Raise in ticket prices brings US live sector recovery

Following the tough time the US live sector endured in 2010, a hike in ticket prices has brought about signs of recovery, CMU has reported.

Trade magazine Pollstar is reporting that the top five 50 tours in the US have generated 11 per cent more revenue in the first half of 2011 than the equivalent tours did in 2010.

However, the rise has occurred in spite of a 2.1 per cent drop in ticket sales, indicating that the rise is coming from an increase in prices. This creates an interesting point, considering the speculation that 2010’s sales slump was a result of increased ticket prices.Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni said: "It’s possible that much of this is driven by artists playing smaller venues at higher prices or better artist packaging, which increases show costs but offers fans a better value for their ticket dollar."