BERLIN (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — A survey conducted on behalf of German promoter association bdv indicates that the German live entertainment sector is on the rebound after sharp drops in revenue in 2008 and 2009.
The survey, condcucted by the Association for Consumer Research, showed that revenue was up by 24% over the past year. Attendance figures were up as well, with a gain of 7%, which equates to approximately 2 million consumers.
Music continues to make up 2/3rds of the segment, with classical music and opera, hard rock/heavy metal and music festivals all seeing revenue growth in 2011, though musicals declined by 2%.
Despite the revenue increases, profits have been offset by increases in production costs, higher fees demanded by international artists and increases in fees to perfomance rights society GEMA.
"Sales results are always an important indicator of the economic importance of a market. Whoever concludes from the present results, however, that the industry then goes obviously better than ever, is considerably wrong! Revenue says nothing generally known about profit. In fact, corporate profits have not at all developed synchronously to sales. Anyone knowing the dramatic rise in production and implementation costs, will be able to understand this easily," said Jens Michow, bdv president.
"It seems interesting to me that the dramatic fall in visitor numbers in 2008 and 2009 has been largely caught up compared to 2007, but far from completely despite the higher revenue. During 2007 about 127 million tickets were sold, while in the previous year they were only 122 million" and Michow continues: "The artists may indeed generate more revenue and with that a higher profit as well with fewer visitors. As a result, this way, however, a part of their audience falls by the wayside. We hope that this will be finally recognized and that this recognition will turn into action," added Stefan Zarges, chief editor of Music Market specialist magazine. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
