Concerts in the US make $8.49 billion yearly

Making a living as a musician is hard until it isn’t. Just getting started, you’re not really going to make anything. You can monetize your streams and try to sell some merch, or perhaps make some cash doing a sponsored post on Instagram. Beginning your career as a musician will be slow, and you’re going to have to work hard in order to make a living for yourself. While it will be a challenge, the bright side is that as a musician, there is a well established, multi-billion dollar market to tap into for a living, once you can market yourself as a credible musical artist.

Getting started playing shows at the local farmers market or open mic, you’re not going to make a killing. Sure you’ll make $50 here or there, or maybe even $100 and some drink tickets if your event organizer is generous. In order to make a sustainable living though, you have to figure out a way to break into the live events and concert marketplace.

Luckily for you as a musician, there is an extremely reliable industry of live events, festivals and concerts to try and break into. You just have to figure out your way in. According to Statista, “revenue in the Music Events segment is projected to reach US$8.49bn in 2022. Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate of 9.49%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$13.36bn by 2027.”

This statistic is all inclusive of every level of music event in the United States. Getting booked at a festival? That revenue is counted in the total. Playing your first small theatre show in Chicago? That revenue is counted in the total. Did you make it big and now play stadium shows? That revenue is included in the $8.49 billion total.

While $8.49 billion can maybe seem like a small number when considering the sheer amount of musical acts that are out there, there is absolutely enough room to breakout.

The current record holder for best selling tour, which is a series of concert dates over a period of time, is Taylor Swift. “Between May 8 and October 6, Swift performed 38 dates across the country. Those shows were enough to gross $266.1 million on ticket sales of over 2 million. It's the highest-grossing U.S. tour since Billboard Boxscore began tracking touring data three decades ago,” as reported by Forbes.

In the year that Taylor Swift set the record for highest grossing concert tour in the history of US tours, she actually would have only represented around 3.1% of all ticket sales for that year. The falloff from the mega-stars like Taylor Swift is, well, swift. In 2021, the highest grossing tours were: The Rolling Stones — $115.5 million, Harry Styles — $86.7 million, Weezer/Fall Out Boy/Green Day — $67.3 million, Eagles “Hotel California Tour” —$59.2 million, Dead & Company — $50.2 million, Lou Bukis — $49.7 million, Guns N’ Roses — $47.3 million, Dave Matthews Band — $46 million, Phish — $44.4 million and the Jonas Brothers — $42.5 million.

In 2021, the cumulative total for the top ten best selling tours in the United States was $608.8, or only about 7.1% of that year’s total ticket sales in the US. That leaves around 92.9% of the $8.49 total, or $7,887,210,000 left for the rest of the musicians in the United States to split up amongst themselves. That’s a pretty good pot to split up.

As the frequency of and revenue from concerts and music events in the United States is only expected to increase in the coming years, it is safe to say that it is (and will likely always be) possible to make a living as a working musician. While it may be a far off goal to match the profile of a Taylor Swift, BTS or Grateful Dead, it is absolutely not impossible to figure out how to make a living for yourself by playing live music events and monetizing your music through streaming and merchandise. You just have to figure out your in. Start by playing whatever shows are accessible to you, build your resume, and rise up the ranks from farmers market to concert hall.