Picture from Pitchfork
The weather is heating up, and it’s time for summer vacations, barbeques, and music! This summer is bringing many big names to the stage for concert tours, and music festivals. Curious to know which ones have been the most talked about so far?
We checked out the social buzz for some of this year’s most talked about concerts and festivals in the last 30 days (April 22-May 22).
Summer Concerts
Three of the most popular (i.e. talked about) concerts this summer inlcude Beyonce and Jay Z’s “On the Run” tour which kicks off June 25, Lady Gaga’s “ARTPOP” tour which started in May, and Justin Timberlake’s “20/20 Experience” kicking off in New York this July.
Most of the content about these summer tours were shared primarily Facebook, Facebook Like (which we see as separate sharing service, you’ll see more below), and then Twitter. You may or may not be surprised to know that Beyonce and Jay Z’s tour was more popularly shared Facebook than the other two concerts, making up 45% of shared content about these summer tours. Justin Timberlake’s concert was interestingly most popular via Facebook Like share; 47% of shared content about his tour happens through this service.
Music Festivals
Even though Coachella is behind us, June weekends aren’t lacking with popular outdoor music festivals. Governors Ball begins June 6th, Bonnaroo starts June 12, and Firefly Music Festival is June 19-22.
As you can see in the chart below, there are differences in the services used to share content about each of the festivals. Twitter is the place to talk about the Governors Ball, while Facebook is the place to be to chat about Firefly, and Bonnaroo gets a great amount of shares through the Facebook Like. It’ll be interesting to see how the services used for sharing changes during festival weekend. 
We know mobile sharing is popular during concerts, but we found that mobile sharing occurs prior to events as well. For summer concerts, nearly 50% of shared content about the three tours happened on a mobile device. The sharing happened 1.5X more from an Android device than an iOS device. Sharing about summer festivals came from mobile devices 37% of the time and iOS devices were 2X more popular than Android devices.
The Mobile Story
Mobile sharing is popular during concerts (no brainer), but we found that mobile sharing occurs well before events as well. For summer concert tours, nearly 50% of shared content about the three tours happened on a mobile device. The sharing happened 1.5X more from an Android device than an iOS device. Sharing about music festivals came from mobile devices 37% of the time, and iOS devices were 2X more popular than Android devices.
Tickets for concerts and festivals are purchased months in advance which allows for plenty of time for social chatter and hype. If your audience is interested in music and concerts, you’ll find them using their smartphones to share and engage with content on Facebook and Twitter.
How are you reaching the summer concertgoer?