This statistic shows the most successful music tours in North America in 2017, based on ticket sales. U2's tour topped the list, with over 1.51 million tickets sold.
The music industry in the United States - additional information
The worldwide music industry employs hundreds of thousands of people, from musicians to technicians, producers and distributors. According to employment data published in 2017, there were almost 30 thousand individuals working in this branch in the United States. The music market is highly polarized, with the majority of control being held by three major corporate labels: Universal Music Group (France), Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) and the Warner Music Group (United States), with the remaining smaller labels, as well as independent musicians, being categorized as independent. However, notwithstanding the great differences between revenues, influence and control within the market itself, all the players are confronted with the same problem: the changes brought about by the rise of the internet. More specifically, the industry seems to be struggling with the impact that digital access to music has had on album sales, especially in physical form, such as CDs. Illegal music downloads have marred the industry on a global level, as it has witnessed a significant drop in sales of CDs, CSs, LPs and digital albums, from 500 million units in 2007 to 169 million units in 2017 in the United States.
The music industry in the United States had to, therefore, redirect its efforts from album sales towards live performances and personalized merchandise sales. The leader of the live music market is currently the American company Live Nation Entertainment, formed from the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The corporation, which generated some 5.87 billion U.S. dollars in revenue from concerts in 2016 alone, owns, leases and operates many U.S. and international entertainment venues. According to company data, the live entertainment specialist promoted 26.3 thousand events across the globe in 2016.
