https://rollingstone.com.br/musica/por-que-america-latina-eo-futuro-das-turnes-musicais/

Text by Alex Ashley for Rolling Stone USA | The night Shawn James It has sold out the tickets of a house with a capacity of 1,100 people in Sao Paulo-the Carioca Club-he realized what many artists who venture out of the south of the United States end up learning: Latin America not only welcomes you: it completely welcomes you.

“It was the biggest show of my career”says James. “We exhausted the tickets and was simply hallucinating to me.”

James, the 38 -year -old South Chicago 38 -year -old troubadour, made his name crossing the United States with his own American music brand (the genre) with Gothic seasoning. He had been trying to walk his way in the US in the hard way: launching albums independently, performing independent tours and gathering a legion of fans who first found him in bar and basements.

Then came the opportunity: in 2016, your music “Through The Valley” appeared in the video game trailer The Last of Us Part II and resurfaced in HBO’s success adaptation earlier this year. Such an exhibition brought James an unlikely audience. Fans from all over Latin America closed their music, scoured their catalog and flooded their comments section for years with messages like “Come to Brazil!” In the end, this impulse led James to take the stage of Carioca Club in São Paulo last October as the main attraction, in front of the largest audience in its history.

James’ success in Brazil is part of a broader change. For decades, the United States has been the center of the tours universe: the largest market, the most profitable places. However, the center of gravity is changing.

For international artists, the US has become one of the most expensive and unpredictable places to tour. Inflated visa rates, endless delays, and sudden refusal of border entry can sink a tour before it even begins.

A growing number of artists and prosecutors are looking beyond the US in search of the next wave of tour growth. And the growth of live music is now being surpassed by markets outside the US – nowhere more drasticly than in Latin America.

The role of Latin America in tours economy is not new. The region has already hosted some of the most emblematic shows in history: the tour Voodoo Loungeof the Rolling Stonesin 1995, it attracted more than 100,000 people in Rio de Janeiro; the tour STICKY & SWEETfrom Madonnait broke records in Buenos Aires in 2008. And for generations, stadiums in Mexico City, Buenos Aires and São Paulo have been a constant presence in the routes of the greatest living artists.

Live nation strategy

The clearest example of this is Live nationthe largest show promoter on the planet, which is betting heavily in Latin America. On July 29, the company announced that it would invest $ 646 million to increase its participation in Oven – the giant Mexican company of live events – giving live nation a majority participation of 75% in the third largest show promoter in the world, according to the Billboard.

The agreement not only expands the global presence of Live Nation: consolidates Mexico as a central piece of its Latin American strategy, turning the region into a field of proof for the next era of company dominance.

According to the 2024 annual report, foreign exchange oscillations reduced US $ 235 million from the company’s revenue, with “most” of this impact from Latin American currencies-particularly Mexican and Brazilian Real. Simply put, this means that Live Nation’s businesses in Mexico, Brazil and in the region in general, even in their early stages, are already so large that their balance sheet follows the evolution of weight and real.

Live Nation’s expansion in Latin America has been fast and deliberate. By 2021, the company paid more than $ 400 million for a majority of OCESA, a Mexican giant of live events, and four years later increased its participation to 75% with another $ 646 million. In 2023, the company moved to Colombia, buying the PARRAMO PRESENTA from Bogota – The strength behind the festivals Picnic stereo, Baum and Knotfest – and investing in new spaces, such as a stadium with a capacity of 40,000 people in Bogota, a renovated GNP GNP stadium in Mexico City and the Cañaveralejo Arena in Cali with a capacity of 15,000 people. Then: Brazil, a market twice the size of Mexico and still largely unexplored.

But what is happening in Latin America is not about a company’s strategy; It is a region signaling its arrival in the global scenario.

Prototype for a post-American tourism economy

“To be honest, this is a new model”it says Omar GarciaCAA agent whose cast includes global heavy weights as Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin. “Latin America seems to be the next border for us.”

