There are musicians and readers who get irritated when articles celebrate the booming numbers of show business on a global scale, especially when they frame a supposed golden age of live performance. Yet both sides are true: live music in 2023 posted record revenue, and at the same time, most musicians and creators are working performers who struggle to move forward with little margin for error.
The gap between a star like Dani Martín, who can sell out 120,000 seats in a flash for eight nights at a major venue, and the dedicated, self-managed artist who must pay around 800 euros plus VAT to rent a small room, hire musicians and technicians, and pray the venue fills, is stark and grows every year. The star system consumes a larger slice of the cake, while the audience that cares about big events continues to grow. And all of this is real, including four-figure VIP tickets and financially precarious shows.
But has the middle class in music really vanished, as has been claimed for years, especially after the pandemic? It helps to define what we mean. Is it the ability to live off one’s music by filling clubs or theaters? Festivals like Guitar BCN or Mil·lenni have long targeted artists in that middle band. There are veteran names with a reliable audience and fresh faces alike, from Coque Malla to Maria Hein, from Xoel López to Boye, and from Sole Giménez to Andrea Motis, Maria Rodés, Carlos Núñez, and Rodrigo Cuevas. These events demonstrate that a thriving mid-tier scene still exists, even if the path is uneven and competitive.
What is truly hard is moving from the lower class to the middle tier. It’s the ground where a surge of talent and ambition concentrates, especially when more musicians are well trained than ever before—five higher education institutions in Barcelona alone—and when recording at home with proper equipment has become realistically feasible. That landscape can foster frustration: students in classrooms might be told that many will end up producing beautiful recordings to share with friends rather than finding sustained work in venues, and that reality is something current and future players must navigate with grit and persistence. The result is a field ripe with potential yet demanding in practice, where the dream of a steady musical career often meets the hard math of gigs, equipment, and touring costs.