“Live popular music saved the 2022 cultural year in Spain.” This is one of the most notable conclusions of the SGAE Yearbook of Performing, Musical and Audiovisual Arts 2023which has just been presented in Madrid by SGAE Foundation.
The Yearbook, which has been produced since 1999 and has become a reference for the cultural industry, offers useful tools to analyze the health of the sector and consumer habits in our country. The data collected in this new installment refers to 2022 and certifies that the field of live popular music – concerts, cycles and festivals – is the only one that has practically recovered the figures from before the pandemic, that is, from 2019. , with a spectacular growth of 51.4 percent compared to 2021.
Antonio Onetti, president of SGAE, Juan José Solana, president of Fundación SGAE and Rubén Gutiérrez del Castillo, general director of Fundación SGAE, participated in the presentation of the yearbook. The latter has described 2022 as “a year of recovery, although the ravages of the pandemic are still noticeable” and has demanded that the authorities make an effort “to reach previous levels.”
Still, live popular music is by far the healthiest segment of culture in Spain. The data says it. The 97,948 popular music concerts held in Spain in 2022 were attended by twice as many spectators – more than 24.6 million, adding the audience attending the festivals, almost 8 and a half million more than the previous year – and the promoters raised three times more: just over 228.3 million euros. No less than 111 million more than in 2021. Despite these spectacular growth, we are still quite far from the peak of 33 million viewers in 2008.
Although concert attendance was somewhat below that of 2019 (11.6 percent), the offer of shows increased by 7.5 percent. The data presented by Fundación SGAE certify the decisive weight that the live music sector has within the Spanish cultural fabric. And of all cultural industries, only income from popular music concerts exceeded those before the pandemic, specifically by more than ten percent.
More interesting figures: almost a quarter of musical events were held in Madrid, ahead of Andalusia (22.4 percent of the total) and Catalonia (almost 14 percent). In this sense, the ranking remains the same as previous years. On the negative side, Ceuta and Melilla, La Rioja, Extremadura and Cantabria are the regions where the fewest concerts are held. Pop-rock remains the dominant style, accounting for 78.3 percent. Flamenco is far behind (6.2 percent). A curious fact is that electronic music accounts for more than twelve percent of the concerts in Euskadi.
Regarding the most successful tours, the top 3 of 2021 were made up of Fito & Fitipaldis (329,820 spectators), Alejandro Sanz (almost 288,000) and Manuel Carrasco (260,809). Joan Manuel Serrat occupies fourth place: he gathered more than 230,000 spectators. Regarding international artists, Marc Anthony (163,124), Red Hot Chili Peppers (98,483) and Morat (97,434) were the top sellers. Andalusia accounted for 19 percent of attendance, with Madrid and Catalunya almost even in second and third place (18.5 and 18.4 respectively). In addition, urban areas concentrate almost 47 percent of live music attendance.
The yearbook also contemplates the evolution of the sale of recorded music. According to Promusicae figures, this segment continued a positive evolution that overcomes the deep pandemic downturn, earning 461.99 million euros: 12.4 percent above 2021. Almost 86 percent of these income were obtained in the digital market, fundamentally streaming. The rest corresponds to the sale of physical discs. Urban sounds clearly dominated the top of 2022: “A summer without you” of Bad Bunny was the best-selling album, followed by “Motomami” of Rosalia and “The Madrid native” of C. Tangana.
Both the Performing Arts, Cinema and Classical Music failed to reach the 2019 figures: what’s more, they are forty percent below what was billed in that year, a tremendously unfavorable figure that shows what it is costing. cultural industries return to full economic normality, after the harsh impact of the pandemic. And it highlights the merit that concerts and festivals of different popular music have returned almost to normal.
