Efe Madrid

Madrid

Updated Friday, March 22, 2024-12:12

  • Music Madrid, the supercapital of concerts: "Things are happening that we have never seen before"

The concert and festival sector in Spain obtained its highest historical turnover record in 2023 with

almost 579 million euros

, which represents an increase of 26% compared to the previous year, according to figures taken from the

Live Music Yearbook

presented this Friday.

This industry thus once again breaks the "record" of 459 million raised in its previous year and has chained a constant cycle of growth since 2014 (173.5 million), with the exception of the dry stop during the years of the pandemic.

"We do not believe that there is a bubble and we think, on the contrary, that there is still a long way to go. Live music has become a form of leisure and access to culture that has become normalized compared to 10 years ago and the sector is evolving rapidly. organic and progressive year after year," said

Albert Salmerón

, president of the

Association of Music Promoters

(

APM

), responsible for the yearbook.

By region, the first places in ticket sales turnover were for

Madrid

,

Andalusia

and, at the head of all,

Catalonia

, which hosted many stadium concerts such as those of

Coldplay

,

Bruce Springsteen

or

Beyoncé

and accumulates 26.35% of the national billing.

Salmerón has pointed to these large international tours as largely responsible for the 2023 figures. "Last year was unique, because many events accumulated after the years of the pandemic stoppage and we thought that there could still be a drop in ticket sales. , but it wasn't like that," he celebrated.

As EL MUNDO already reported in an extensive report last October, so many people have never attended so many concerts in Spain, and Madrid has become the new epicenter, after displacing Catalonia, a position that the renovated Bernabéu will reinforce in 2024.

"Ticket sales in Madrid skyrocketed in 2022 until reaching a historical record in turnover, which exceeded that of 2019 by almost 50%, the year before the pandemic and the best up to that moment,"

Neo Sala

, CEO , revealed then.

and founder of the promoter

Doctor Music

.

On the not so positive side, Salmerón recalled this Friday that

"not all tickets sell so easily

. "

"The concert halls above all are suffering and there is work to do there, because they are also our laboratory, our R&D," he stressed.

In his appearance, he stated the "future challenges" of that sector, which involve achieving "tax deductions that are comparable to the audiovisual sector so that there is no comparative grievance", "minimizing the impact" of the resale of tickets after approval in the European Parliament of the

Digital Services Law

and the creation of a

Music Institute

or other body that represents them from the public administration.

The highest grossing

The most successful national artist live was

Manuel Carrasco

, who brought together more than 365,000 people in 28 concerts, ahead of

Melendi

(308,000 spectators in 37 concerts),

Joaquín Sabina

(253,800 in 31 dates),

Marea

(178,500 in 25 ) and

Men G

(160,000 in 19).

Coldplay

was the locomotive in the field of international stars, with 4 concerts and more than 221,000 attendees, followed by

Harry Styles

(about 120,000 in two "shows" in Spain) and

Bruce Springsteen

(115,850 in two other concerts in the country). The

top 5

was completed by

The Weeknd

(105,600 in 2 performances) and

Morat

(97,300 in 13).

Marenostrum Fuengirola

, in Malaga, was the series with the highest attendance (about 189,000 attendees in 33 concert evenings), followed by Madrid's

Noches del Botánico

(more than 152,000 in 45) and Murcia's

Las Noches del Malecón

(131,000 in 44 concerts).

In terms of festivals,

Arenal Sound

brought together 300,000 people in six days, ahead of

Primavera Sound Barcelona

(243,000 in 5 days) and

Viña Rock

, in the Albacete town of Villarobledo (240,000 in 4).

The three days of

Mad Cool 2023

brought together 202,000 people in the capital in the year of its change of location, while the four days of the

Bèniccasim International Festival

(

FIB

), in Castellón, attracted 180,000.

The

top 10

was completed by

Primavera Sound Madrid

(150,000 in 3 days),

O Son Do Camiño

in Santiago de Compostela (134,000 in 3 days),

Resurrection Festival

in the Galician town of Viveiro (132,500) and, in Barcelona,

​​Sónar Festival

(120,000 in 3 days) and

Cruïlla

(76,000 in 4 days).