The year in ticketing: Five key trends from 2024

Nothing stands still in the ever-evolving ticketing world as the last 12 months have shown in abundance. Here, in the opening chapter from our latest International Ticketing Report, IQ dissects five key trends from 2024 that will continue to impact the business in 2025.

Dynamic ticketing
Yield management strategies, such as pricing by date, location, or product (VIP tickets), variable scaling, and inventory management, such as ‘slow ticketing’ increasingly enable promoters and artists to maximise revenues on shows and respond to consumer demand for different types of experience.

But this issue hit headlines in September through the use of one the most controversial yield management strategies – dynamic pricing – for a small proportion of tickets to Oasis’s UK and Ireland stadium shows.

Widespread anger among ticket-buyers, who queued online for hours to find they were offered tickets for more than twice the amount they expected to pay, resulted in the UK government announcing it would investigate the practice of dynamic pricing alongside its consultation into secondary ticketing. Shortly afterwards, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a formal investigation into Ticketmaster, to assess whether the company engaged in ‘unfair commercial practices’ prohibited by UK consumer protection law. The regulator will look into whether fans were given ‘clear and timely’ information to explain that the tickets could be subject to dynamic pricing, how this would operate, and the price they would pay for any tickets. The CMA’s Irish equivalent, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, also opened an investigation into the sales of shows for the band’s Dublin gigs.

A Ticketmaster spokesperson said: “We are committed to cooperating with the CMA and look forward to sharing more facts about the ticket sale with them.”

One exec said around 10% of all UK shows were already being sold under dynamic pricing, estimating it would increase by 30-40% in the very near future

What effect the controversy will have on the future of dynamic pricing in the UK and elsewhere remains to be seen. While the practice is widespread in the USA, other markets are slower on the uptake. Nonetheless, at this year’s ILMC, ticketing bosses were bullish about its growth, with many predicting it will increase in prominence sooner than many think. One exec said around 10% of all UK shows were already being sold under dynamic pricing, estimating it would increase by 30-40% in the very near future. Others we’ve spoken to from around the world think this method of pricing part (or all) of the tour is here to stay – with it becoming “commonplace” in the next 18 months, according to one exec of a major multinational ticketer. Whether that proves true will depend at least in part on the outcomes of the UK and Irish regulatory investigations.

Diversification of sales channels
Whether it’s selling tickets through popular social channels such as TikTok and Facebook; digital service providers (DSPs) including Spotify; or a network of ‘agents’; the demand for broader outlets through which to sell tickets has really taken off in 2024.

Social channels mean promoters can directly reach artists’ fans, selling tickets to live shows without requiring audiences to come off the platform.

Companies such as CTS Eventim and Ticketmaster have launched broad partnerships with TikTok (Eventim-owned TicketOne in Italy is seeing particularly strong results from this, reports CEO/general manager Stefano Lionetti); while AXS also sells through the social platform.

Following a pilot in the USA in 2022, Ticketmaster expanded its TikTok partnership to include more than 20 markets. So far, the TM/TikTok partnership has seen successful campaigns for a variety of acts and sports teams, including Niall Horan, The Kooks, Burna Boy, and Shania Twain.

In addition, the growth of music tourism is not only driving demand for hotel and concert packages but an increase in demand from promoters to sell tickets via non-traditional outlets such as travel agencies. Consequently, there’s pressure on ticketing company APIs to be sophisticated enough to manage multiple outlets while staying up to date in real-time.

Promoters are increasingly seeking earlier or full access to advance ticket funds in order to manage cashflow for increasingly costly productions

The rise of B2B services
The explosion in the number of companies offering software that enables event organisers to sell their own tickets without the need for a traditional B2C ticketing firm is being driven by two key factors: data and cashflow.

Firstly, the age-old debate about who owns ticket-buyer data has heated up in recent years as opportunities to analyse more and more specific market segments have become increasingly sophisticated. B2B firms offer promoters rich sources of consumer data and behaviour that previously were the domain of B2C ticketers – and it’s proving a compelling offer to many, as the proliferation of white-label firms around the world attests.

Secondly, promoters are increasingly seeking earlier or full access to advance ticket funds in order to manage cashflow for increasingly costly productions. Of course, there’s no suggestion that B2B companies advocate nor encourage it, but the temptation to mingle customer escrow accounts (where money should be held until the event has taken place, in case of cancellation) with operational budgets certainly exists. However, the past is littered with examples of companies who’ve used customer ticket money to cover day-to-day cashflow, only to come unstuck when a cancellation happens and the money has been spent.

Whatever event organisers’ motivations, it’s obvious that B2B platforms have gained such traction that they’re mentioned in the same breath as the traditional B2C firms.

Squeezed margins
Technological advances mean ticketing companies are offering more and more complicated services to promoters. From timed admission to select-a-seat, anti-bot, and queuing systems to data analysis and ID verification, gone are the days when ticket companies simply sold a ticket to a fan.

But this means that – after rebates and commissions – the B2B ticket licence fee or B2C ticket margin has diminished. What will this mean for the profitability of ticketing companies or even the fees consumers are charged? It will be interesting to find out as this issue plays out in the coming years.

Some companies are actively working to ensure their entire business operation is carbon neutral

Sustainability
The 1975’s first carbon-neutral show at London’s The O2 in February demonstrated the feasibility of shows that have minimal impact on the environment – something that’s increasingly in demand from acts and audiences alike.
Companies such as Asia-based Total Ticketing are now offering the integration of carbon-offset options at the point of purchase, enabling fans to minimise their impact on the environment – something increasing numbers of artists are insisting on.

And while digital ticketing means the days of paper tickets are (mostly) behind us, it doesn’t mean this part of the entertainment industry is now eco-friendly. Some companies are actively working to ensure their entire business operation is carbon neutral. For example, self-service platform Ticket Tailor worked with carbon removal marketplace Supercritical to first become carbon neutral in 2021. The London-based ticketer now measures three ‘scopes’ to ensure it removes the carbon associated with its activities. The first is emissions it can ‘own or control’ such as from laptops, coffee machines, and other office utilities. The second is indirect emissions from the generation of electricity. While the final is carbon relating to activities across the value chain, such as cloud servers, employee commutes, business travel, food and drink consumption, and more.

Efforts across the industry to reduce the impact of shows on the environment will no doubt see this trend grow.

• The 2024 International Ticketing Report (formerly the International Ticketing Yearbook) is now available in print, digitally, and on the dedicated year-round mini-site. To purchase a print copy of the report, please email [email protected].

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