Concerts are bigger and more expensive than ever

U2 had its 400-ton, 360-degree “Claw” stage that price $30 million. Girl Gaga’s 2013 live performance circuit concerned a looming five-story Gothic citadel. Taylor Swift’s ongoing Status stadium tour wants 52 semis and 30 flatbed vans simply to haul all of the gear. It isn’t followers’ creativeness that music excursions, notably ones placed on by the most important artists, are getting more lavish by the yr. For proof in laborious numbers, look no additional than the mid-year report Pollstar launched this week: The live performance firm discovered that the reside market’s 2018 mid-year gross is a record-setting $2.21 billion, up $240 million (12 p.c) from the earlier yr, and that common ticket costs are at a report excessive of $96.31. Followers are hungry for reside exhibits, and they’re keen to splurge on them. “The precipitous rise speaks to the trade’s aggressive pricing technique to higher meet demand and exclude the secondary market,” Pollstar famous, as nicely. However the hovering prices are additionally as a result of the truth that A-list live shows – which have been exploding in reputation as followers within the streaming period search more interactive connections with their favourite musicians – are now usually anticipated to be full-blown, Instagram-ready spectacles. For a more in-depth take a look at the way forward for main music excursions, Rolling Stone spoke to Ray Winker, CEO and design director of Stufish Leisure Architects, the agency that crafted the visible dreamscape for Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s present On the Run II tour. (The studio has additionally designed levels and units for the likes of U2, Madonna, Pink Floyd, the London and Beijing Olympics and Cirque du Soleil.) Jay-Z and Beyonce carry out at Coachella.Getty Photos Now that reside occasions are such a key, profitable trade for music – how have artists modified their strategy to live performance excursions? Do they offer them more thought than earlier than? By the trade’s personal admission, the way in which to earn cash within the day and age of streaming and downloads is for artists to go on tour. The demand is for artists to do one thing spectacular. The crowds are anticipating one thing fairly huge. In order that pushes the artist to consider touring in a more difficult approach. Within the late eighties and early nineties, touring was a promotional tour that bands used for brand new albums. It wasn’t the revenue heart that it’s now, the place bands don’t earn cash on CD gross sales – they accomplish that in touring and merchandising. Their core mission is to develop the fan base and get them to come back to an occasion that principally permits bands to make a enterprise out of their music. So what sorts of “spectacular” issues are we seeing on stage? And what’s going to we see more of? Everyone likes pyrotechnics. Individuals will all the time revert again to that know-how as a result of it’s only a great approach of celebrating one thing; it’s grand and thrilling. I don’t assume you may actually advance on that an excessive amount of, [other than] issues like making the timecode with the music completely exact. However what’s taking place a lot more on high of that’s viewers participation – like giving wristbands that are managed by the present and change colours and patterns with the present. I feel that pattern goes to extend with augmented actuality, as nicely. Followers downloading an app and holding it in opposition to the display screen to get an AR expertise with the band. However how loyal followers are going to be to AR, solely time will inform. Why is that? As a result of individuals are not content material with an expertise that creates a barrier between them and the expertise. They need to be a lot more immersed within the occasion. Individuals go to those exhibits to expertise one thing, and if there’s a sure distance between them and the artist, the hyperlink between the 2 will be severed fairly simply. So we’re all the time in search of methods to deliver the present nearer. What sorts of options accomplish that? Bigger and wider levels, for instance. Catwalks deeper into the home. In On the Run II, there’s a bridge that spans over the viewers’s heads – and Taylor Swift did that too, and in 1997 when the Rolling Stones did their [Bridges to Babylon] tour, there was a bridge hidden underneath the stage. These are issues that go down very nicely. Different huge adjustments are ones you may see within the know-how of engineering: bigger, brighter and cheaper. Why are exhibits getting grander within the first place? The need for people to be entertained – it’s a vital a part of how we specific ourselves. And leisure architects apply understandings from one trade to a different. For instance, light-weight façades, LED know-how: U2 went on tour a number of years in the past with the biggest display screen ever that created the backdrop to the band’s efficiency. That was revolutionary. You wouldn’t have discovered that scale of display screen anyplace. And now, it’s just about current in any metropolis heart all over the world. There’s direct tie-ins, [which is] how leisure structure works. What’s most completely different in regards to the set design for excursions immediately? Within the day and age of Instagram and Snapchat and all different social media, far more individuals know in regards to the present than the individuals truly sitting within the stadium. The “Instagram second” is a vital side of how we design issues. At the beginning of the On the Run II present, earlier than it’s even began, there will probably be 1000’s of pictures circulating on the web about the way it seems like. So a present not begins when the curtain rises. The present begins the second the primary particular person takes an image of it. Getting that second proper – ensuring the present seems spectacular and attractive earlier than it begins – is a problem you wouldn’t have considered, 10 years in the past. The present has to reside as much as expectations – but in addition to photographs. Sure, these days, you’re very minded to make the expertise mobile-friendly. As quickly because the doorways are open for the very first present, the thrill mounts. Individuals speak. Lots of people don’t even watch the present anymore – they movie the present and watch it on their telephones. That adjustments the way in which one thinks about design, fairly significantly. You possibly can’t underestimate the ability of creating positive a present seems good the second individuals stroll right into a stadium – it’s now as necessary because the present itself. 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