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Singers’ concerts are always full of excitement. Which singer’s concert are you most looking forward to seeing?

Since the beginning of this year, hot searches about concerts have been coming one after another.

From Mayday's 10 consecutive concerts, Andy Lau's hard-to-get tickets, Phoenix Legend's "military training" concert, to Xiao Jingteng's recent crying after seeing a fan's marriage proposal, and Xue Zhiqian's final concert tour... the liveliness of the concert market can be seen. Especially in the summer vacation, the density of concerts has further increased, and the music performance market has also shown a continued active trend.

Data from Lighthouse Professional Edition shows that as of August 22, the box office revenue from music performances in 2024 has reached 11.954 billion yuan, while in 2023, the annual box office revenue from music performances was 10.787 billion yuan. Among them, concerts, as the main force in the box office of the music performance market, naturally made an indelible contribution.

According to the data in the "China Concert Report in the First Half of 2024" released by Daolue Music Industry Research Institute, in the first half of 2024 alone, a total of 1,182 concerts were held nationwide, of which 874 were 3,000 seats or more. In the same period of 2023, the number of concerts with 3,000 seats or more was only 203, more than three times the same period last year. According to the data given by Lighthouse Professional Edition, in May this year, the domestic music performance box office increased significantly. Entering the summer vacation, the music performance market is still continuing the trend of high density and high output. The music performance box office in June and July has reached more than 2 billion. From August to date, the music performance market has produced 1.9 billion box office, which is expected to set a new monthly box office high.

Amid the ongoing concert craze and the prosperous scene of concerts opening one after another in major venues, the busiest people are the organizers behind the scenes. As the box office continues to rise, the organizers have also ushered in a moment of "making a lot of money".

Chinese Culture and Performing Arts took up most of the market share

Among the group of artists holding concerts, singers from Hong Kong and Taiwan account for a large proportion, including many top singers such as Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Mayday, and JJ Lin. Behind their concerts, most of them cannot avoid the figure of Chinese Culture Performing Arts.

China Media Group is a large performing arts company focused on the music performance market. Its founder, Li Ruigang, is also the chairman of China Media Group. With the backing of China Media Group's influence, China Media Group has abundant resources in hosting large-scale concerts.

Since the beginning of this year, Jacky Cheung's 60+ Tour, Mayday's "Back to That Day" 25th Anniversary Tour, and G.E.M.'s "I AM GLORIA" World Tour have all been hosted by Chinese Culture Performing Arts. Among them, according to the average ticket price, the cumulative box office revenue of Mayday's 10 consecutive concerts at the Bird's Nest alone is expected to reach more than 300 million yuan. The total box office revenue of the music performance market that month reached a peak of 2.6 billion yuan, and Mayday contributed a lot. Similarly, Jacky Cheung has also held multiple concerts in multiple locations this year, and the box office revenue of his nearly 30 concerts is expected to be in the range of 800 million to 1 billion yuan.

It is important to understand that, in general, the organizer enjoys the ticketing rights for the concert. In addition to paying the artist's appearance fee, venue rental, stage construction, ticketing platform cooperation and other costs, the box office revenue belongs to the organizer. However, in recent years, with the increase in the activity of the concert market, concerts of top artists like this are mostly profitable. According to the data in the "2023 Large-scale Commercial Performance Market Trends and Characteristics Analysis" jointly released by the China Performance Industry Association and Lighthouse Professional Edition, in 2023, large-scale concerts with a single box office of more than 10 million will account for 39%.

Therefore, most artists or management companies will participate in the box office revenue sharing as producers or co-hosts. For example, Mayday’s management company, Believe in Music, is also one of the organizers of its concerts. When the interests of artists, management companies, and organizers converge, holding multiple concerts in a row helps to spread costs and expand the space for sponsorship and peripheral product sales. This year, many artists have held multiple concerts in the same venue, and the root cause is to maximize profits.

In this process, top artists mostly go for the concert tour model, and whether they can cover enough stops across the country is a test of the strength of the organizer. This is also why Chinese Culture Performing Arts is able to undertake concerts of many Hong Kong and Taiwan artists.

As early as when it was established in 2018, Chinese Culture Performing Arts had gathered 21 companies in many provinces and cities across the country that could undertake large-scale concerts. Through the data of Qichacha, the organizer of Deng Ziqi's Changsha Station, Hunan Daokang Cultural Communication Co., Ltd., the organizer of the Xiamen Station of artists such as JJ Lin and Richie Jen, and Beijing Huale Feifan Cultural Communication Co., Ltd., the organizer of Mayday's Beijing Station, etc., after equity penetration, their controlling parties are all Chinese Culture Performing Arts. As of now, Chinese Culture Performing Arts has nearly 40 companies controlled by it across the country.

It can be seen that it is not an easy task to undertake the national tour of some artists. In addition to cooperating with companies such as Chinese Culture Performing Arts, some Hong Kong and Taiwan artists who enter the mainland market to hold concerts will also choose to be authorized or led by the artists and their management companies, and cooperate with local organizers to complete the work.

