Songs — “Chasing Pavements” and “All I Ask”
A custom-built arena, a living legend, and two massive hit songs — enjoy it!
Today, we have two songs from Adele — “Chasing Pavements” and “All I Ask.” Both are remarkable songs, and were massive hits.
This month, they fit into a larger context of live music, as both were performed in the past few weeks during her live 10-show extravaganza in Munich, where a custom-built 75,000-seat stadium was created to back this legendary artist.
Adele loves to perform, but she does not like to travel. She was perhaps the first artist in their prime to have a Vegas residency for that very reason.
Pulling back the lens, and you realize this is an amazing time for live music. Last year, the 100 highest-grossing live tours decimated the prior record for revenues, and 2024 is on-track to beat this high watermark, with Taylor Swift, the Foo Fighters, George Strait, Adele, Chris Stapleton, Kenny Chesney, and more bringing out music fans in droves.
The challenge for the big acts now seems to be dialing in the right ticket prices.
On the local level, it’s also an inspiring time, as venues are full, festivals are plentiful, and fans have tons of great options.
Investors are feeding the trend. From the Sphere in Las Vegas to this custom-built stadium for one of the great singers of our time, the amount of money flowing to make these shows is extraordinary as well.
And while ticket prices are high, that’s not keeping younger people away, as GenZ fans are spending the most on average per ticket across the generations now.
Munich’s Adele Arena <<— click on this link, it’s worth it — spans the equivalent of 60 football (soccer) pitches. The stage structure spans 43,000 square feet, and includes a $44M LED screen measuring 721 feet wide and 98 feet high, making it the largest screen of all time used for a stage show.
Compare the benefit of this kind of investment, where hundreds of thousands of fans had a harmless, blissful, joyous time with music, compared to the investments in technology that are slowly leeching away many of the things it took decades or centuries to evolve into useful form, and you might want to reevaluate where technologists fall in the hierarchy of admirability.
- Speaking of technology — for all the money spent, you may notice a lag between the performer and the images behind her.
- It will be interesting to see if this is corrected if a concert film is produced.
The city of Munich, which did not contribute to funding the project, is estimated to have benefited in extra revenues from tourism and taxes of $618M.
Enjoy!