Market Report: Brazil
Brazil is a monster music market, and while 2024 has seen a slight slowdown after two exceptional years, it remains comfortably South America’s number-one destination, as well as its most competitive ticketing environment.
Primary ticketing
Like Brazil itself, the country’s ticketing business is a vast patchwork of local, regional, and international players, from startups and legacy players to corporates.
Latterly, the major operators have worked hard to combine digital systems with broad urban reach, with the result that a once heavily regionalised industry now includes platforms capable of spanning not only the music capital São Paulo and runner-up Rio de Janeiro but, in some cases, cities including Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Recife, Brasília, and Salvador.
As Brazil has become a stalwart of the international circuit over the past decade, Ticketmaster and Eventim have established sturdy operations, though the domestic industry is also robust, including such heavyweight, diversified players as Ingresso Rápido and ingresso.com; self-service platforms like Sympla and Inti; social ticketing companies like Ingresse; promoter-owned sites such as T4F’s Tickets For Fun and Move Concerts’ Livepass; and any number of other players.
“Brazil is leading the charge in using facial recognition for event access”
The impact of inflation in Brazil, combined with a lull in international touring artists and an audience paying close attention to its wallet has lately softened the market in Brazil, but Eventim Brazil CEO Jorge Reis suggests that is when ticketing partners prove their worth.
“We are navigating volatile markets and rising supplier costs,” he says. “While promoters set ticket prices, we support them in finding innovative strategies to maintain profitability and attract audiences in this dynamic environment.
Distribution of sales
Where digital tickets stood at around 10% in Brazil barely a decade ago, these days they are close to ubiquitous. “More than 90% of our tickets are digital, featuring dynamic QR codes,” says Donovan Ferreti, managing director of Ticketmaster Brazil. “This innovation, which Ticketmaster introduced to the Brazilian market, has been quickly adopted by consumers and is now the standard for events. It’s a friendly, secure, and reliable process that has set a new benchmark in the industry.”
Reis notes that the shift to digital is affecting far more than just customer experience. “Data science is a key growth area, allowing us to leverage advanced analytics to uncover insights into customer behaviour, optimise marketing campaigns, and enhance event personalisation,” he says. “This enables promoters to implement effective targeting and engagement strategies, leading to increased ticket sales and audience satisfaction.”
“Clubs are now undergoing significant changes in governance, incorporating business practices and investing heavily in innovation”
Once known for its stubborn adherence to paper tickets, Brazil these days is a technological leader, at least in its most sophisticated urban markets.
“Brazil is leading the charge in using facial recognition for event access, with over 50% of major soccer teams adopting our biometric solution, Bepass,” says Gabriel Benarros, founding CEO of Ingresse. “Palmeiras, Brazil’s third-largest soccer team, has completely replaced QR codes with our biometric technology.”
Value of market
Statista projects revenue in the music events market to reach $177.10m in 2024 and $196.80m by 2028, fuelled not only by shows but also festivals, which represent a notable growth market in the wake of breakout successes such as Rock in Rio, The Town, and Lollapalooza Brazil.
The overall event tickets market is more than five times that size ($970.4m), with sport worth $528.4m and cinema $264.9m.
Secondary ticketing
In April, a new bill criminalised ticket scalping for concerts, plays, and other events – named the Taylor Swift Act in recognition of scalping scandals around Swift’s June 2023 shows in Rio and São Paulo, which saw Time For Fun fined by consumer protection watchdog Procon-SP. Those who sell tickets at above face value can now be fined 50 times the value of the tickets and imprisoned for up to two years.
International/domestic splits & genres
Popular music includes funk carioca, samba, sertanejo, música popular Brasileira, forró, and pagode, with Anglo and Latin shows a high-profile yet relatively marginal concern – but the market continues to evolve, with a particular resurgence in pagoda among the trends reported by Ingresse.
Cultural analysis
Brazil’s ticketing business draws its momentum from numerous large sectors, including movies and sport. Soccer is in the throes of a particular transformation, with several clubs becoming private companies, rather than associations. “Recent changes in law have enabled clubs to be acquired by individuals – such as American businessman John Textor and former soccer player Ronaldo – or investment funds,” says Benarros. “These clubs are now undergoing significant changes in governance, incorporating business practices and investing heavily in innovation.”
Taxes & charges
The convenience fee charged by companies that sell tickets online can often be 20% of the total price, plus delivery.
Country Profile: Brazil
The years after Covid signalled a boom period for the Brazilian live business as an unprecedented wagon train of local, regional, and international tours snaked across this huge nation, from São Paulo to Rio to Curitiba to Porto Alegre. They’re still coming, but promoters report a certain softness to the market in 2024.
“Brazil is doing well as a whole, but the impact of inflation has trimmed a bit of the excitement of a year ago,” said Phil Rodriguez, CEO of pan-continental independent Move Concerts, in IQ’s recent LatAm report. “That said, it’s a monster market due to its size, which makes it more resilient than the other smaller markets,” he noted, in a year that sees Move shows in Brazil for Eric Clapton, Ne-Yo, Iron Maiden, and Keane.
