You Can’t Kill Rock ‘N’ Roll

jrockbridge

jrockbridge

Stealing Your Riffs
Based on tour revenues, the popularity of rock, and heavy metal, live shows are strong. Rock accounted for 30.2% of the Top 100 tour grosses in 2025.

Some examples….

Coldplay - 2025 gross earnings $464.9 million.
Imagine Dragons - $241.6 million.
*I thought Imagine Dragons were Pop.*
Iron Maiden - $150.9 million.
Linkin Park - $150.6 million.
The Eagles - $150.3 million.
Bruce Springsteen - $124.8 million.
Paul McCartney - $104.5 million.
Guns ‘N’ Roses - $95.6 million.

Metallica gross earnings $517.5 million from their 2024 through 2025 live concert tour.

Dead & Company grossed $131.4 million in their 2024 residency at the Las Vegas Sphere.

Of those bands, I’ve only seen the Dead, Metallica and Iron Maiden live. I don’t care to see the rest on that list. However, I am encouraged that live rock music continues to survive. I just hope the younger acts can take over and keep it going.

 
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They were discussing this on the morning radio during my commute last week. Outside of a few arena pop tours (e.g. Taylor Swift, Beyonce, etc), the majority of touring revenue was from bands like you mentioned. For my money, I have no interest in shelling out a few hundred bucks to see someone way past their prime in a giant stadium from the nosebleed seats when there are so many new artists that I can see in intimate venues for $60 or less, typically.

The Eagles residence at the Vegas Sphere, for instance, start at $450 for side stage and go to over $3,000 for center stage...and Glenn Frey isn't even part of the band because he's passed on. I don't get it, but to each their own I suppose. :shrug:
 
*I thought Imagine Dragons were Pop.*

That could be said of others on that list. To me, the Eagles and Paul McCartney are much more pop than rock. But this is the problem with trying to shove things into boxes.
 
jrockbridge said:
*I thought Imagine Dragons were Pop.*
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They're in that inbetween... Pop fans would say Imagine Dragons are a Rock band, where as Rock and Metal fans would say they're Pop.

Honestly, I remember a time where bands like Van Halen and Bon Jovi were like that.... Rock and Metal fans would use qualifiers like "bubblegum-rock" and even the term "Hair Metal" was kind of derogatory as to not pollute the ranks of "REAL" Rock n Roll. :helper:
 
shoeless said:
They were discussing this on the morning radio during my commute last week. Outside of a few arena pop tours (e.g. Taylor Swift, Beyonce, etc), the majority of touring revenue was from bands like you mentioned. For my money, I have no interest in shelling out a few hundred bucks to see someone way past their prime in a giant stadium from the nosebleed seats when there are so many new artists that I can see in intimate venues for $60 or less, typically.

The Eagles residence at the Vegas Sphere, for instance, start at $450 for side stage and go to over $3,000 for center stage...and Glenn Frey isn't even part of the band because he's passed on. I don't get it, but to each their own I suppose. :shrug:
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I get what you're saying, and the Sphere thing is just bizonkers, but the wife and I did spend a bit of money to go to the Rancid/SP/Green Day show at Oracle Park a while back. Yeah, we were in the nosebleeds, yeah, it was the 20th and 30th anniversary of American Idiot and Dookie, but it was still a good time and it was a FULL stadium. But it was kind of a bucket list thing for us, and I can't really see doing it again as the only other major band I'd want to see live is, well, disbanded.
 
Punchy said:
I get what you're saying, and the Sphere thing is just bizonkers, but the wife and I did spend a bit of money to go to the Rancid/SP/Green Day show at Oracle Park a while back. Yeah, we were in the nosebleeds, yeah, it was the 20th and 30th anniversary of American Idiot and Dookie, but it was still a good time and it was a FULL stadium. But it was kind of a bucket list thing for us, and I can't really see doing it again as the only other major band I'd want to see live is, well, disbanded.
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Yeah, if it's a band you really want to see, and they were a major act, you really have no choice but to do that. Gotta see them where they play, and where they play isn't small venues.

Back to the OP. I'd like to see where current country bands land on the touring revenue chart. I'm guessing they're not far behind.
 
I was lucky enough to attend two "bucket list" concerts just before the pandemic; Donovan and Graham Nash, I paid $55 to see Donovan, about seven rows from the stage. As I recall, the ticket for Nash was maybe a little less; I was in the balcony only because I was late in getting a ticket. I will not spend a fortune for a show. A local brewery has been scheduling some good concerts, but tickets for an outdoor event run about $150 with a $37 parking charge. :annoyed:
 
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shoeless said:
They were discussing this on the morning radio during my commute last week. Outside of a few arena pop tours (e.g. Taylor Swift, Beyonce, etc), the majority of touring revenue was from bands like you mentioned. For my money, I have no interest in shelling out a few hundred bucks to see someone way past their prime in a giant stadium from the nosebleed seats when there are so many new artists that I can see in intimate venues for $60 or less, typically.

The Eagles residence at the Vegas Sphere, for instance, start at $450 for side stage and go to over $3,000 for center stage...and Glenn Frey isn't even part of the band because he's passed on. I don't get it, but to each their own I suppose. :shrug:
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This.
And it's not just "new" artists.
For example in the past 2-3 months I've caught both Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives and Don Was & The Pan Detroit Ensemble in a small theater 10 miles from my house for $50-$60. I'm regretting missing Billy Strings last month at.a local amphitheater for around the same money just because I was lazy and didnt wanna deal with the crowd.
 
Live rap music accounted for 7.7% of the top grossing100 live tours in 2025.

Oasis generated gross revenue of more than 405 million from their 2025 tour.

Beyoncé had gross revenue of 407.6 million for her Cowboy Carter tour in 2025.

Apparently, nobody knows the gross revenue that Taylor Swift generated between 2023 to 2024 for the Eros tour. The figure is estimated to be north of 2 billion dollars.
 
Well, hip hop has never been a great live draw and heritage acts milking the olds for megabucks is an established rock and roll tradition at this point.

I’m guessing the overall haul and profitability for young/new bands not doing greatest hits VIP super expensive bullshit is way less impressive.
 
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