With their boyish charm and bubblegum beats, the members of Chinese popular boy band TFBoys are driving the popularity of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, where they held a concert on Sunday to mark the band's 10th anniversary.
As a legion of fans flocked to the Xi'an Olympic Sports Center to hear Wang Junkai, Wang Yuan and Yi Yangqianxi croon onstage, revenue from concert ticket sales reached 35.76 million yuan, which in turn drove the city's tourism revenue to 416 million yuan, data from the Xi'an authority showed.
Whenever they come to town, fans are sure to follow with a spending spree.
From Sunday through Monday, the number of online bookings for travel to Xi'an saw a surge of 738 percent compared with the same period last year, the data showed. Moreover, fans were looking to visit tourist attractions in Xi'an as the number of ticket bookings increased by more than 38 times, according to Trip.Com.
Xi’an has become the most popular destination for flight searches, according to Tongcheng Travel, another online travel agency. The related search volume jumped by almost six times from a month earlier, it added.
As one of the first Chinese homegrown boy bands to reach and sustain global popularity, TFBoys is often called a cultural phenomenon, and the group's concerts anywhere are powerful crowd magnets.
Fans took to the streets of the ancient city, waving colorful flags in honor of their idols. The venue itself was not to be outdone, with enthusiastic fans filling every nook and cranny outside the concert hall.
During ticket pre-sales, more than 5 million people competed for the reportedly 30,000 tickets. Some scalpers have even resold front-row seats for up to 2 million yuan per ticket, according to rumors.
The steady influx of devoted fans to Xi'an prompted the trio to make an online plea on Sunday, urging supporters to abstain from gatherings and activities at venues, hotels and other locations, and be mindful of the city's capacity.
Xi'an authorities, on their part, concentrated on measures such as strengthening security, prolonging public transportation operating hours and releasing official guidelines for fans coming to the concert.
According to online travel portal Tuniu in Shaanxi Province, the rush is partly attributed to the strategic approach of Xi'an culture and tourism authorities, who have organized events such as anime exhibitions and music festivals to draw young people this very week.
The city will welcome further performances in August, including famous singer Rene Liu Ruoying's concert and two music festivals. Xi'an will hold 17 large-scale tour concerts by 13 groups of singers by the end of this year.
Should fans miss the live concert, they can still cheer for their idols on the Netflix-like Youku, which had the exclusive rights to stream the event.
Based on media calculations, the platform earned more than 80 million yuan from the concert. If all the nearly 2.2 million viewers bought the most affordable tickets of 39 yuan to watch the show online, Youku's revenue would exceed 84.3 million yuan. But some may have even purchased the premium option of 99 yuan to get access to more camera angles instead of just the main stage.
“Taylornomics”
Same things happen on the other side of the globe.
Yes, it’s the “Taylornomics” that even caught curious attentions from the US Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank, as the American pop icon Taylor Swift’s 20-city Eras Tour is on track to become the biggest in concert history, potentially grossing $1 billion. It’s filling football stadiums that hold more than 70,000 people, and Swift is often staying in town for several days, giving local businesses time to soak up the money.
To get Swifties—as Taylor Swift fans call themselves — in their stores, they’re selling doughnuts with Swift’s face on them or concocting cocktails named after her songs. A museum in Nashville rushed out an exhibit of Swift’s costumes to coincide with her performances there.
US ticketing site Ticketmaster crashed in November when US Eras Tour tickets went on sale. In Cincinnati, fans who did not get tickets traveled to the city to be close to her. On the two nights Swift performed, thousands gathered in the parks around the outdoor Paycor Stadium to sing along to the concert. They also spent hundreds of dollars on outfits for the show, hiring designers to recreate looks Swift wore on the red carpet or in music videos.
As reported yesterday, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has already made over $300 million. Her 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour made $345 million, and given that Swift is still yet to complete nearly half of her tour, it’s extremely likely that she will smash her own personal best soon too.
In December, Billboard predicted that Swift would make as much as $590 million when the Eras concerts are completed, and back then the American pop star had only planned 52 stops. Swift has been adding dates to her tour ever since, and she is now set to stage a whopping 146 performances. If Swift continues to make money in line with Billboard’s projections, the artist could make as much as $1 billion by the end of the worldwide tour.
