San Siro at any cost: the Italian music industry’s property bubble

“A stadium concert should be a celebration, the culmination of a love affair spanning years with your audience, not a competition to see who’s got the biggest.” When Tiziano Ferro spoke these words in 2023, he had already recognised the problem. Today, performing in a stadium is no longer the ultimate career achievement for an artist; rather, it has become the focal point for some of the live music industry’s most significant values: audience, revenue, visibility and status.

According to the SIAE Report, in 2025 large venues (stadiums, arenas and facilities capable of accommodating at least 30,000 people) accounted for 0.4 per cent of events and accounted for 35.6 per cent of total expenditure in the pop, rock and light music sectors. And it is within this niche market segment that San Siro stands out. Not only because it is one of the few venues capable of accommodating large crowds, but also because it is located in Milan, the Italian hub of the music industry. As with a prime property, location matters: performing there means conquering one of the most recognisable and coveted venues on the market, thereby cementing one’s status.

In 2025, San Siro was the Italian venue with the highest attendance, welcoming a total of 971,850 people across 18 concerts. Its significance is also reflected in its history, which over the years has seen different generations of artists perform there. Vasco Rossi performed at the Meazza for the first time in 1990, Ligabue in 1997, Ultimo in 2022 and Blanco in 2023, aged just twenty. Annalisa will make her debut on 12 June 2027, after more than 15 years in the music business. Once an artist has performed at San Siro, their career takes on a new significance, even in the eyes of the market.

But does a career necessarily have to mean ever-larger concerts? Not for Cesare Cremonini, who, having performed at San Siro for the first time in 2018 after nearly twenty years in the business, chose to take a step back just when he could have continued to fill stadiums. Now, with his new album “Amateur” due for release on 23 October, he has decided to return to indoor arenas. A choice made possible by the recognition he has already achieved. Because San Siro may be the pinnacle, without necessarily becoming the benchmark for every subsequent tour.

But whilst scaling up may be a choice for the artist, for the market it also means seeking to extract greater value from every single concert. According to Live Nation’s Premium Audience Survey 2024, VIP and premium experiences now account for 18 per cent of live music revenue, compared with 9 per cent in 2019. The logic is that of a revenue stream: it is no longer enough to sell a seat; one must sell the location, the access and the experience that that location guarantees. The show thus increasingly resembles a property development, with prices determined by location and the exclusivity of the services.

Even the term ‘sold out’ should be viewed through an accounting lens. San Siro’s nominal capacity does not match its actual sellable capacity, as the stage, production control rooms and security measures render certain sections of the stadium unavailable. The scarcity of available seats thus fuels the perceived value of the event, whilst buying a ticket becomes the first act of the show, with virtual queues of hundreds of thousands of users and the risk of being left out of the event. As in the property market, value does not depend solely on what one buys, but on the number of people who want the same limited space.

The revenue generated by the concert extends far beyond the stadium walls. According to a survey by AssoConcerti and the University of Pisa, in 2024 major shows in the Milan area generated an economic impact of around 400 million euros for the local economy. For Taylor Swift’s two concerts alone, Confcommercio Milano estimated 176.6 million. In 2025, concerts by Bruce Springsteen, Dua Lipa, Linkin Park and Gabry Ponte generated over 96.5 million euros. Almost half of the audience came from outside the region and more than 15 per cent from abroad. Excluding the ticket price, most attendees spent between 160 and 260 euros per person on their stay. A major concert therefore generates value that extends far beyond the ticket price and is distributed across hotels, catering, transport, retail and services. For this reason, the City Council requires organisers to contribute 80 cents per paying ticket, earmarked for the improvement of public transport.

The market is growing and generating wealth, yet it is concentrating ever more value around a handful of massive events: this is the dual nature of the race to the stadium. But whilst San Siro is increasingly becoming an infrastructure to be monetised, it remains to be seen what will become of its significance for artists. A stadium demands a repertoire, stage presence and performance stamina. When the repertoire is still limited, stage design, special effects and guest appearances can become the main attraction. This isn’t a bad thing in itself — after all, pop is entertainment — but when the stage design ends up making up for what the music lacks, the balance is reversed.

Perhaps this is the point of the race to the stadium. Not whether it can be filled, but what it still means to fill it. If reaching San Siro becomes a rite of passage in every career, the risk is that this accolade will lose its value. A full stadium remains a powerful image, but ultimately, what makes it special is not the tickets sold, but the songs.