As digital becomes infinite, real-world human experiences become premium.
The last revolution in entertainment brought digital content to the world. The next will bring the world together in person. The opportunity in live entertainment has never been bigger.
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More fans are attending live events than ever before, and they are spending more when they get there. New markets are emerging, investment in venues and infrastructure is accelerating and technology is connecting artists with audiences in ways that would have been unimaginable a decade ago.
Humans have a biological drive to maintain authentic social contact. When those interactions or experiences become insufficient, the more one typically craves them in real life. The more time we spend in our digital environments, the more we value experiences that bring us together in the real world. Whether it’s music, sports, theater, dining, padel or immersive entertainment, consumers are demonstrating an extraordinary appetite for shared, in-person experiences. That appetite or “social rewilding” is continuing to create the most compelling growth opportunities in the live economy we have ever seen.
Technology has made content available everywhere, instantly. But the more pervasive social media is and the easier it becomes to access content, the more valuable it becomes to experience something live.
You can stream a song a billion times. Nothing replaces the feeling of 100, 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 sharing in that moment together.
Live Nation said it welcomed 159 million fans in 2025, with international attendance surpassing the U.S. for the first time. Goldman Sachs projects the global music industry will approach $200 billion by 2035. And according to PwC, non-digital experiences, including live music, events and cinema, accounted for 61% of consumer spending on global entertainment and media in 2024, a share expected to remain resilient through 2029. Last year alone, WME booked more than 45,000 shows around the world.
The live industry has also proven to be resilient. Goldman Sachs found that live music grew an average of 7.3% during recession years since 1990, outperforming other entertainment categories. Concerts aren’t recession-proof, but history suggests fans are reluctant to give up experiences that matter to them, even in the face of economic uncertainty.
Language and geography are no longer barriers to stardom. Bad Bunny has sold millions of tickets worldwide performing in Spanish. Shakira’s latest tour surpassed several million tickets. BTS and other K-pop artists have sold out stadiums across continents performing primarily in Korean. At the same time, Coldplay’s record demand in India and Bruno Mars’ extraordinary success across Asia-Pacific show how much the touring map has evolved. The latest installments of Lollapalooza Mumbai have sold quickly.
Streaming and social media have accelerated the discovery of talent everywhere. Artists can now build significant audiences in countries they have never imagined or once visited, often without a traditional radio, physical distribution or local record company. The next global superstar can come from anywhere. Audiences are everywhere. Diljit Dosanjh is one of those artists. Carin León and Omer Adam could be others. Poland’s Dawid Podsiadlo sold more than a million tickets in his home country alone, a number that demonstrates the extraordinary scale of demand that can exist within individual territories.
Across India, Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, music consumption is booming, creating enormous opportunities in markets where live entertainment infrastructure has often struggled to keep pace with demand. We have seen airplanes without airports and airports without airplanes, with artists building massive audiences but lacking suitable venues or touring networks to reach them. So the road ahead will not be without its challenges. Rising touring costs, economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability and infrastructure shortages remain significant obstacles. But things are changing rapidly as investment in new facilities accelerates, local expertise is developed and long-term cooperation between artists, promoters, investors and governments creates the needed infrastructure. Some artists are even helping to build it themselves.
Adele’s Munich residency showed what is possible when infrastructure is built around demand. Nearly 800,000 fans attended shows in a purpose-built stadium (nicer than many permanent stadiums), generating a reported €540 million ($604.8 million) in economic impact for the city. It was a powerful example of how an artist can create a destination event. Shakira’s Madrid residency was another.
The economic impact extends well beyond the concert. Major events drive tourism, hotels, restaurants, retail, sponsorship and employment. Live entertainment is a major engine for economies. The California Governor’s Office reported that Coachella and Stagecoach drive more than $700 million in revenue to the economy annually. Those shows have become the biggest globally-streamed music events today, not to mention a social media frenzy.
We’ve spent decades building relationships with artists and partners around the world. We understand that success in this business requires much more than capital. It takes local knowledge, trust and the ability to connect talent with audiences to transcend borders.
AI will continue to transform how entertainment is created, discovered and how we identify fans as well as communicate with them. But it cannot replace the in-person experience of sharing something that may never happen the same way again. Oasis at Heaton Park and Celine Dion at Plenitude Arena were two recent shared experiences I will never forget. Just a few months ago at Coran Capshaw’s TJ Martell Gala “Coronation,” Dave Matthews, Chris Stapleton and Trey Anastasio simply performed solo live, each with a guitar and microphone. They left a ballroom of attendees’ emotions swirling with jaws on the floor as they supported a cause and honored their friend. You had to be in the room to feel the impact. It is something a screen could never capture.
The more digital the world becomes, the larger the opportunity and the more valuable these moments will be. We have long believed that artists should be able to reach audiences wherever those audiences are. There is an interesting paradox at work here: the same technology that makes content infinitely accessible is building audiences and increasing the value of experiences that cannot be replicated on screen.
The future of entertainment is truly global. And one thing is sure: it will be fueled by live.
Kirk M. Sommer is a WME Senior partner and WME’s Global Head of Music. Sommer is one of the most revered and respected agents in the industry, known for helping guide many of the most respected artists of our time from their earliest days and has also nurtured young agents throughout his career. Starting as a mailroom trainee at William Morris in 2000, Sommer has spent 26 years building WME’s global music department into one of the most powerful and successful in the business.
