As aging musicians gradually exit the stage, few younger acts can consistently fill larger venues the way their predecessors could.It's not that young listeners aren't going to shows. About 8% of people aged 18 to 29 said they go to a concert once a month, more than any other age group, according to a Rasmussen survey from earlier this year. But considering how many young fans acquire and listen to music, the music seems to have less sticking power. For instance, 70% of the music obtained by 13-to-24-year-olds isn't paid for; instead, it's pulled from peer-to-peer networks, or ripped and copied from friends, according to the NPD Group. "They get so much free content, a lot of it they don't really value," says NPD entertainment analyst Russ Crupnick.
"Sticking Power" is subjective, but the one thing this article fails to mention is how well small acts are doing. The only thing going on here is that ticket sales are being dispersed out to smaller venues as people's music tastes are shifting from x number of huge acts fed to them to x^x number of acts that they now can get for free. They end up liking a piece of the free and go to see the live shows of those artists. The only problem for the big acts is that it isn't necessarily the big acts they go see. I would much rather pay $25 with 1000 other people than $75 with 10,000 other people. The delta of my enjoyment between the two events is minimal except for a select small group of big name artists. The smaller band in a smaller venue wins every time. The reason you are not seeing this with a lot of the acts that they mention (Jonas, Swift, etc) is that most of the acts draw crowds under 18 years old, which cannot get into many of the smaller venues that have age requirements.
It is an awesome time in music.
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The concert business, a lone bright spot in the struggling music industry, is in trouble this summer. A tale of bad backs, canceled acts and angry fans. Plus: A guide to discount tickets.
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