New study finds 80 per cent of US music fans enjoy attending live shows alone

According to the data, rock was the top genre fans chose to experience solo

A recent study has found that 80 per cent of live music fans in the US believe attending a live show alone sounds like an enjoyable experience.

The solo show-goer survey was conducted by music discovery platform Bandsintown with data collected from 1,106 music fans. The study also found that 34 per cent of respondents had plans to attend a show alone in the next 12 months.

“Going to a show solo is the ultimate level of fandom,” Fabrice Sergent, co-founder and managing partner of Bandsintown, told NME. “Fans love the artist so much that they feel great going on their own.”

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Sergent added: “Fans either attend live events because of the social experience, the music, the artist, or a mix of both. We typically see rock artists attract the highest level of fans willing to go solo with 33 per cent of fans of rock artists saying they would go to a show on their own.”

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Concert-goers enjoy the Blossoms pilot gig. CREDIT: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Following rock fans, the data showed that alternative fans were 13 per cent likely to go alone, with country fans at 10 per cent. The survey also showed that dance music fans were least like to attend alone, with only one per cent of fans saying they’d attend solo.

Bandsintown also found an uptick in solo concert going in comparison to before the pandemic, with nearly 40 per cent of respondents sharing that they’ve attended a show alone in the past 12 months and 80 per cent of music fans saying that if the option was going alone or not going at all, they’d be happy to attend a show solo.

“It feels so good to be a fan,” Sergent said of attending shows after the pause caused by the pandemic. “Being a fan is being alive, period. Fans needed to reconnect with their favourite artists regardless of the social experience as if going to shows was the best proof that the pandemic was coming to an end.”

Live audience. CREDIT: Flashpop

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Trends continue to show an uptick in attendance following live music’s hiatus due COVID. Concert promotion and event company Live Nation reported a record-breaking uptick in sales this year, with 70 million concert tickets sold in the first three months of 2022.

Bandsintown also reported an increase of eight million users to their concert discovery platform at the start of 2022, telling NME at the time that those numbers were “pretty astonishing”, adding that recent ticket-buying behaviour in the US showed that “demand for live events is very strong”.

Meanwhile, New York state is moving to ban hidden fees on gig tickets under a new bill that passed the state senate and assembly last month. The bill will mean public-facing ticket prices will need to be “all-in” instead of having extra fees tagged on at the last minute, with the price needing to be displayed in a “clear and conspicuous manner”.

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