‘Tween superstar Miley Cyrus will return to the concert trail in the near future but when is the question. Her new album, “Breakout,” will be released on July 22, and she is currently filming a “Hannah Montana” movie. When that wraps, she shoots another season of her popular television show for Disney. And then another tour?
Chances are good that the singing sensation will be back on the road at some point in 2009. Her debut tour, the 70-date Best of Both Worlds Concert tour that spanned 2007 and early 2008, grossed $55.2 million and drew close to 1 million fans. It also caused a furor when demand far exceeded supply of tickets as tour promoter AEG Live had no idea how popular the tour would be.
“We felt good about the success of the last tour,” Chip McLean, senior vice president of Buena Vista Concerts for Disney Music Group, recently told Billboard. “We expected to do well given the quality and the success of the show, but we did not expect this type of frenzy.”
Concerning an upcoming tour, McLean said scheduling is a big issue. “One of the constraints we have is that due to her [filming] schedule, she can’t do what many bands do and tour until the demand is exhausted,” he added about her future touring plans. “We’re weighing the pros and cons of having her do multiple nights in one big city versus her doing one-nigh t shows in a number of smaller markets. Since she is someone who appeals to families, we can’t just have her play the top 15 markets. Families won’t be able to afford to make the trip, buy the tickets and pay for the hotel if we did that.”
The ticket price for the forthcoming tour is also a topic of discussion; the high ticket price was $65 on the last outing. “We felt good about that price point, but the ticketing system right now can be exploited, and it was,” McLean noted. “This tour was unique in the sense that it lifted the rock and exposed the underside of the secondary ticketing market.”
