Concerts, induced activities in the region reach up to 4.5 billion euro

For concerts, it is a magical moment: the total turnover of the sector in 2023, according to Siae, reached 967.4 million for the first time, thanks to an increase over the previous year of 33.5 per cent. Merit - in case you had any doubts - goes to the pop, rock and light music segment, which alone moves 894 million.

And if we take the figures of some of the main events in the squares of Milan, Rome and Naples and add them to those of historical festivals such as the Lucca Summer Festival and innovative proposals such as the la Prima Estate, taking into account not only takings but also expenses for food, accommodation, transport and services in general, we come out with an induced revenue figure of over 675 million and an average expenditure per spectator of around 324 euro. This leads to an estimate of 4.5 billion in total induced revenue throughout the country.

Welcome to the live music economy, a sector often underestimated by observers, sometimes overlooked by legislators, which has an unmistakable characteristic: it has always walked on its own two feet, dispensing entertainment with the likes of Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Vasco Rossi and Tactile Nuclear Penguins, but also generates wealth, without having to draw on public funds. This was discussed yesterday in Rome, at the Sala Spadolini of the Ministry of Culture, during the conference La canzone popolare live - Dati e prospettive, organised by Assoconcerti, an association that brings together Italy's main concert promoters, with Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli, undersecretary Gianmarco Mazzi, Chamber of Deputies vice-president Giorgio Mulé, Senate Culture Commission president Roberto Marti, Agis president Francesco Giambrone and Assoconcerti president Bruno Sconocchia.

The starting point was obviously the latest Siae Entertainment Yearbook, which in 2023 hailed more than 36 thousand rock, pop and light concerts organised from one end of the Peninsula to the other by more than 10 thousand entities for 23.7 million spectators. In practice, 55% of the live events organised in Italy and 77% of the total audience are attributable to this segment. Popular music fans last year spent 894 million, with the average expenditure more marked in the North-West (45 euros), followed by the Centre (41 euros), the North-East (37 euros), the Islands (31 euros) and the South (27 euros).

And so far we are talking about direct expenditure, but the matter becomes even more intriguing if we extend it to induced expenditure, as a study by Professor Nicola Salvati of the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Pisa has done: it turns out that the economic effects of 13 of the main music events on the territories of Milan, Rome, Naples, Lucca and Versilia exceed 675 million.