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The annual guide to the global live entertainment ticketing business
Click the interactive map below to explore the top 66 global markets
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.
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.”
“Brazil is leading the charge in using facial recognition for event access”
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.”
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.
“Clubs are now undergoing significant changes in governance, incorporating business practices and investing heavily in innovation”
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.