It felt like 2019 again in Las Vegas when Swift performed there in March. The tourism authority in Vegas credited the superstar’s concerts with boosting visitor numbers to nearly pre-pandemic levels. The tour also got a shout out from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, which said May was the city’s strongest month for hotel revenue since the onset of the pandemic largely due to the Eras Tour.
Chicago and Minneapolis broke all-time records for the number of hotel rooms occupied while Swift performed there. In Cincinnati, spending related to Swift’s tour reached an estimated $48 million, according to the city’s tourism office.
And the Taylornomics is going global. Swift announced last month the Eras Tour was heading to Asia, Australia, Europe and South America. Even though Swift isn’t performing in New Zealand, Air New Zealand got to experience a “Swift surge”—people rushing to book flights to Australia, where Swift will perform in February. The airline had to add 14 more flights to accommodate 3,000 more people.
A significant economic engine
Tickets are now a hot commodity.
Since China lifted its coronavirus-related restrictions in December and entertainment venues were once again allowed to open for business, in-person activities have been in high demand, with fans frantically seeking spare concert tickets.
Concerts have been relentlessly trending on Chinese social media in recent months, and in the first half of the year, more than 500 large-scale gigs and music festivals were held in China.
And they combined to rake in 2.5 billion yuan in ticket sales, with more than 5.5 million tickets sold, according to the China Association of Performing Arts. The three months of the second quarter alone accounted for nearly 90 percent of the ticket sales.
More broadly, the number of for-profit performances - including pop concerts, dance shows and operas - in the first six months of the year surged by 400 percent to 193,300, while ticket sales jumped by 673 percent to 16.8 billion yuan and attendances increased by more than tenfold to over 62 million, according to data from the association.
The surge in performance events such as concerts and music festivals not only generates significant ticket revenue but also fuels the growth of related industries, including tourism and catering.
During the week-long Labour Day holiday in May, concerts and music festivals generated more than 1.2 billion yuan of consumer spending – excluding ticket sales – including transport, hotels, dining services among others.
Recently, Jay Chou held four concerts in Haikou, each of which attracted more than 38,000 spectators. Haikou achieved tourism revenue of 976 million yuan in just four days, three times the tourism revenue of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday.
It's undeniable that the post-pandemic era has witnessed a remarkable resurgence in the domestic concert scene. Almost simultaneously with TFBoys’ concert, the city of Yichang in Central China's Hubei Province was abuzz with excitement as Chinese singer Xue Zhiqian took the stage for his national tour. On Saturday, two concerts took place at different halls of the same center in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, gathering more than 30,000 music enthusiasts.
This renaissance of the concert industry can be attributed to multiple factors. Not only has a resurgent consumer market paved the way for the revival, but an increased willingness to spend on entertainment has also significantly contributed.
Concerts themselves have evolved into more intricate and high-quality experiences, with advancements in stage design, audio technology and supporting facilities.
But more importantly, hosting gigs not only bring economic benefits to local tourism, they enhance the city's popularity and showcase its uniqueness and charm.
For first-tier and second-tier cities, larger and higher-quality concerts attract more audiences, drive consumption and increase tourism appeal. For smaller cities, it is ideal to balance scale and quality. When it is challenging to support large concerts, lower-cost music festivals are a better choice, as they have lower requirements and can still boost a city's popularity.
Music festivals have now expanded beyond traditional locations to smaller cities across the country, from Changzhou in the eastern Jiangsu Province to Guiyang in the southwestern Guizhou Province.
Authorities in Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei Province, are also betting on a long stretch of large-scale musical performances and festivals – the “Rock Home Town” event – to serve to amp up consumption and revitalize the region’s economy.
Furthermore, government support in terms of concert infrastructure also plays a pivotal role. For instance, the city of Xiamen in East China's Fujian Province has introduced policies specifically targeting concert events that have led to an up to 30 percent reduction in venue rental fees.
Similarly, Xue Zhiqian's concert in Hengyang, Central China's Hunan Province in July was complemented by three days of free public transportation provided by local authorities, which offered convenience to attendees and greatly boosted local tourism.
All these efforts not only fuel local economies but also enhance the image of government bodies as service-oriented entities.
As the lights dim and the applause echoes, it's evident that China's concert culture is back with a resounding force driven by passionate fans, artist innovation and government encouragement.
