By Liz Hobday in Melbourne

SINGER-songwriter Missy Higgins has sold out 22 concerts in one day for her upcoming anniversary tour.

Two concerts at Sydney’s State Theatre and two at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre sold out in five minutes on Wednesday, and by evening the third shows at both venues had also sold out.

Tickets to performances in Brisbane, Canberra, Newcastle, Adelaide and Perth were also quickly snapped up, and promoters Frontier Touring have added 12 new dates.

It takes the autumn-winter tour to 33 concerts around Australia with a combined audience of almost 50,000 people.

It’s not quite the stadium numbers Taylor Swift will see at her Eras tour over summer, but Higgins thanked fans for jumping in to buy tickets.

“I’m blown away by this response,” she said in a statement.

“It’s been a tough couple of years to be honest so it feels great to be able to look forward to doing this tour next autumn.”

“I’m particularly keen to share some of the new music I’m working on right now as well as revisiting all those old tunes I haven’t played in ages.”

The tour celebrates the 20th anniversary of her debut album, “The Sound of White”, with the release of a deluxe reissue on double CD and LP.

The album sold more than a million copies and won six ARIAs with singles “Scar”, “Ten Days” and “The Special Two” still getting radio play.

The “Second Act Tour” will see Higgins perform all of “The Sound of White” as part of a two-act show, as well as showcasing tunes from her forthcoming album.

Figures from Live Performance Australia show the industry made $2 billion in 2022, with 24.2 million people attending ticketed shows.

The numbers are the second highest on record and show live music continuing to recover after COVID-19.

Contemporary music audiences were bigger than the AFL, and musical theatre was bigger than the NRL, said the organisation’s chief executive Evelyn Richardson.

But some parts of the industry are dealing with critical workforce shortages, and soaring production and touring costs, while audience behaviour is changing due to cost of living pressures, she said.

Victoria and NSW combined accounted for two-thirds of attendance and revenue in 2022.

Contemporary music saw the biggest recovery with revenue of $706 million, after recording the worst results in two decades during the pandemic, with music festivals bringing in another $234 million.