In 2022 concerts and live events returned to a new normal, with venues opening at full capacity and all artists able to get back on the road. In a recent post we share how although $/head normalized in 2022, fan interest in merchandise remains at an all time high. In this post we take a deeper look into why that

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Last year we shared that the average percentage of fans purchasing merchandise jumped up from 11% in 2019 to 19%. Was that jump just a byproduct of all the unique challenges and changes in 2021 or is it a new normal?

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The quick answer? It isn't simply a byproduct. Fan interest in merchandise has remained at 19% throughout 2022, continuing to be almost double that of 2019.

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% of Fans Buy Concert Merchandise

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Just a few reasons for the jump from 2019 to 2021 are:

• larger 'big' name artists playing in smaller venues driving their more devoted fans to the venue
• product supply chain issues caused limited runs of product lines and reduced availability and quantities in many scenarios making them more valuable
• fan interest in wanting to support artists/bands after not seeing them for 2+ years on tour

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With big name artists playing in their respective capacity venues and product supply chain issues being resolved what remains for why the % of fans buying merchandise remaining consistent rather than normalizing could be as simple as fan interest has grown.

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% of All Shows Broken Down by Attendance Grouping

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When we break it down by attendance grouping we can see the small and mid cap numbers normalize as 'big name artists' shift back to their respective grouping.

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As we close out 2022 we will be sharing our Year In Review insights for the full year in January, going into more detail across all areas of concert merchandise including fan interest and breaking it down by genre so stay tuned!

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