TicketNetwork Blog

As promised last month, there have been some changes to the Top 10. From this point forward, all events will be included in the tally, not just concerts. Let's get on with it.

Topping the list this month is the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The famous circus had a convincing lead in ticket sales compared to all other events, thanks to its multiple concurrent tours and affordable prices. It accounts for nearly 20% of tickets sold for the events in this month's Top 10.

Following that are many of the concerts seen before in previous Top 10 lists, including Jason Aldean, One Direction, Bruce Springsteen, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, and the KISS & Mötley Crüe tour. Finally, representing theater are the ever-popular Wicked, The Book of Mormon, and Cirque du Soleil - Dralion.

If there's any band that can legitimately claim to be the band of pre-teens everywhere for the late 2000's, it's probably The Jonas Brothers. This was the go-to band for that group of people back when Justin Bieber and One Direction were respectively just some kids from Canada and the U.K.

What was initially intended to be focused around only Nick Jonas become something much bigger. The three brothers were signed, first to Columbia Records and then to Hollywood Records, and began recording and touring. They pretty quickly gained popularity, and four albums and five tours later you'd be hard pressed to find someone that didn't know about them. The brothers were more than just pop stars; they were TV and film stars, too, whether guest-starring on shows featuring other artists like Miley Cyrus or starring in their own productions.

Festivals tend be a great deal because you get a lot of bang for your buck. While they typically cost more than a single concert, you get access to a wide array of artists. More, in fact, than you could possibly fit into a two-, three-, or four-day schedule. Some festivals have a more limited selection, but for a few hundred dollars you still get a lot of music.

Then major exception, at least on TicketNetwork.com, is the iHeartRadio Music Festival, which started up last year. The current average selling price for iHeartRadio on TicketNetwork.com is a whopping $954, which is far above the price of any other festival held this year. In comparison, the Bayou Country Superfest — a similarly-sized festival held in May — had an average selling price of $154 for single-day passes. Meanwhile, festivals with a much larger selection often have lower prices, such as the recently held Lollapalooza, which on TicketNetwork.com had an average price of $184 for single-day tickets.

As the saying goes, "all good things must come to an end." So it is with the summer, and so it is with some of the concert tours and residencies that ran during the season. A good number of major performers are ending tours before summer ends on September 21 and the weekend after.

Check out the table to the right to see a selection of artists who are ending their tours before autumn begins, along with their average sales prices. Artists are sorted by popularity.*

Of the artists ending soon, the Brothers of the Sun Tour and Big Time Rush have been the most popular by far, with BotS and BTR accounting for well over 50% of the tickets sold for this group of artists on TicketNetwork.com. It's been a good year for both artists, as Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw joined up for the first time in a decade, and Big Time Rush made the hop from the TV world to the real world.

Competition from British boy band One Direction lowered demand for Big Time Rush, thus resulting in a lower average sales price, but the band nevertheless remained one of the top selling concert acts at TicketNetwork.com for five consecutive months.

Although several summer tours are ending, many more tours will start up as autumn gets closer, and some will run through early winter.

TicketNetwork.com sales data is as of 8/17/2012, 9:30 a.m. EDT. Percentages are based on total ticket sales. Prices are not set by TicketNetwork.com and may fluctuate based on market demand.

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.