Garcia points out Fuerza Regida as a proof of concept. The Southern California Group, which could not be contacted to comment, burst in the United States, but great achievements came from Latin America, including a 2023 tour that raised $ 35 million, crowned by one night with sold out at BMO de Los Angeles stadium and this year a huge audience of 65,000 people in Mexico, larger than the last Super Bowl.

In this fall, Kendrick Lamar will make your grand national tour for Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, bringing the Argentina duo CA7RIEL & PACO AMOROSO as an opening attraction. The indie-rock artist St. Vincent included Mexico City, Santiago and Buenos Aires on its world tour, while The Hives joins the Latin American tour of the My Chemical Romance in 2026. even younger bands, such as Seathey are approaching the circuit, participating in festivals and stops in cities previously seen as complements, but now treated as essential anchors of their global strategy.

“Take a look at Lollapalooza Brazil, Lollapalooza Argentina and Lollapalooza Chile”says Garcia. “Look at three or four lines below the top of the poster and you’ll see mid -level artists standing out.”

In this spring, artists like Tate mcrae, Teddy Swims and Benson Boone They ventured, playing on every stop of the Lollapalooza circuit in South America. They were not the main attractions that attracted the huge sources, but they didn’t have to be. The audience was already there.

“Demand certainly exists and is very real”it says Russell BrantleyLos Angeles 33 & West Agency Agency 33 & West, which represents Shawn James. “And one of the main reasons for this is the increase in streaming in all these countries, along with the greatest access to technology.”

Latin America has become one of the fastest growth musical markets on the planet, accumulating 15 consecutive years of revenue gains and registering a 22.5% leap only in 2024, according to a report by IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry). Mexico has just entered among the ten largest musical markets in the world, with audiences at shows more than triple since 2019, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Brazil registered a 21.7% growth – the strongest among the top ten in the world.

Only the Middle East and North Africa region is surpassing Latin America in terms of the growth of recorded music revenue. All of this means that this region is quickly becoming the industry’s main growth engine.

What Shawn James experienced did not come from corporate machines or a carefully planned global tour. It came from something simpler: a direct connection between their songs and the Latin American people. Latin America is not just a playground for giants, but a test field where independent musicians can find explosive audiences, fill in concert halls and build careers in ways that the increasingly expensive and saturated American circuit can no longer guarantee.

“If I’m touching a giant market that I think I should receive what I do and it never grows, then I came to a point of my life I think, ‘Well, if you don’t want me, I won’t.”says James.

The moment he knew that Latin America wanted him happened in 2022, when a local restaurant owner, owner of a concert hall in Sao Paulo, invited James to perform at his nightclub, with capacity for about 200 people.

“They sold tickets and they sold out in five minutes”says James. “So we added two more dates, and both also sold out.”

Hours before opening the gates, fans were already in line in the block. Some cried to see him, saying that their songs had helped them overcome their darker moments. Teenagers appeared with their parents after driving six hours from another state. Others, who didn’t get tickets, stayed on the sidewalk to hear what they could.

James has done three tours of Latin America and saw firsthand what the industry measures in numbers: the region’s growth is not just revenue; It is hunger. More streaming data than never illuminated the growing demand that already existed. Now the industry is building infrastructure around it.

The same passion that rocked James shows is feeding opportunities for newcomers willing to jump, and the industry is now directing customers to the south, with the certainty that demand will find them there.

“Arrive early on this market”says Garcia. “Even if you don’t have fans yet, it will grow.”

*This story is part of the Rolling Stone US series “Nuevos Futuros”, which celebrates Latin music and heritage. Read more here.

• CA7RIEL & PACO AMOROSO

• Kendrick Lamar

• Live nation

• Lollapalooza

• My Chemical Romance

• FUTURE NUEVES

• Oven

• Pierce The Veil

• Shawn James

• St. Vincent

• The Hives