Part of Brazil’s issue is the broader lull in touring numbers as big names get their breath back from 2023 and 2024, plus there’s a weakening of consumer demand due to high inflation.
A knot of veteran promoters accounts for much of the international traffic, along with some new market entrants. Live Nation, T4F, Move Concerts, Mercury Concerts under Jose Muniz, Luiz Oscar Niemeyer’s Bonus Track Entretenimento, and Music On Events, run by André Matalon and William Crunfli, all boast well-known brands and decades of experience.
“Being 40 years in this business, I can say that Brazil is a stable market, with normal fluctuations from time to time, but with a lot of opportunities for artists and promoters”
Former T4F executive Niemeyer, CEO and president of Bonus Track since 2021, has promoted some of the biggest concerts in Brazilian history, and added to his tally in May with a show by Madonna on Copacabana Beach that drew 1.6m spectators. He also promoted seven stadium dates with Roger Waters and 11 with Paul McCartney.
“Being 40 years in this business, I can say that Brazil is a stable market, with normal fluctuations from time to time, but with a lot of opportunities for artists and promoters,” says Niemeyer.
A significant recent entrant is sometime Bonus Track partner 30e, which positions itself as “the new generation of live entertainment.” In addition to several festival brands, including MITA, Ultra Brasil, and Knotfest Brasil, 30e ran Mariah Carey’s largest solo show to date, selling 50,000 tickets at Allianz Parque in São Paulo, while the 2025 schedule includes The Offspring, Simply Red, and Twenty-One Pilots.
“The business landscape for international artists in Brazil is currently very positive. However, it’s important to develop a solid strategy for a successful visit to the country,” says CEO Pepeu Correa. “In this context, 30e has distinguished itself, with a team of over 100 professionals dedicated to crafting a marketing plan that aligns with the artist’s career and message. The focus is on enhancing the audience’s experience during performances, which is crucial for success.”
Live Nation has been in the market in its own right since 2017 under Alexandre Faria. LN LatAm president Bruce Moran remembers the market when international tours were rare and usually brief – which these days they most certainly aren’t.
“The business landscape for international artists in Brazil is currently very positive. However, it’s important to develop a solid strategy for a successful visit to the country”
“Business for international talent continues to be great,” he says. “Bruno Mars has sold more than 800,000 tickets to date; The Weeknd sold out Estádio MorumBIS in São Paulo; and in September, Travis Scott sold out his stadium show in São Paulo. We see the embrace of hip-hop as never before.”
Local giant Time For Fun (T4F) promoted Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour – three nights at Rio’s Estádio Nilton Santos and three at São Paulo’s Allianz Parque in November 2023.
Brazil-based regional promoter Mercury Concerts reports a solid market, having executed a 14-show tour with Megadeth – “by far the best tour ever for the band in Mexico and South America, with over 140,000 tickets sold,” according to Muniz.
Music On Events launched in 2021, and shows this year have included Luis Miguel at Allianz Parque and the South American tour of Roberto Carlos.
With 42 years in the business, Pedro Bianco’s Dançar Marketing has been behind shows by Andrea Bocelli, George Benson, Joss Stone, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, and more. “This is perhaps one of the best times Brazil has ever had with the performances of international artists,” says Bianco. “However, there is a lack of mid-sized venues. Either we hold shows in stadiums or in theatres/small venues. We lack indoor venues with 10,000-15,000 seats.” Nevertheless, business is good, he says, including for the company’s Best Of Blues And Rock fest.
Among Brazil’s substantial local promoters, meanwhile, is MCA Concerts, which worked on 30e/Bonus Track’s Paul McCartney and Roger Waters shows in 2023.
Arena Market: Brazil
Vast, rich in resources, and well-positioned between the powerbrokers of the old international order and the emerging markets of the Global South, Brazil has seen the world revolve in its direction in recent years. While it remains a highly complex and unequal country, under returning president Lula da Silva it now has diplomatic, economic, and decarbonisation opportunities that, some suggest, could transform it into a superpower of the 21st century.
And, if touring infrastructure is a barometer of a country’s modernity, as well as its spending power, investability, and global connections, then things in Brazil are already on the up. The key cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are both awaiting the completion of major arena projects of different kinds, giving new options to a country that already stands as South America’s prime touring destination.
In Rio, the news concerns the revival of the city’s iconic Canecão arena, which once hosted concerts from some of Brazil’s biggest stars, including Roberto Carlos, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Antônio Carlos Jobim, but closed in 2010 and was demolished in 2019.
A consortium of veteran promoter Luiz Oscar Niemeyer’s Bonus Track Entretenimento and sports and cultural marketing group Klefer Entretenimento e Participações last year won an auction for a 30-year lease on the plot and plans to build a new 6,000-capacity arena near the site of the previous one.