从第一首《青春修炼手册》到最后一首《heart》，长达三个小时的表演，在一片“红橙绿蓝”的灯牌颜色海中，7月8日，TFBOYS“十年之约”终于落下帷幕。
火爆、火爆、火爆，是这场盛大演唱会给外界的第一印象。在粉丝满满的情怀和各种青春“噱头”背后，第一排黄金位置门票价格被炒至“天价”。
以TFBOYS“十年之约”演唱会所在地西安为例，据第三方抽样调查统计，本场演出前后，西安住宿线上提前预订量较去年同期大幅增长，尤其是8月6日至7日出行总订单量同比增长738%；门票收入3576万元，直接带动4.16亿元的旅游收入。其中，过夜游客占总接待人数的79.73%，平均停留天数2.36天；省外人群占比81%，除演唱会门票外，交通+住宿+餐饮占比76%，购物+文化娱乐+旅游景区游览占比24%；有48.34%的游客表示除了看演唱会还参观了其他景区，平均游览个数为2.81。
线下演唱会一票难求，线上同样火爆。
据悉，“TFBOYS十年之约演唱会”的唯一线上直播平台是优酷。直播设置了两种套餐：套餐一为演唱会主舞台，价格为39元；套餐二为演唱会全机位（包含个人机位合辑），价格为99元。线上直播门票观看有效期一年，内容不可下载，不可截屏，不可录屏。
据优酷8月6日晚发布的战报，演唱会直播预约人数超200万，线上观看人数峰值破168万，直播互动量1.04亿。如果按照峰值168万人同时观看，即使观众全部购买的都是39元套餐，优酷也至少进账6552万元，这还不算商务广告植入的费用。
这不是TFBOYS线上演唱会第一次这么火。2020年8月6日， TFBOYS “日光旅行”七周年演唱会宣布在网易云尝试线上启动。根据战报，七周年演唱会售票数破100万张，同时在线观看人数达78.6万人。
“霉霉经济学”
演唱会经济火爆的场景同样发生在地球的另一端。
有人调侃道：“有一种震级，叫’霉霉来了’；有种学问，叫’霉霉经济学’。在美国，没有人能躲过霉霉演唱会的震慑力。”
从今年起，“霉霉经济学”已随着她的全球巡回演出计划，蔓延至拉美、亚洲和欧洲地区。在亚太地区的新加坡，明年3月才开始的演唱会已吸引800万人注册，而新加坡总人口才545万，可见泰勒·斯威夫特强大的号召力早已波及全球。
早在去年11月15日预售首日，霉霉Eras Tour北美52场演唱会200多万张预售门票，刚刚开卖就被狂热粉丝抢购一空。据票务公司Ticketmaster统计，这一票房成绩打破艺人单日销售纪录，火爆程度甚至令购票系统数次瘫痪，平台被骂上热搜。
疫情之后，全球演出市场迎来火爆复苏，火爆的演唱会、音乐节这样的“注意力经济”，拉动了潜在的城市消费。每次演唱会期间，场馆附近的酒店、餐饮等文旅消费都会被迅速带动，为城市“吸粉”。
粉丝们对于斯威夫特的狂热消费，不仅限于演唱会门票，还带动旅游、酒店和餐饮等消费。芝加哥举办演唱会期间，直接打破了芝加哥酒店入住记录。当周周末入住率高达96.8%，平均每晚有44,383间酒店房间入住，创下了芝加哥有史以来的最高记录。
据估算，斯威夫特仅美国地区演唱会就能带来6.4亿至7.3亿美元收入；QuestionPro的调查数据显示，斯威夫特演唱会的观众平均每场花费1300美元，用于门票、服装、旅行和食物等支出，比他们的预算平均高出720美元。不过，仍有71%的人表示值得，91%的人表示还会再去。
“霉霉经济学”甚至吸引了美联储的目光。
美联储在近期发布的全国经济形势调查报告中写道，“5月，费城酒店收入创疫情以来新高，这很大程度上归功于斯威夫特在该市举办演唱会，从而带动大批游客来访。”
粉丝消费的领域，其实远远不止机票酒店和餐饮。从唱片、帆布袋、海报、卫衣、手链......各种周边产品，也是一笔不小的支出。比如今年5月，巡演到达新泽西州期间，州长宣布该州的官方三明治就叫“Taylor 'Swift' Ham, Egg, and Cheese the State Sandwich”。媒体预测，此次巡演，仅在美国的场次就可收获7.3亿美元，算上后面的国际场次后，最终票房有望达到14亿美元，一旦成功，就将成为全球首个票房破10亿美元的巡演，也将摘得全球票房之冠。
