India’s live music business has an obvious way of measuring success: tickets sold, venues filled and shows added to the calendar. But these numbers reveal little about what happens after an audience discovers an artist, whether a performance translates into lasting fandom, or what makes someone return for another show.
BookMyShow Live’s OOO: Offline. Outdoors. Out Loud. – Live Season 25/26, Decoded offers some insight into these questions. Based on responses from nearly 1,700 concert and festival-goers across 75 cities, the report examines why people attend live events, what they value about the experience and how concerts influence music discovery.
The findings point to three areas worth examining more closely: the role of artist loyalty in ticket sales, the potential of live performances to introduce audiences to new music, and the industry’s opportunity to build relationships with audiences beyond individual events.
For a market investing in larger concerts, international tours and festival properties, these questions matter because a growing live calendar does not automatically translate into a stronger ecosystem for artists.
Ticket sales are only part of the audience relationship
According to the report, 51% of respondents attend concerts because they have followed an artist’s journey for years. Only 4% cited fear of missing out as their primary motivation.
The distinction is important. It suggests that, for many respondents, the decision to attend is tied to an existing relationship with an artist rather than simply the appeal of being at a popular event.
For artists and their management teams, this raises the question of how that relationship develops between performances. Recorded music, social media, direct communication with fans and live appearances all offer different ways to maintain an audience’s interest. A concert may be the culmination of that relationship, rather than the starting point.
It also presents a consideration for promoters. An artist’s ability to sell tickets is an important commercial measure, but understanding the audience behind that demand could offer additional insight into tour planning and the potential for repeat attendance.
The report does not establish how long respondents have followed artists, how often they attend their shows or whether their loyalty translates into repeat ticket purchases. Nevertheless, its findings provide a useful starting point for examining the relationship between artist followings and live demand.
Eight in 10 respondents also said concert-going was a regular part of their lives. While this points to a recurring habit among those surveyed, the next question for the industry is whether that habit extends across artists, genres and price points, or remains concentrated around a smaller number of established acts.
That distinction could help explain how the growth in live entertainment translates into opportunities across the wider music industry.
Can concerts become a more effective route to music discovery?
One of the report’s more relevant findings for artists outside the mainstream is that 72% of respondents discovered a new artist at a BookMyShow Live show during the season.
Live events already bring together audiences with different listening habits, particularly at festivals where multiple artists share a bill. The finding suggests that these environments can create opportunities for listeners to encounter music they might not have actively sought out.
For independent artists, discovery remains only the first step. Reaching a new audience at a festival does not necessarily mean that listeners will stream their music afterwards, follow their work or buy tickets to a subsequent headline show.
This is where the industry has a broader opportunity to examine the relationship between live performances and the rest of an artist’s career.
How many people who discover an artist at a festival go on to listen to their catalogue? Do opening slots and festival appearances help artists build audiences in new cities? And can promoters and artist teams identify whether a performance generates interest beyond the event itself?
The BookMyShow Live report does not answer these questions, but its findings make them more relevant. If live events are helping audiences discover new artists, measuring what happens after that encounter could offer a better understanding of their value to the music ecosystem.
For artists and managers, this could mean looking beyond the immediate exposure of a performance. For promoters, it raises questions about how lineups can balance commercially established acts with opportunities for newer artists to reach audiences.
What audiences value is not always easy to measure
The report also examines why people attach emotional and social significance to live events. Forty-four per cent of respondents said they attended a live show hoping to feel emotionally healed, while 66% identified hearing an entire crowd sing a chorus together as the moment that gives them the biggest chills. Another 56% said they had experienced a moment of connection with a stranger at a live event.
These findings point to aspects of live music that attendance figures alone cannot capture. The value of a performance is not limited to the artist on stage; it also lies in the collective experience of hearing and responding to music alongside other people.
Naman Pugalia, Chief Business Officer, Live Events at BookMyShow, said the report was an attempt to understand the cultural significance of live experiences and why people continue to seek out opportunities to gather in person.
For the business, understanding these motivations could inform how events are positioned and how audiences are engaged. However, emotional responses are not in themselves evidence of commercial success. The challenge is to understand how the experience influences future behaviour, including whether audiences return, explore an artist’s music or attend other events.
The report’s findings offer a view of what audiences value, but further data would be needed to establish how these experiences influence spending and long-term engagement.
The next question is what happens after the show
The findings arrive as India’s live entertainment business continues to expand its calendar of concerts and festivals. As more events compete for audience attention, the ability to attract people to a venue remains central to commercial performance. But the longer-term value of those audiences is also worth considering.
For artists, that means understanding whether a live appearance strengthens an existing fan relationship or introduces music to potential new listeners. For promoters, it means examining whether audiences return and how programming influences discovery. For the wider industry, it means looking at live music not only as a ticketed experience but also as a point of connection between artists and listeners.
There are limits to what can be concluded from the BookMyShow Live report. Its findings are based on nearly 1,700 concert and festival-goers, and the available data does not establish whether the respondents represent India’s wider live music audience. Nor does it track whether artist discovery leads to sustained listening or repeat attendance.
Still, it raises a question that the industry’s growth figures cannot answer on their own: is India’s live music boom creating more opportunities for audiences to build lasting relationships with artists, or primarily increasing the number of events they can attend?
The answer will depend on more than the number of concerts taking place. It will also depend on what audiences carry forward from them, and whether those experiences contribute to sustainable careers for the artists performing on stage.
