Is music nostalgia really dead as new acts out-ticket established artists?

While all of 2024’s live act talk may be of Oasis, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan hitting the road to hoover up anything that affluent middle-class stop-at-homes have set aside for one last blowout, it seems that the real hot ticketing action lies with younger, more active artists. 

And with revenue from recorded and streamed music evaporating, younger, more socially active performers are willing to put in the increasingly hard work and work ever harder on lucrative live shows.

The new research comes from ticket vendor StubHub UK and suggests that demand for older music is in rapid decline. And they’re even willing to put a number on it. On the day that Apple has released its 2024 Apple Music Replay playlists and we prepare for Spotify’s Wrapped to do likewise, it seems that the demand for tickets by “older, established artists” has fallen from nearly a third (28%) in 2022-to-23 to less than a fifth (19%) in the last year.

Traditionally it’s been rock acts that have held the most live attention but in 2023 Stubhub placed pop acts ahead, with popstars occupying 30% of the top 100 live act slots. And the same is set to repeat in 2024’s figures with a third of tickets sold going to pop acts, making that genre the number one draw for gig-goers.

This compares to 25% rock, 15% hip-hop/rap and 10% R&B. Other genres, such as alternative rock, indie pop and electronic, make up the remaining 20%. 

And within the realm of pop there’s even visible subsections of the audience with “digital native”, non-traditional acts such as KSI outperforming more ‘established’ pop megastars taking the more traditional record company route, such as Billie Eilish, Robbie Williams and Niall Horan. 

Increasingly social stars are able to adopt music as an ‘easy’ revenue stream but then can only make good on their apparent success by making live appearances.

The data effectively reveals that unless you’re willing to slide into socials in a regular and career constructive manner (and then hit the road endlessly to make good on your appeal) you can pretty much forget it as an artist as consumers increasingly lean towards TikTok’s rising stars for their musical fix. 

And with StubHub UK themselves working hard to make the frequently gnarly business of buying tickets and attending shows as seamless and digital-friendly as possible (with a money back guarantee if anything goes array) younger gig attendees, driven by socials and looking to meet their new heroes, are on the rise.

StubHub’s trends analysts say: “It's clear that live pop experiences are delivering for UK fans at the moment. Some of the biggest names in live entertainment, such as Sabrina Carpenter and Dua Lipa are all touring next year and we’re expecting to see a lot of movement leading up to those events.

"What’s more, with the likes of Charlie XCX still performing shows for before the end of this year, there’s plenty of opportunities for pop fans to grab those last-minute tickets for a spontaneous night out.”