How can live concerts be ecologically sustainable and still be economically viable?

How can live concerts be ecologically sustainable and still be economically viable?

In his Master’s thesis, our student Leon Crusius has looked into how bands can optimize their tours! Live concerts are a fundamental source of income for musicians, but they also generate high CO2 emissions. Leon has analyzed the Bavarian band Bruckner and developed a data-based tour planning model that shows: with the right planning, the band could save more than one third of their emissions – without sacrificing profit!

Leon developed a model based on real data (e.g., Spotify, ticket sales via the band’s homepage) that takes into account multiple economic and ecological factors that come into play when a band plans a concert tour. Among them: Which venues are the most promising regarding their capacity and demand? In which order should the venues be visited for shortest travel distance? How can fans best visit the venues – by car, by public transport, and with the shortest distance? When is a concert profitable for the band and the venue?

Findings:

• Carefully selecting the cities based on expected demand by fans can not only lead to a higher utilization of the venues and thus generate more revenue and lower per-capita CO2 footprint, but also minimize the travelling distance for the fans – the most impactful ecological factor!
• A counterintuitive find: adding more concerts to a tour may even lead to a better ecological footprint as an informed distribution of venues means that fans don’t have to travel long distances and make better use of public transport!
• The artists’ travels from venue to venue have only a minor impact on the overall carbon footprint of the tour: depending on the data source, they account for only 1-1.2%.

With his model, Leon showed that, depending on the data source influencing the model outcome, the band Bruckner could save between 13% and 36% of CO2 on their tour without sacrificing profit. Simply selecting venues that are easily reachable with public transport and playing well-distributed shows across the band’s area of interest can improve the efficiency of a band’s tour.

Did you know that music can also have a significant impact on the economy? Click here to learn more about how the regional economy benefits from the Mannheim Philharmonic Orchestra.