On Saturday, Harry Styles will hit the stage at Madison Square Garden as part of a tour for his chart-topping new album, Harry’s House.
And next Sunday he will play in the garden again. Also next Monday. At the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., Styles said he’ll be performing in October and he’ll have 15 more performances in November. The North American leg of the singer’s latest tour, which kicked off this week in Toronto, comprises his 42 shows in just five cities.
Styles’ tour is the most prominent example of the bubble trend of long-running concert residencies by artists in a limited number of cities and venues. In a recovering touring market, concert-hungry audiences are buying tickets in record numbers and paying higher prices than ever before. These reservations were deliberately chosen by the renowned artist to save travel time and set up shop in far fewer locations where possible. on a traditional tour.
Besides Styles, K-pop phenoms BTS and Mexican rock band Maná recently completed high-profile residencies. In Las Vegas, the place that arguably birthed the residency format, Adele kicked off her 32-day weekend engagement at Caesars Palace in November, while Katy Perry and Miranda Lambert are also due in the fall.
The reasons, according to talent agents and industry observers, include clever branding, protection of artists and crew during the pandemic, and sober calculations of financial efficiency. More concerts in fewer cities means fewer trucks on the streets and less bills everywhere.
These economic benefits are important at a time when gas prices are high and the concert industry has to contend with the same supply chain shortages that have hit other businesses, according to Billboard magazine. The media and meetings division of Oak View Group, which has covered ten years and now operates sports and entertainment venues around the world.
“Mathematics is challenging now,” said Waddell. “Tours will cost more, producing shows for everyone will cost more. At the same time, inflation will impact disposable income and force fans to make choices. It’s bad.” It’s a calculation.”
For artists like Adele, Harry Styles, and BTS, their huge fanbases seem to be in constant demand. But the model doesn’t translate well below the superstar level, agents say.
Of course, extended bookings are nothing new. Bruce Springsteen played his 10th at Giants Stadium in the summer of 2003. Prince played. 21 performances It took place in 2011 around Los Angeles, mostly at Forums. But the pandemic may have led to critical mass.
For artists and venues, the tour has made a much-needed return to full capacity this year. According to Pollstar, a trade magazine that tracks the concert industry, total ticket sales for his North American Top 100 tour in the first six months of 2022 will reach $1.7 billion, up from the same period in 2019. increased by 9%. The concert giant, who owns Ticketmaster, recently reported that the company sold his 100 millionth ticket for the full year, surpassing 2019.
On the streets and in venues filled with masked fans, the threat of Covid-19 remains, with occasional postponements and cancellations. A residency plan can limit the risk of exposure and also give artists a temporary break from the rigors of the road.In a recent Instagram post from a tour stop in Germany, Styles showed he was down ice bath(Stiles and his representative declined to comment for this article.)
The complexity of touring in the Covid-19 era was behind Mana’s decision to limit its shows in the US to the Forum. A national tour seemed daunting due to a tangle of regional health regulations across the country.
So they decided to stick with one spot in the Los Angeles area, the group’s largest global market. The band has already announced on the forum that he has played eight sold-out shows, amassed 110,000 fans, and has four more shows announced by October.
Mana’s lead singer Farr Olvera said, “We just wanted to get out and play with the fans.” I thought it was probably impossible.”
“After all that has happened in the last few years,” Olvera added.
The origins of the modern concert residency date back to 2003, when Celine Dion decided to set up in Las Vegas.
“It was a huge risk at the time. Everyone thought we were idiots,” said John Meglen of Concerts West, promoter of Dion, part of the AEG Live empire. “At the time, Vegas was like the end of your career. It was like, ‘Let’s die together.'”
But according to Pollstar, Dion’s two residencies have sold about $660 million in tickets for more than 1,100 shows. Dion’s involvement, and his two by Elton John, realigned the industry’s approach to Las Vegas, followed by residencies with Garth Brooks, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Drake, and many more. .
But a key artist in expanding residencies outside of Las Vegas was Billy Joel. Garden’s first “music franchiseIn late 2013, Joel began playing there monthly in 2014 and, except for a hiatus during the pandemic, never stopped. His 86th concert in the series was recently announced on December 19th.
Through his June show, The Garden Residency sold about $180 million in tickets. If the rest of his concerts for this year sell out — his every other night in the residency, fair bet — the cumulative total would be about $200 million.
“It’s basically the Super Bowl of music events,” said Dennis Alpha, Joel’s longtime booking agent. Joel has said he will keep the engagement going “as long as the demand continues” and there are no signs of calling it off.
For Alpha, the scale of contracts like Joel and Dion raises nomenclature issues. Do 15 shows over several weeks count as a ‘residency’ compared to 86 or 1,100? If not, what is it?
“The word residency is kind of indefinable,” says Arfa. “Now everything is a residency. People can do his four nights and call it a residency.
Whatever these are, they are likely to continue. Live Nation’s president of tours, Omar Al-joulani, said about 30 residency-type deals are expected in 2023.
But talent agents and music industry executives say these kinds of events aren’t going to replace full-scale touring as a way to meet demand and develop audiences. At the time of the announcement, former Ticketmaster CEO and longtime ticket sales executive Nathan Hubbard took to Twitter to declare the following strategy:the future of liveBut in a recent interview, he took a more nuanced look.
“This is not a new Touring model,” said Hubbard. “This doesn’t mean nobody goes to Louisville. In fact, most artists have to hit the market to find a market.”
And when a major venue announces bookings for its next block, what do we call it? Is it a residence or something else? Joel’s agent, Alpha, pointed to Stiles’ date in the garden.
“It’s an escape,” he said. “It’s a great run.”