Rock concert ticket sales dropped sharply last year, sounding another sour note for the beleaguered music industry.

Total box-office sales of the world's top 50 tours fell 12% in 2010 to $2.93bn (£1.9bn), down from last year's $3.34bn, according to an annual survey by the music-business publication Pollstar. The total number of tickets sold fell 15% as new stars such as Lady Gaga failed to prove a match for veteran rockers such as U2, who cancelled the American leg of their 2010 tour because of 50-year-old lead singer Bono's bad back.

Bon Jovi, led by 48-year-old Jon Bon Jovi, had the biggest tour of the year with the band's 80 concerts worldwide grossing $201.1m. Veteran heavy rockers AC/DC (a five-piece band with a combined age not far short of 300) and U2 took the next two slots in the Pollstar poll. Sir Paul McCartney, the Eagles and former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters, 67, all made the top 10, underlining the music industry's reliance on its elder statesmen.

The youngest stars in the top 10 were Lady Gaga, 24, who took the fourth slot with $133.6m in sales and Canadian big-band vocalist Michael Bublé, 35, who came in sixth with $104.2m. Teen sensation Justin Bieber came in 17th with gross ticket sales of $48.3m. Much of the top 50 reads like a 1980s radio-station playlist: Tom Petty, Aerosmith, Rod Stewart, Rush, Depeche Mode, Elton John, Whitney Houston, Cher and Simply Red all polled highly.

The drop in ticket revenue is another blow for an industry still struggling with the impact of digital technology on recorded-music sales. Live concerts have been a bright spot in recent times, with increases in gross revenues in eight of the previous nine years. But that growth has been largely been driven by rising ticket prices, with the number of tickets sold remaining steady.

Concerts have become highly profitable for the musicians themselves, with touring grosses rocketing as ticket prices have risen. Worldwide, the face values of tickets increased 3.9% on average to $76.69 in 2010, up from $73.83 in 2009.

But the high prices have come under pressure as western economies have weakened. Poor sales have led promoters to offer steep discounts on concerts and cancel or postpone dates for even popular acts such as the Jonas Brothers, Christina Aguilera and Simon & Garfunkel.

Although ticket prices rose slightly worldwide, in the US the average ticket price for the top 50 tours dropped 2% to $64.74, Pollstar reported.

The discounting has been led by Live Nation, which became the world's biggest promoter this year after merging with Ticketmaster. In November, Live Nation's chief executive, Michael Rapino, told analysts that the company had "scrapped and fought" through the third quarter, offering heavy discounts to stem the damage of declining attendance. Live Nation said attendance from July to September had dropped 16% from a year ago, even after it cut prices for dozens of acts, including Rod Stewart.

Rapino believes the discounting will continue in 2011. "We know that if you lower the price, they'll come," he said. "If you want to get a casual concert buyer to come to a show that he's debating, we know in the amphitheatres that if you price it at $20 all-in they will come."

"Artists worked fewer shows in a tough business climate and those that overreached suffered the consequences," said Pollstar.