A lot of changes happened in 2021 for live events. With material shortages and shipping constraints, artists reduced the size of their product lines when going on tour. We take a deeper look into how it impacted their Gross Sales.
The TL;DR section:
1. The average artist product line declined from 17 to 13 items (a 24% decrease)
2. The average Gross Merchandise Sales per show increased +33% from 2019
3. 3 items make up 61% of sales in 2021, up from 50% in 2019
4. Artists with 15 or more items in their product line averaged a lower $/head than artists with fewer items at 5-10K capacity venues
The average number of items an artist brings on tour went down 25% in 2021 from 2019.
Does a smaller product line negatively impact an artist's Gross Merchandise Sales? No.
In 2021 the average $/head was $8.47 compared to $5.54 in 2019. Even with 1/4 less items, artists made +54% more money per show in 2021.
In our Year In Review we share that 61% of Gross Merchandise Sales comes from 3 items, up from 50% in 2019.
Do those 3 items make up the majority of an artist's gross sales regardless of the product line size?
Yes. We break out how many items make up majority of sales based on the number of items in a product line.
Now that we've established that only a few items make up the majority of your sales, does a larger product line increase your $/head?
No. Looking at the 5-10K capacity grouping as an example, artists with fewer items had a higher average $/head than those with 15 or more items. We see the same trend for all capacity groupings under 20K. For 20K+ events, the $/head were consistent
Larger product lines don't guarantee you make more money. Remember that when planning for your upcoming tour!