连美国财政部也感叹，她凭一己之力带火了全美经济。目前巡演还在进行中，根据美联储估算，此次巡演总计将在美国产生46亿美元的消费支出，相当于35个国家的GDP总量。
一场演唱会，点燃一座城，拉动“一架马车”
今年以来，明星演唱会井喷，周杰伦、五月天、蔡依林、张韶涵、薛之谦……粉丝们不是在抢票就是在抢票的路上，不少人玩笑称“明星不够用了”。
据不完全统计，5月底至6月初，五月天乐队在北京连开6场演唱会；6月初，薛之谦载着“天外来物”星际飞船重回武汉；6月底至7月初，周杰伦2023世界巡演首站在海口连开4场；8月5日，蔡依林Ugly Beauty演唱会武汉站正式开唱；陈奕迅Fear and Dreams世界巡回演唱会将登陆美国和加拿大……此外，张韶涵、张信哲、蔡健雅等歌手巡回演唱会成都站也已官宣定档。
中国演出行业协会发布的《2023上半年全国演出市场简报》显示，2023年上半年，全国营业性演出（不含娱乐场所演出）场次19.33万场，同比增长400.86%；演出票房收入167.93亿元，同比增长673.49%；观众人数6223.66万人次，同比增长超10倍。其中，大型演唱会、音乐节演出506场，票房收入24.97亿元，观众人数550.10万人次。
“为一场演唱会奔赴一座城市”，是很多年轻人的真实写照，也成为今年的新潮流。跨城观演成为大型演唱会、音乐节的主要消费趋势。五月天、任贤齐、刘若英等知名歌手北京演唱会的观众中，跨城观演比例均超40%；一季度开售的周杰伦呼和浩特演唱会跨城购票观众比例超70%。
以今年周杰伦演唱会为例，中国演出行业协会相关报道数据显示，周杰伦4场演唱会共吸引15.46万人次观众入场，其中省外观众9.51万人次，占观众总数的61.5%；海口全市4天共实现旅游收入9.76亿元，是端午假期旅游收入的3倍。演出期间，海口城市及周杰伦演唱会相关话题全网总曝光量超过7.2亿次，讨论次数115.9万次。
除了粉丝们不遗余力，视频平台、广告主、衍生品厂商也卯足了劲，各大城市更是争抢入局，为城市“吸粉”拉动消费。
据不完全统计，截至今年6月中旬，已官宣的全国大型演唱会近550场，涉及艺人过百名，覆盖全国40多座城市。从场次上看，在已经举办和官宣排期的城市中，上海和广州都超过了70场。 截至目前，广州、上海稳居中国演唱会之城第一梯队；从参与演出的艺人数量来看，广州排名第一；从演出场次来看，上海排名第一。
作为一线“候补”，新一线城市势头强劲。从举办地来看，包括成都、南京、武汉、西安、长沙、重庆等陆续响应热潮，成为演唱市场的热门开票据点。
不光是大型城市，小城也在做功课。今年以来，演唱会逐渐下沉，南都大数据研究院梳理发现，衢州、泰州、三亚、连云港等地今年均已开办或即将开办知名歌手大型演唱会。对歌手和经纪公司来说，演唱会选址要考虑演出规模、粉丝基础等因素。新一线城市的商业资源聚集度、城市人口活跃度、生活方式多样性、未来可塑性以及枢纽作用也都相当优秀，而这五个指标正是影响演唱会选址的主要因素。
今年3月，薛之谦“天外来物”巡回演唱会首站落地衢州，这也是浙江省官宣的首场演唱会。消息一经放出，关于其举办场地“衢州市体育中心”的网络搜索量就达到了平时的22.5倍左右。演出举办的两天里，全国各地有5万人到来，根据腾讯位置大数据，衢州市体育中心客流指数相较前一周客流指数均值提升增长超20倍。这座经济总量不足一个强区的小城，通过举办演唱会让人们记住了它。
Executive Editor: Sonia YU
Editor: LI Yanxia, HE Jia
Host: Stephanie LI
Writer: Stephanie LI
Sound Editor: Stephanie LI
Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni
Produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News.
Presented by SFC
编委: 于晓娜
策划、编辑：李艳霞、和佳
播音：李莹亮
撰稿：李莹亮，实习生黄青衣
音频制作：李莹亮
设计：郑文静、廖苑妮
21世纪经济报道海外部 制作
南方财经全媒体集团 出品
