TicketNetwork Blog

As of July 31 both of the acts mentioned in the headline have been in the Top 10 for five months, so it's only fitting that they should claim the top two spots for the July list. While One Direction has never left the top 5, the Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan tour has slowly climbed its way up.

The big loser is Justin Bieber, who's dropped completely off the list after holding the top spot for the last two months. It's the biggest downward movement since Van Halen fell from #2 in March. However, it is possible that Bieber will return as the September 29 tour beginner gets closer.

What happened? I can only speculate, but I'll call it the Newbie Effect, which seems to work on sales in two ways. First, the initial excitement for Justin Bieber is long gone. Bieber Fever was at its peak back in 2010, when he was #1 or #2 for nine months. Second, much of that excitement has transferred to One Direction. It's likely that Bieber would be doing better right now if they'd never come along, but they did and so he's not.

July has lots of things to look forward to, including Independence Day (July 4) and Embrace Your Geekness Day (July 13). But what about live events after the fireworks are over? Check out our guide for the top July events:

Concerts

American Idol Live: The hit talent show is hitting the road once again, kicking off a tour on July 6 in Detroit, MI. The show will visit dozens of cities before ending its tour in Milwaukee, WI, on September 11.

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Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks: The duo is joining forces for a brief summer tour. The Heart & Soul Tour begins in Cleveland, OH, on July 20, continuing through August 9.

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One Direction: The newest hit boy band continues its 2012 trek across North America through July 1. Tickets are also available for NEXT July (and June and August) for their 2013 dates.

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Other Concerts in July:

• Lynyrd Skynyrd begins July 8.
• Iron Maiden and Journey begin their respective tours July 21.
• Celine Dion continues her Las Vegas residency.

If ever there was a story in star power, it is Justin Bieber. In 10 short days he managed to climb his way to the top of the Top 10 list, and he has a decent shot of being the top seller for June as well. Interestingly, it was a pretty close race, and American Idol Live nearly claimed the crown, but in the end more fans came out for Bieber. It doesn't hurt that it's been more than a year since he toured North America

Then there is One Direction. Last month, the exit question was, "Can One Direction keep up the pace, or will they also begin dropping down on the list?" As it turns out, yes, they began to fall down the list. It wasn't for lack of popularity, though. It happens almost every time a band first sells tickets for a tour. After the initial excitement for the tour dies down, and the first round of ticket purchases happens, the band sells fewer tickets in any given week. Depending on the band's ability to attract people to their concerts, they might fall off the radar completely, but One Direction will likely remain a top-selling act for some time to come.

Map by U.S. Geological Survey. Public domain.

Last summer I did an analysis of how far people travel to get to a festival, thinking that most people were willing to go far from home to get to them. In fact, people did not travel very far. As it turned out, the largest chunk of people was only willing to travel up to 150 miles from home to attend a festival.

That was festivals; what about regular concerts? Well, at the time I generally knew that people traveled only short distances to get to them. What hadn't been done was an actual analysis. Now one has been done and the results are pretty stark.

Not only are people also willing to travel only up to 150 miles to get to a regular concert, it is the upper limit pretty overwhelmingly. While the numbers for festivals varied a lot (between 33% and 90% depending on the festival), with regular concerts the norm is almost always 60% of attendees only traveling 150 miles or less.

Last month the story was about One Direction's quick rise to popularity in the U.S. This month, the story is about how tickets for the One Direction tour completely took over the Top 10. The band was the unchallenged leader among all artists, accounting for over 8% of all concert tickets sold on TicketNetwork.com*. Twice as many tickets were bought for their shows than for the Jimmy Buffett tour, which came in second. The story isn't anywhere near over, either, as new dates were announced a couple weeks ago for their next tour in 2013.

Otherwise, things are much the same as March, with a few exceptions. Jimmy Buffett entered the Top 10 for the first time, which makes sense. As the summer approaches, a lot of people are thinking about escaping to paradise, and who better to give them that than Jimmy Buffett? Also new on the list are Rascal Flatts. On the flip side, Madonna has slipped off the list.