Market Report: Hungary

The country’s 27% tax rate is often cited as being a major barrier to the Hungarian live music industry.

Despite this, the market continues to attract international acts.

Primary ticketing
Primary ticketing is dominated by Eventim (formerly Ticketing Express), state-owned Jegymester, Funcode (operated by TicketPro), and Ticketportal.

In recent years, home-grown ticketing solutions have emerged, with companies like Neopositive Ltd’s Backstage Ticketing and DynamO Pricing offering innovative tools to enhance clients’ ticket management and sales experience. Bence Marosi, CEO of DynamO Pricing, emphasises client- tailored strategies to maximise event ticket sales, such as multi-wave section openings, audience segmentation, and variable pricing.

Home-grown ticketing solutions have emerged, with companies like Neopositive Ltd’s Backstage Ticketing and DynamO Pricing offering innovative tools to enhance clients’ ticket management and sales experience.

Barna Jardany, MD at TicketPro, highlights the importance of offering support throughout the ticket purchasing journey and providing crowd management and in-person ticket resolution support on event days.

Gyula Kovácska, MD at CTS Eventim Hungary, believes that marketing will play a vital role in diversifying audiences and increasing ticket sales. The company aims to expand online and out-of-home marketing activities to provide comprehensive promotional services.

Distribution of sales
Ticket sales in Hungary are predominantly digital, with around 95% of sales occurring online. Around 70-80% of theatre-goers opt to buy online.

Domestic/international splits
Local artists constitute about 70% of the live music market, whilst international artists generate higher returns and see almost double the ticket prices.

Secondary market
Backstage Ticketing is collaborating with TicketSwap to ensure ethical transactions occur. András Berta, marketing and business development director, says: “Our cooperation provides the possibility to automatically change barcodes of all resold tickets, thus creating a 100% safe secondary transaction.”

Other platforms include StubHub and Ma este Szinház!

Tax & charges
VAT for live music events is 27%, with open-air festivals subject to an 18% tax. Sales charges range from 2-10%, depending on the event.