Live music breaks attendance records in 2024 with almost six million spectators

The number of attendees at live music events in Catalonia during 2024, including music festivals, increased to 5.9 million, 20.5% more than the previous year.

It marks a new record, unmatched since record-keeping started in 2008, according to the yearly report published by Spain's SGAE.

The live music industry had an overall revenue of €124.3 million, around 24% more than in 2023, and saw 4.9 million spectators, without counting macro music festivals, a 29% increase on 2019 figures.

The trend is expected to continue to grow as more international and national artists tour across Barcelona and Catalonia, and it is increasingly common to see large venues hang the 'sold out' sign.

Theater attendance increased by 12%, to €39 million in revenue, which is still far from pre-pandemic levels.

In fact, there was a 7.3% increase in the number of plays, almost the same number as before the Covid-19 pandemic, 10,372 in 2024 compared to 2019's 10,906. However, there are still 27.3% fewer spectators than in 2019.

In 2024, around 1.84 million spectators went to the theater, an increase compared to 2023's 1.63 million, but still far from 2019's 2.53 million. For the director of the Catalan branch of the Spanish SGAE organization, Luís Gómez, there is still "room for improvement," and the trend is due to "change of customs" seen during the pandemic.

On the other side, the uptrend registered in the number of cinema-goers was halted by a 5% decrease, after 13.2 million went to the cinemas to watch a movie.

This is around 30% less than the previous year during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the number of movies available has also decreased by 18%.