Concerts sound low note
By Steve Jones, USA TODAY
Prince, Madonna, Usher and Jimmy Buffet were the big winners on tour this summer, playing to sell-out crowds and often rave reviews.

Not even Madonna and Prince could outsell the maestro of Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett.
By Mark Osler, Rocky Mountain News via AP

But overall concert business was down from last year with cancellations, high ticket prices and a saturated market contributing to the decline.

The industry lost potential drawing cards even before the season started. Britney Spears, Marc Anthony, Christina Aguilera and Lenny Kravitz dropped out, and Lollapalooza pulled the plug due the poor ticket sales.

Consumers proved to be choosy with their entertainment dollar, especially with tickets averaging nearly $60. Many venues offered deep last-minute discounts in an attempt to fill houses.

Madonna emerged relatively unscathed as fans paid as much as $300 for her Re-Invention tour, which pulled in $124.5 million.

Prince, whose Musicology tour was his first nationwide trek in six years, charged about $80 a seat, but a copy of his new album came with each ticket.

Buffet, as usual, attracted his loyal legions to his License to Chill tour, while Usher's Confessions tour confirmed the R&B singer's emergence as a crossover superstar.

Package tours such as the long-running Vans Warped Tour and Ozzfest did well this summer by continuing to cater to their niches.

Lollapalooza was going for a more diverse lineup and failed to attract interest.

"Warped is really a phenomenon," says Billboard's Ray Waddell. "They are the best value on the road where you get 50 or 60 bands for about $20. Like Ozzfest, they really know their target market. Lollapalooza tried to field a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and fans didn't respond because a Morrissey fan doesn't necessarily care about String Cheese Incident."

Waddell says that country music — led by Kenny Chesney who played to near capacity crowds all summer — proved to be one of the strongest touring genres as Shania Twain, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson and Martina McBride all did excellent business.

The Dave Mathews Band, Phil Collins and Eric Clapton proved to be reliable headliners as did Hilary Duff, who did surprisingly well.

Josh Groban, a breakout headliner over the winter, may have made the step up to larger capacity arenas a little too soon. The same could be said for Norah Jones, whose intimate style plays better in smaller venues.

The American Idol Live Tour — led by Fantasia and Diana DeGarmo — sold about 58% of its tickets and met with much less enthusiasm than previous editions featuring Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini or Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken.

"Sometimes these franchises just run their course," Waddell says. "What you're dealing with are acts that never really toured at all, and all of sudden you put them out in an arena. That's asking a lot."

But with the glut of shows available, several more experienced acts also had trouble moving tickets, including Linkin Park, Nickelback, Jewel, Rush, Chicago and Earth Wind & Fire. Kiss did even worse, playing to half empty houses.

"Kiss may have rang that farewell tour bell one too many times," says Waddell. "There were only two originals. And how many times can you go to the well without offering something new and different."



Some summer tours found their groove
Apart from tours by a handful of artists such as Prince and Madonna, the road was tough on musicians this summer. How selected artists fared between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, ranked by how well they filled available seats.

(Reflects U.S. concerts May 28 to Sept. 6. Includes shows artist played as headliner; package tours, radio station festivals not included. percentage based on attendance and venue capacity reported in Billboard Boxscore.
The hottest tickets
Artist Seats sold Average attendance per show
Jimmy Buffett 100% 26,702
Prince 100% 15,969
Madonna 100% 13,884
Usher 100% 12,059
Kenny Chesney 99% 15,613
Phish 98% 24,243
Dave
Matthews Band 94% 20,739
Vans Warped Tour 91% 14,729
Shania Twain 90% 13,384
Tim McGraw 90% 12,934
Source: Billboard Boxscore; USA TODAY analysis by Anthony DeBarros. Cooler reception
Artist Seats sold Average attendance per show
Jessica Simpson 41% 6,404
The Cure 43% 8,205
Barenaked Ladies/ Alanis Morrissette 44% 7,372
Kiss 49% 8,444
Norah Jones 52% 5,663
Chicago/ Earth Wind & Fire 55% 8,893
American Idols Live 57% 5,007
John Mayer/ Maroon 5 59% 11,497
Incubus 63% 6,631
Josh Groban 64% 10,994

Will such lightning strike twice for the man if and when he decides to tour again? Will he ever go to the rest of the world on Musicology? time will tell, but it's cool to see that he came in second place, even with MADDD's tour going head to head with him. I wonder what's in the Kool- Aid of the Parrot Heads???

UncleGrandpa said:

i would like to know how many fewer shows Jimmy Buffett played this summer than Prince ..his album came out late in the summer so im sure he played far fewer shows than Prince and that would explain his high average

USAToday forgot to mention that Prince grossed around 100million in the US

madonna did 79.5mil in US

So if u compare apples to apples he is #1


i am sure after he is done with europe he might have done more then maddona