ILMC 36: The pros and cons of dynamic ticketing

Dynamic ticketing took centre stage during ILMC’s Ticketing: At What Price? panel, as leading executives debated whether the growth of market-based pricing in the US will be replicated in other major international markets.

Chaired by Kilimanjaro Live promoter Steve Tilley, the session brought together Eventim Norway and Sweden’s Marcia Titley, Ticketmaster UK’s Sarah Slater, AXS’ Chris Lipscomb and Arnaud Meersseman of AEG Presents.

Recalling going to see Bruce Springsteen at New York City’s Madison Square Garden last year, Tilley admitted he was prepared to pay “whatever it costs” to get into the show. However, Meersseman pointed out the practice was less established in territories like France, which made it harder to compete when booking top acts.

“We’re being pushed more and more by artists to incorporate dynamic pricing,” he said. “To them, it doesn’t make sense on a financial level to tour Europe compared to the US, where dynamic pricing is widely common.”

Meersseman speculated there would be “massive pushback” against the practice across France. “It’s also a question of accessibility, and fans are likely to end up wondering whether gigs will only be reserved for the rich in the not-too-distant future,” he warned.

Lipscomb added that dynamic pricing is already happening in several European markets, including the UK, and predicted it will increase in prominence sooner than most think.

“Ten percent of all UK shows may already be sold under dynamic pricing. In a couple of years, I’d expect that number will increase by 30%-40%”

“Ten percent of all UK shows may already be sold under dynamic pricing,” he said. “In a couple of years, I’d expect that number will increase by 30%-40% and maybe even rise higher to 70%-80%.”

The discussion segued into the secondary market, with Titley noting that while countries like Norway and Denmark put laws in place to prevent resales above face value, dynamic pricing was necessary to “drive higher revenue”.

“Ultimately, it’s all about protecting the fans, and I believe in combining tech and legislation to eradicate those excessive profit margins,” she said.

Ticketmaster has successfully introduced its own fan-to-fan resale service in the UK, and Slater said: “There are plenty of safe, face-value resale sites to sell your tickets to in the UK. We’ve heavily pushed the fact that tickets are transferable, but we always encourage customers to only buy from authorised sites.”

Sam Shemtob, director of Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing (FEAT), made a brief cameo to explain the role that the EU Digital Service Act will play in combating illegal ticket listings.

“If the ticket is being sold by a trader, that needs to be listed right at the front in a clearly accessible manner, and ticket resale sites will now be banned from using design tricks that manipulate consumers into decisions, such as “pop-ups” or giving prominence to specific choices,” explained Shemtob.

“Nailing the on-sale is absolutely critical, but marketing the shows via a long-term campaign with the artists up until the actual event is just as important”

Shemtob, who is collaborating with the European Commission on how to streamline a complaints mechanism for fans and promoters, launched ‘Make Tickets Fair’ last year — a campaign to educate and empower fans to avoid being ripped off by ticket touts.

“The platforms will also be required to make it clear throughout the buying process that the tickets listed are provided by a third party,” he said. “If a platform fails to do this and fans are led to believe that the tickets are provided by the platform itself, the platform can be held responsible for any tickets listed in contravention of national laws.

“All of these sites need to have a clear and simple complaint mechanism.”

Another major talking point was the perception that tickets must be bought as soon as they go on sale.

“Obviously, nailing the on-sale is absolutely critical, but marketing the shows via a long-term campaign with the artists up until the actual event is just as important,” Slater said, citing the concert industry’s shift towards post-sale engagement, which includes events integrations in collaborations with Spotify and TikTok, as well as creative marketing strategies to keep fans engaged.

“Most people think that if they can’t get tickets within the first hour, they’ll end up being scammed when attempting to purchase them at a later time,” added Meersseman. “It all ties to what we discussed earlier about properly educating customers on the ticket sale process.”

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