For example, in addition to the organizer ROCKET CITY, each stop of Andy Lau's 2024 China mainland tour has different on-site organizers. Shanghai Xixin Culture, Chongqing Performing Arts Co., Ltd., etc. are all organizers of concerts at different stops.

This model is also a way to promote the rapid implementation of large-scale concerts, but the disadvantage is that it is difficult for the general organizer to coordinate the organizers in various places. Previously, when Jay Chou's Carnival Concert landed in Fuzhou, the local organizer of Fuzhou, Fujian Zhongshi Communication Co., Ltd., was accused of "being ugly" for charging a 30% ticket refund fee. This also reflects from one aspect that compared with various revenue channels such as box office, sponsorship, and peripheral products, the income of the organizer is more linked to the box office of the single concert it hosts, and the income space is relatively limited.

Mainland singers' concerts are held in more diverse ways

In contrast, mainland singers have similarities and differences with Hong Kong and Taiwan artists in holding concerts. The similarity is that the organizers also control the ticketing rights and the revenue methods are basically the same. The difference is that mainland artists often have close relationships with the organizers.

Not long ago, Xue Zhiqian's "Alien" tour (2021-2024) came to an end in Suzhou. The concert went through 61 cities, a total of 140 shows, with a total of 4.9 million spectators. According to the estimated box office scale of 20-25 million per show, the box office is expected to be between 2.8 billion and 3.5 billion. Among them, 49 shows will be held in 2024 alone, and the corresponding box office is expected to be around 1-1.3 billion.

It is worth noting that the organizer of Xue Zhiqian's "Alien" tour, Chaoshi Music, has a close relationship with Xue Zhiqian. According to Qichacha information, Chaoshi Music's corporate group covers 6 companies, among which Beijing Chaoshi Music Technology Co., Ltd. is a core member. The actual controller of the company, Liu Pingqi, is a famous music producer and a partner of Xue Zhiqian for many years. The two have collaborated on many popular songs such as "Actor" and "I think I've seen you somewhere". In addition, the company's second largest shareholder, Xue Liangyuan, is Xue Zhiqian's father, holding 33% of the shares.

Beijing Chaoshi Music Technology Co., Ltd. shareholder information

Therefore, Xue Zhiqian's "Alien" tour can be said to be directly managed by the company behind him. The advantages of this are also obvious. The revenue generated by the concert can be returned to his own pocket to a greater extent. At the same time, reducing the participation of third-party organizers can also largely regain ticketing rights and reduce the possibility of "black box operations" in ticket sales.

There are also many collaborations with familiar circles. After the integration and reorganization, Taihe Music has gradually begun to undertake some large-scale concerts based on the performance experience of the Wheatfield Music Festival. This year, in addition to hosting some concerts of Cyndi Wang, the 2024 "Breathing Wild" tour concert of its artist Xu Song is also hosted by Taihe Music.

Behind Phoenix Legend's "Good Luck" 2024 Tour, its organizer, Luopan Culture founder Xue Liping (deceased), and Phoenix Legend lead singer Linghua's husband Xu Mingchao, are also partners. Both are founders of Ji Chuang Yinli. So far, including the official concerts, Phoenix Legend will have about 16 concerts this year. Based on the estimated box office of 20 million per show, the box office is expected to exceed 300 million.

Not only that, Luopan Culture has gradually established its foothold by managing many of Wang Feng's concerts. In addition to Phoenix Legend, Zhang Jie's "Wei LIVE To 1982" tour and Wang Sulong's 2024 "100,000 Volts" tour are also hosted by Luopan Culture.

In addition, platforms like Damai, which act as general ticket agents for many concerts, are also further expanding their business lines.In addition to the upcoming self-produced IP Anaya Xiami Music Festival, its subsidiaries Xiami Music Entertainment and Mailive have appeared as producers, organizers or co-organizers behind a number of projects including Karen Mok's concert, Zhao Lei's concert, Liu Yu's concert, Lu Hu's concert, and Hatsune Miku's concert.

At the same time, many artists will cooperate with the organizers in the name of their studios, such as Zhou Shen Studio, Lu Han Studio, Hua Chenyu Studio, etc., all of which participate in their respective concerts as producers or organizers. Previously, Beijing Times Cube Culture, as the organizer of Zhou Shen's concert, revealed that Zhou Shen's 9.29Hz Tour Concert in Chengdu attracted 34,471 spectators and had a box office revenue of approximately 29.8 million. Based on this calculation, Zhou Shen has a total of 13 concerts that have been held/scheduled in 2024, and the box office is expected to be around 400 million.

Overall, in the concert market, especially the more profitable concert market for top artists, the game between artists, management companies, and organizers continues. Right now, the music performance market is gaining momentum, and the capital bureau behind it is also brewing a new wave.

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