There are a variety of music superstars and bands that tour all over the world and entertain millions of fans wherever they go. There are male and female solo artists and male and female bands that attract large audiences in every venue they travel to across the globe.
Rarely are different generations of music artists compared. When discussing Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and One Direction, wouldn’t it be fun to compare them to some of the classic acts like U2, the Rolling Stones and AC/DC?
Ticketbis, an international ticket reseller, studied the ticket trends and other metrics for these musicians and provided information to compare some of the greatest musical acts the world has to offer. First, it is worthy to note who the target audience is for each artist, in order to get a better sense of the fans who help make them global icons.
It may come as no surprise that over 70% of Justin Bieber, One Direction, and Miley Cyrus fans are female (70.8%, 76.4%, 77.7%, respectively). Comparing that to rock band heavyweights U2, Rolling Stones, and AC/DC, shows some interesting insights. All three bands’ fan audiences is close to 50% male, much higher than the pop stars of today. This suggests that the shift in popular music genre from rock and roll to pop has attracted more of a female audience. Fans who buy U2 tickets are 52% female, where Rolling Stones has 52.3% male and AC/DC’s has the biggest percentage of male fans, with 53.8%.
Complimentary to the gender of the artists’ fans is the age range of their audiences. Ticketbis created the infographic below that shows the fan profiles of these artists, along with ticket sales which is explained below the image.
Diving into ticket sales data, although the teen sensations (Justin Bieber, One Direction, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift) have more total sales on Ticketbis than the veteran acts (U2, Rolling Stones, AC/DC), 8,258 sales compared to 5,732 sales since 2010, the veteran acts have a much higher percentage of international sales, suggesting a more global audience.
From his world tours, Justin Bieber has 3.88% of international sales. One Direction has 5.57% of international sales; Miley Cyrus has 3.77% of international sales and Taylor Swift has 14.29% of international sales.
AC/DC has the most sales come from international countries outside of the event with 33.85%, followed by Rolling Stones with 28.04%, and U2 with 22.63%. Comparatively, the teen sensations sell the majority of their tickets in the country in which the event is. Taylor Swift has the highest of the bunch with 14.29% of sales being international, followed by One Direction with 5.57%, Justin Bieber with 3.88%, and lastly Miley Cyrus with 3.77%.
For the veteran bands, tours are few and far between as time ticks on, which may be a factor in a larger percentage of international sales as it may be one of the last times they can be seen in a certain location. With American culture being the way it is where you can see almost anything at any instant, perhaps international fans of teen idols are watching these shows on the Internet rather than attending it live. As for the older age group with greater disposable income, they more easily can spend their money on traveling to see one of the veteran bands perform.
