Market Report: Austria

Austria may seem small, but sitting at the heart of Europe and being blessed with a cultured, affluent, and enthusiastic audience means the territory has significant clout in the live events market.

“In Austria, the classical music and cultural sector represents a market with significant potential, as do fairs, museums, and exhibitions,” says Eventim’s Dirk Colombet.

“Our diverse ticketing solutions are well-suited to meet the needs of event organisers in these areas, offering features such as time slot management, upselling options, membership programmes, and self-service ticket exchanges.”

Primary ticketing
Two companies still dominate the ticketing landscape – CTS Eventim, operating as OeTicket, is the clear leader when it comes to music, sports, and most other forms of live entertainment, while the City of Vienna-owned Wien Ticket covers a huge range of music, cultural, and sporting events (it also arranges a significant number of exclusive ticketing partnerships).

Other companies remain significant, however, such as Ticketmaster Austria and DEAG-owned myticket.at. There are also various B2B ticketing solution providers that allow venues – particularly smaller, more independent ones – to sell their own tickets, and third-party services like Ticket Gretchen.

Newer companies, such as B.A.M Ticketing and NTRY Ticketing, tend to focus on ticketing tech, such as NFTs, collectibles, and smart ticketing systems, something the bigger companies are also keeping up with. Last year, CTS Eventim launched OeTicket Light, a platform that allows vendors to conveniently sell tickets themselves.

And the likes of OeTicket also have one eye on diversification and expanding their offering.

“To provide customers with a go-to place for classical performances, our Klassikticket brand was launched, and a dedicated campaign is promoting the new platform klassikicket.at,” says Colombet. “This platform serves as a valuable platform providing classical music promoters with access to a targeted audience, increased visibility, marketing support, and streamlined ticketing processes.”

“This platform serves as a valuable platform providing classical music promoters with access to a targeted audience, increased visibility, marketing support, and streamlined ticketing processes.”

Distribution of sales
As in Germany, tradition dies hard in Austria, and many fans – particularly older ones – are wedded to the ability to pay cash for a physical ticket at the many kiosks, outlets, and physical ticket shops that still exist across the country. Many cultural institutions, who sell predominantly to tourists, also still rely on physical tickets. But this is changing.

“While this still varies significantly by genre, venue, and promoter, overall, around 90% of tickets are digital”

“While this still varies significantly by genre, venue, and promoter, overall, around 90% of tickets are digital,” says Klaus Zemke, Ticketmaster’s regional vice president, Central Europe, and managing director, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.

Younger fans are driving digital adoption. While demand for solutions like CTS Eventim’s EVENTIM.Pass have proved popular, it remains available only for a select numebr of tours and events.

Secondary ticketing
Unusually for a sizeable market, the resale of tickets and scalping have not typically been much of an issue – only when it comes to the very biggest and most popular A-list superstars.

“Scalping does occur on the willhaben.at platform, and of course there’s Viagogo, too,” says Franz Erhardt, CEO of promoter Barracuda Music. And for once, the largest companies have got out ahead of the issue.

“Ticket transfer and resale are products that fans and event organisers love, and we are pushing their adoption across more events and venues,” says Zemke.

“Ticket transfer and resale are products that fans and event organisers love, and we are pushing their adoption across more events and venues”

“We recently launched an advertising campaign to increase awareness of Eventim’s Fansale.at as a secure ticket resale marketplace,” adds Colombet. “According to a survey, our efforts resulted in a significant increase to the marketplace.”

International/domestic splits & genres
According to Spotify data, pop and rock remain the most popular genres, with hip-hop and rap still growing in popularity. Yet Schlager music remains a cultural juggernaut, especially when it comes to huge, outdoor summer shows and festivals.

And although many stadia and arena shows, particularly in and around Vienna, are dominated by high- profile international artists, the market for domestic artists is extremely strong, in part because of support from some ticketing companies.

“Our global reach lets us help rising acts and grassroots venues connect with wider audiences,” says Zemke. “We’re excited to work with more independent promoters to make this happen.”

Country Profile: Austria

Mountainous Austria might have been designed as the hub of Central Europe, sharing borders with Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Czechia.

As a result, it draws on a far bigger market than its own 9m-strong population indicates, meaning it has plenty of shows and promoters.

This remains a muscular market with a taste for big events. Live Nation GSA and its local partner Leutgeb Entertainment Group inaugurated a new 60,000-cap concert venue at Racino, an open-air equestrian park in Ebreichsdorf, just south of Vienna, with the three-day Rolling Loud Europe – 2024’s only European edition of the hip-hop festival franchise – and Racino Rocks, a one-dayer starring Metallica and Five Finger Death Punch, among others.

“We are putting the metropolis of Vienna and its charisma at the centre.”

Live Nation GSA CEO Marek Lieberberg has further plans for the site. “We are here to stay,” he said in May. “We are putting the metropolis of Vienna and its charisma at the centre. The visitors come from Vienna, will go back there and spend the night there.”

