Business Data & Benchmarks · United States

Musical Groups and Artists Revenue Benchmark

Musical groups and artists performing for their own account, from bands and orchestras to touring acts.

NAICS 711130, 2022 editionUnited States data by defaultSources and dates shown

Average Musical Group Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every musical group or artist with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing one by the other gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment below.

≈$1,239,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

5,471

Employer establishments in the United States, 2022

as published $6.8 billion

Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022

How this is calculated: about $6.8 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 5,471 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $1,239,000 per employer establishment. Only groups with paid employees appear here, so most working musicians are absent from this page.

Scope: Musical Groups and Artists, NAICS 711130. Classified separately in group 7111: 711110 Theater Companies and Dinner Theaters; 711120 Dance Companies; 711190 Other Performing Arts Companies. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed July 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Endpoint only

Performing arts companies, NAICS 7111, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

53.1%the year-five count as a share of the starting count

Five-year establishment continuation benchmarkLine chart of industry continuation, endpoints only: 53.1 percent at 5 years. 616 establishments first reported paid employment in 2018; BusinessNES calculation from Census BDS.100%75%50%25%0%2014-2018 cohort range: 40.2 to 53.1 percentStart: 100 percent, the starting count5 years: 53.1 percent of the starting count100.053.1Start5 years616 establishments first reported paid employment in 2018; BusinessNES calculation from Census BDS.
Five years on, this industry group counted about 53 establishments aged five for every 100 that first reported paid employment in 2018. The count does not fall every year in this group, so only the two endpoints are drawn rather than a line implying a steady path. Census compares counts by age rather than following the same businesses, so read it as a broad continuation indicator for the industry group, not as a tracked survival rate.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 40.2 to 53.1 percent. This benchmark covers Performing arts companies, NAICS 7111, as a whole, and this category accounts for 5,471 of the 9,811 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

MeasureValue
Annual payroll share of receipts, United States≈28%

Payroll share of receipts, Musical Groups and Artists, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 28.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, covering staff on the payroll rather than what the performers take for their own work.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes, payments to musicians engaged as contractors and owner compensation, and most performers in this field are paid as contractors.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

MeasureValue
Paid employees per employer establishment7.4
Employer establishments per firm1

Scale and ownership, Musical Groups and Artists, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 7.4 people, and the industry counted 1.0 employer establishments per firm.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Sources and Methodology

Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.

The Census counts employer establishments, meaning those with paid employees, so a group that pays everyone as a contractor may not appear at all.