“It’s where popular music was born – all the major acts in Brazil have played there,” said Niemeyer last year. “The whole country knows about it, and there’s a lot of history related to this place. Everyone’s very excited about it reopening, and everywhere I go, people are congratulating me. It’s going to become a tourism point of Rio.”
“It’s where popular music was born – all the major acts in Brazil have played there”
At the time of the auction – at which the Bonus-Klefer consortium won out over WTorre, the group that manages another major Brazilian concert destination, Palmeiras football club’s Allianz Parque stadium in São Paulo – the new building was slated for 2025, with an expectation of around 120 concerts a year.
An even bigger project currently in the quiet period between announcement and completion is the new
20,000-capacity arena in São Paulo’s Anhembi district, piloted by Oak View Group, Live Nation, and GL Events. Announced in 2021 and much anticipated by Latin American promoters, the arena will be, almost inconceivably, the first modern arena in Brazilian’s main music market and biggest city, which has a metropolitan population of nearly 23m.
Oak View Group COO Francesca Bodie recently elaborated on São Paulo’s strategic appeal to OVG, identifying it as one of a number of “countries or cities that not only attract from surrounding countries but serve as the point of destination for a much broader area. From a financial perspective, São Paulo is an incredible point of destination for not only Brazil but for Latin America. That’s why we want to plant our flag there.”
The new arena, which promises to put sustainability at the top of its agenda, represents a huge new piece in a network of modern arenas across South America that also includes phenomenally busy venues, many of them new, in key cities such as Buenos Aires, Bogotá, Santiago, and Montevideo.
Promoters concur that Brazil’s live market, much like those of nearby countries, has been a little flat in 2024, buffeted by ongoing inflationary pressure and reticent consumers. All the same, schedules are full in the larger venues.
Promoters concur that Brazil’s live market, much like those of nearby countries, has been a little flat in 2024, buffeted by ongoing inflationary pressure and reticent consumers.
São Paulo may not yet have an arena of the largest, newest kind, but it has Opus Entretenimento’s 7,000-cap Vibra São Paulo (once Credicard Hall), which reopened in 2022 and remains an extremely busy stop for international and regional tours.
Grupo São Paulo Eventos’s Espaço Unimed in Barra Funda, west of São Paulo, has an 8,000 capacity, and in this configuration, it has welcomed Ivete Sangalo, Los Hermanos, Morrissey, Noel Gallagher, and others since a major renovation in 2012 – though it can also scale down to a 3,000-cap format with tables.
GL Events’ 18,000-capacity Farmasi Arena, until recently the Jeunesse Arena, is the key arena in Rio with 400,000 visitors a year. In addition to signing a new naming rights contract with Farmasi, a beauty and personal care brand, it has expanded its food options this year and introduced an in-house pre-show DJ.
“In 2024, we’ll host at least 30 big events in Farmasi Arena,” says Silvia Albuquerque, GL Events director of venues. “From UFC in May to Cirque du Soleil’s Crystal in June and Eric Clapton’s concert in September, we are hosting a vast array of national and international productions. In terms of Brazilian artists, we also have Caetano & Bethânia’s new joint tour, completely sold out in record time.”
Also working hard in Rio is Time 4 Fun’s 8,450-cap Qualistage arena in Barra da Tijuca, where McFly, Bruce Dickinson, Thiaguinho, and Titãs are some of the recent highlights.
As international tourers increasingly appreciate, Brazil also has plenty of cities worth visiting outside São Paulo and Rio, with a diversity of venues of varying ages.
As international tourers increasingly appreciate, Brazil also has plenty of cities worth visiting outside São Paulo and Rio, with a diversity of venues of varying ages.
Part of the urban area of Greater Florianópolis, the former Hard Rock Live Florianópolis, last year became Arena Opus, its management transferring to Opus Entretenimento. With space for 17,000 fans indoors and a 540sqm stage, the venue is a frequent stop for larger Brazilian artists.
Also on the map are Fortaleza’s 30,000-cap Centro de Eventos do Ceará; the vintage 14,586-cap Ginásio Gigantinho and mid-size 5,500-cap Pepsi On Stage in Porto Alegre; the 5,000-cap outdoor Concha Acústica do Teatro Castro Alves auditorium in Salvador; the 11,105-cap Ginásio Nilson Nelson in the capital, Brasilia; and the Classic Hall in the north- eastern city of Recife.
Another stop on the broader Brazilian circuit is the much-frequented city of Curitiba and its Ligga Arena – not an arena in the strictest sense but a 42,000-capacity stadium with a retractable roof, reputedly the only such venue in Latin America. It has picked up tours by Louis Tomlinson, Roger Waters, Roberto Carlos, and Michael Bublé in the past couple of years. An indoor arena was originally planned alongside but has not yet materialised.
The 25,000-cap Pedreira Paulo Leminski, also in Curitiba, is an outdoor space with an onsite opera house, Ópera de Arame, that has welcomed Post Malone, Imagine Dragons, and Backstreet Boys in recent times, with Paul McCartney, AC/ DC, Guns N’ Roses, and Ed Sheeran among the greatest hits of former years.