Live Nation is a big hitter in the Austrian market, often teaming with Leutgeb, just as it did for its Adele shows in Munich this summer. Enhanced security measures were in place for Coldplay’s four-night stand at the Ernst Happel Stadium in late August – the first concerts to take place at the venue since the Taylor Swift’s three Eras shows were cancelled when authorities foiled a terrorist plot to attack them.

Also under the Live Nation umbrella is agency and promoter Goodlive Artists, which launched in Vienna in 2021 and was acquired along with its parent group the following year.

CTS Eventim is behind two more of Austria’s major promoters: Barracuda Music and Arcadia Live.

CTS Eventim is behind two more of Austria’s major promoters: Barracuda Music, which came on board in 2019, and Arcadia Live, which launched in 2015 with the backing of FKP Scorpio, among others.

Barracuda, a former longtime independent, was the promoter of the Taylor Swift shows, though it remains unbowed – its big shows next year including Iron Maiden and Papa Roach. It also maintains a powerful position in the festival market with events including Nova Rock and FM4 Frequency. The former drew 200,000 to Nickelsdorf over four days in June, with Green Day, Måneskin, and Bring Me The Horizon leading the line; the latter co-opted a night of Ed Sheeran’s +–=÷× Tour, adding Raye, The Offspring, Yungblud, Cro, and others over three more nights.

Arcadia Live organises a 30,000-cap open-air series, Lido Sounds, which takes place in Linz in June (Kings of Leon, Parov Stelar, Sam Smith, and others in 2024) and numerous other shows, small and large.

“Moving the curfew forward to 10pm will unfortunately be a reason for many big musicians to stop coming to Vienna in the summer”

However, its July METAStadt Open Air in Vienna hit a speedbump this year with the imposition of a 10pm curfew, which the promoter warned jeopardises the future of the series, whose headliners included Jungle, Cypress Hill, AIR, and Korn this year.

The move led to renewed concerns over Vienna’s perceived hostility to large music events. “Moving the curfew forward to 10pm will unfortunately be a reason for many big musicians to stop coming to Vienna in the summer,” said Arcadia Live in a statement.

Among Austria’s dwindling band of indies is Alex Nussbaumer of al-x, long-term promoter of Iggy Pop and The Cure, whose late-2024 shows include a three-date Austrian tour for Roachford. Another staunch independent, boutique artist agency Georg Leitner Productions, has been in operation since 1977, with an international footprint and a strong line in legends, tribute acts, exhibitions, and family entertainment.

Arena Market: Austria

Business is roaring back to pre-pandemic levels in many European markets and arenas are reporting fast sell-outs at the top end of the business.

But economic struggles and a cost-of-living crisis mean that consumers are being more cautious with their spending, resulting in sluggish sales for mid-levels acts in many countries. Costs are also a concern for many arenas, which are working hard to control the price of staffing and energy.

Nonetheless, across the continent, sustainability is a strong focus, as venues recognise that being more environmentally friendly also means cost savings. The future looks bright – but with a level of caution.

In one of its first forays into mainland Europe, Oak View Group won the bid to construct a €384m, 20,000-capacity arena in Vienna. However, in October 2023, an Austrian court revoked the decision, leaving the “state-of-the-art” venue – initially scheduled to start construction next year – in limbo.

“This beautiful city has always been the jewel in Europe’s cultural landscape, but it had no arena to match it”

“This beautiful city has always been the jewel in Europe’s cultural landscape, but it had no arena to match it,” OVG boss Tim Leiweke said to Die Presse following the decision.

Bosses at the capital’s current arena, the 16,000-capacity Wiener Stadthalle, might disagree with Leiweke, as it continues its reign as Austria’s largest arena. The multipurpose space will host The National, Jonas Brothers, Kygo, and Billie Eilish over the next 12 months.

Outside Vienna, Austria has a number of multipurpose spaces, like Messe Congress Graz Betriebsgesellschaft in the nation’s second-largest city, Graz. The city hall and open-air arena portions of the eight-venue complex boast a combined capacity of over 35,000, with the indoor Stadthalle arena available to host 14,500 people.

“People are being more selective than before due to ticket prices but are generally spending money again to enjoy the live experience”

In 2023, the complex, dubbed “a one-stop store” by Christof Strimitzer, head of marketing and communications, hosted roughly 300 events and welcomed over 620,000 visitors. The desire for events is steadily growing for the venue’s patrons, he says, with entertainment options expanding past solely music.

“There has been a slow comeback, but we are now back to a good level. People are being more selective than before due to ticket prices but are generally spending money again to enjoy the live experience,” he says. “Family entertainment and sports segments are very much in demand.”

Over in Innsbruck, the 10,000-capacity Olympiahalle primarily functions as an ice hockey venue but will bring in Deep Purple and German rapper Ski Aggu later this year.