Music Festival Boom Powers Growth in Live Sound Gear

As music festival season swings into summer, more bands are investing in easier-to-travel professional grade gear to ensure top-notch live shows on any stage. Pollstar’s 2015 Global Festival Calendar lists more than 1,500 events in 70 countries with major festivals selling out in days and emerging ones popping up daily. These multi-stage outdoor events aren’t only driving fashion trends, they’re also changing the way musicians approach their live shows with an increased need for portable, reliable live sound.

Sales of digital mixing consoles from brands including PreSonus, Mackie, Behringer and Soundcraft were up 13.7% in 2014. Retail sales of speaker enclosures were up 8.5%. Sales of cabled mics, which are the go to choice for reliable live sound, advanced 7% to $395 million. Music Trades chalks the microphone gain up to audiences demanding better sound quality, which requires not only more mics, but more application-specific mics. These categories grew at more than twice the rate of the overall music product industry, which rose 3.3% in 2014.

New, more portable mixers and monitoring systems with state-of-the-art features allow the biggest names in music to drop into Nashville one night and Rio de Janeiro the next, while delivering the sound quality their fans expect. “Bands are changing their approach to live sound – carrying their own gear – to guarantee good sound night after night,” said Mike Picotte, senior sales engineer at Sweetwater Sound, Inc. “The affordability and portability of gear is allowing for more consistent performances, even with little time for sound check, as is the case at festivals.”

Picotte notes famed front of house producer Andy Meyer, who runs the live sound for Justin Timberlake and previously for bands including Guns N’ Roses, “At his shows he carries with him the whole front of house package that can recall effects, backing tracks and more night-to-night for consistent performances. This makes fly-in dates and one-off performances possible.”

According to Pollstar, the total North American concert business grew 21% from $5.1 billion in 2013 to $6.2 billion in 2014. Pollstar’s editors explain, “The single biggest change to the concert industry landscape has been the increasing proliferation of large multi-day music festivals.” These pop-up music venues bring hundreds of auditory and visual spectacles to life over a few days, while using more technology than ever before.

“Live sound and festivals are a big part of our business,” said Blake Augsburger, executive vice president of Harman International. “We then migrate tour-proven technologies to retail products/price-points—a compelling idea for smaller bands, DJs or musicians that are just starting out!”

More than one hundred companies including TASCAM, Marshall Electronics, PreSonus, QSC Audio, Telefunken, Yorkville, Zoom, Avid, Antares, Blue Microphones, Yamaha, Peavey, TC Electronic and Propellerhead Software will preview the latest live sound technology at Summer NAMM, July 9-11 at Nashville’s Music City Center. Registration for Summer NAMM 2015 is now open, with exhibit space available. Visit https://ww1.namm.org/summer/2015 for more information.