which has brought the world and culture to a standstill, a new surge in the fees of big headliners and productions has alarmed, or even risks jeopardizing, an entire ecosystem.
Explosion of the stamps of the Anglo-Saxon headliners
Astronomical figures are now articulated for certain Anglo-Saxon stars, who would not perform at less than 700,000 to 750,000 francs, while other international artists would start at 300,000-400,000 francs.
The bar of one million francs would even be crossed more regularly for certain young superstars, like Billie Eilish for example. The prices of French-speaking headliners have also gone up, often reaching between 150,000 and 200,000 francs, against 80,000 francs at the time.
American singer Billie Ellish in concert in Bogota in March 2023. [Daniel Garzon Herazo – NurPhoto via AFP]
All the festivals and concert organizers obviously deplore these vertiginous increases, in the United States as in Europe. Old Plowsthe biggest French festival located in Carhaix in Brittany, a sort of Paléo, but with 70,000 people per evening (double that of Nyon), believes that this endangers many structures.
Its director, Jérome Trehorel, hoped to see these repetitive explosions of stamps disappear after the brief post-Covid truce in 2021 “where the artists had agreed to financial efforts to perform on stage again. This unfortunately creates even greater gaps between medium-sized festivals that can no longer access certain artists, and even for the biggest festivals, depending on their economic model or legal structure, they can no longer take the risk of programming certain artists, because they do not have the guarantee of sale of tickets necessary to balance their accounts”.
The live market could represent 38 billion dollars in 2030
In any case, the concert market has gained in economic weight in recent years. According to the investment bank Goldman Sachs, the live market in 2023 represents nearly 30 billion dollars (29.1), but could increase to more than 38 billion dollars in 2030. While concerts for a band on tour represent between 33% and 75% of their income.
The current inflationary context is very special because it is also fueled by an impressive increase in the costs of all service providers: transport (rental of coaches, semi-trailers), accommodation, security, technical, sound and light, video devices including artists love it. These costs have been multiplied by two or even three on certain items.
Chez Work Oneone of the two main producers of concerts and shows in French-speaking Switzerland, director Vincent Sager unequivocally admits the strong impact of the increase in fees and production costs on ticket prices: “We had to deal with necessary increases in ticket prices to compensate for increases in charges or fees, which moreover often hide increases in charges. Prices have been raised by 10 to 20% depending on the artistic projects”.
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Adaptation of the artistic budgets of certain festivals
Faced with these increases, some festivals have had to make artistic sacrifices or, on the contrary, increase their budget envelope dedicated to programming. This is particularly the case of Paleo Festival. In order not to raise the price of its tickets this year and to offer a range of concerts as extensive as before, the head of programming Jacques Monnier indicates that Paléo has agreed to increase its artistic budget by around 12.5%, to 4, 5 million francs (about one-sixth of the overall budget). The arrival of the acclaimed Spanish singer Rosalía among others should probably not be for nothing.
Spanish singer Rosalía on stage in Las Vegas on November 17, 2022. [KEVIN WINTER – Getty Images via AFP]
Old Plows have the same pricing policy and do not want to increase the price of the ticket, even if they propose this year an additional evening with a concert of the Red Hot Chili Peppers a little more expensive and some notable headliners (Blur, Robbie Williams and Rosalía) who pushed them to increase their artistic envelope to 6 million euros exceptionally, against 4.5 to 5 million usually.
Au Montreux Jazz Festival, the artistic budget was not increased this year. Director Mathieu Jaton nevertheless admits recording additional accommodation and hotel costs of some 200,000 francs. A situation which is partly due to the fact that artists also wish to stay several days on the Vaud Riviera. If the increase in fees has also been felt there, it is the soaring production costs which is especially underlined by Mathieu Jaton. He indirectly indicates a slight increase in prices of around 3% this summer on the price of tickets, which is between 88 and 455 francs per evening for a Bob Dylan exclusively in Switzerland and reduced seating capacity of 1500 places at the ‘Stravinsky Auditorium.
Bob Dylan will give a concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival this summer. [Domenech Castello – Keystone]
Widespread and Dangerous Upward Spiral
Another aspect of the soaring fees is that some agents would hold the knife by the handle and raise the stakes in Europe due to increased competition between festivals. Some artists would have even doubled their fees, according to Jacques Monnier of Paleo Festival.
As such, Sébastien Vuignier, director of Thanks Production, a booking and concert promotion agency in Switzerland which runs bands like Muse, Amy Macdonald, Radiohead, Nick Cave, Arctic Monkeys, but also many developing Anglo-Saxon artists here, clearly sees a generalized upward spiral, both on the side of the cachets than of the ticket prices. “There is an ever-increasing pressure on costs which also concerns the fees of the artists who tour. They therefore have pressure to have an increase in revenue. Which forces us to drive up ticket prices, because “we have to manage to make consistent budgets and cover both their growing costs and our local costs. But in the end, it’s the spectator who pays the bill. In our case, we make margins on the big gigs that kind of pay for our investments in developing artists.”
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Risks of overheating
On the side ofWork One, we point out above all in the short and medium term a risk of overheating in the current inflationary context which would not be good for anyone. In any case, that’s what Vincent Sager thinks: “We have a real feeling of overheating in the artists’ inclinations to tour. The requests for reservations and room availability for 2024 are phenomenal, stronger than ever. There will be even more artists on the road than in 2023. For us as for our colleagues, we will have to be careful not to want to do everything and not to give in to an excess of enthusiasm. offer of concerts and shows that the public will not be able to absorb”.
This overheating also induces a surge in ticket prices that is not healthy at all, according to Jérome Trehorel of the festival Old Plows. “The fees should be calibrated to the sales capacities of an artist on such and such a festival and territory. Unfortunately, it does not work that way and we end up with financial requirements completely disconnected from reality. In view of many prices of tickets today, the concert has become an inaccessible luxury product.”
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