Market Report: USA

After another challenging year for the sector, despite blockbuster tours and strong sales, the US ticketing industry remains a bit chaotic.

With tremendous demand, fan frustrations, sky-high resale prices, bot interference, and limited federal regulation, the situation is complicated. Solutions are certainly not as straightforward as many consumers (and legislators) think.

Primary ticketing
The spotlight continues to shine on the American ticketing industry continues, with discourse ramping up around Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Live Nation, accusing LN-Ticketmaster of monopolisation. Live Nation fired back immediately:

“We just don’t believe that there’s really any good faith argument to be made here that there could be a breakup,” said Dan Wall, EVP of corporate and regulatory affairs. “However, we all know that that’s what the most effective way to get the big headlines was, and I think that that’s why we’re seeing that.”

Now, Ticketmaster says they’re prioritising public perception: “A priority remains on bridging the gap between the public’s understanding of ticketing and the nuances of how ticketing really works,” says Marla Ostroff, managing director of Ticketmaster North America. “Our goal is to set clients up for success while minimising fan friction, and we can help achieve that goal by demystifying ticketing and building innovative, reliable products.”

“It’s a red herring, and the DOJ’s lawsuit will not fix the larger problems that are part of the perceived ills of the industry”

For Maureen Andersen, president and CEO of the US-based International Ticket Association (INTIX), the issues that plague the sector go beyond a single company. “It’s a red herring, and the DOJ’s lawsuit will not fix the larger problems that are part of the perceived ills of the industry. Of more interest and worth of attention are new federal laws in the US for oversight and fairness, as well as concentrating on data and cybersecurity,” she says.

Nonetheless, the US ticketing business looks strong – Live Nation posted $6.02bn in revenue in a record Q2 2024, and year-to-date ticket sales are up to 118m, 1m more than this time last year. AEG-operated AXS reported the industry looks “stable and steady,” though noted inflation has impacted the cost of tickets – “It seems almost impossible to continue at the post-pandemic pace of 2022 and 2023, so we’re anticipating some slowdown in 2024,” says Blaine Legere, president, international for AXS.

CTS Eventim, which launched here in 2021, partnered with AXS to secure the ticketing rights for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

A market boasting endless competition, other primary ticketing firms here include Eventim-owned See Tickets and Universe.

“We recently launched See Tickets Timed Ticketing and LiveBuzz solutions, enhancing our service offerings for exhibitions and trade events,” says See Tickets US MD, Joe Salem.

A popular partnership this year is with TikTok, a frontrunner in music discovery. AXS, Ticketmaster, and Eventbrite all have integrations with the mobile platform.

“[It] provides a safe and secure environment for consumers to discover and purchase through official channels where they are discovering content,” Legere says.

Eventbrite commercial marketing lead Brad McIntyre says people can buy tickets “without leaving the app at all.” Eventbrite is also expanding its AI offerings to help independent artists and promoters “fast-track event promotion and free up time to focus on what matters,” McIntyre says.

Last year, the event marketplace supported more than 250,000 music events with more than 24m attendees across the US.

“Our teams are always on the lookout for ways to improve customer experiences”

Independent firm DICE launched its Discovery function in 2023, now offering fans personalised event recommendations with Spotify and Apple Music integrations, resulting in 40% of in-app sales coming from the function, says COO Katie Soo.

Primary and secondary seller SeatGeek is also deploying new technology, integrating new 3D and multilevel views of the purchaser’s seat/s at select venues, “allowing buyers to zoom all the way in on the venue map to not just the section or row – all from the palm of their hand,” says Russ D’Souza, the company’s co-founder and president of supply.

Distribution of sales
Digital is the new norm worldwide, and issues of bot activity, scalping, speculative sales, and unfair competition have been well-publicised. But INTIX’s Andersen says there is no clear-cut solution to the problems at hand.

“It’s a bit like playing Whac-A-Mole in the sense that all ticketing is reactive to the newest bot deployments while the safeguards were reactive to the bots of the last on sale,” she says. “At the core of it, to avoid a bot, there would need to be a closed-loop environment for the sales and the security/access in a controlled way. Blockchain seems to be the one solution that can take care of this.”

Being a technology-forward company is key in today’s ticketing landscape. For SeatGeek, nearly half of the company’s personnel are focused on engineering, product, and data science. “Our teams are always on the lookout for ways to improve customer experiences,” D’Souza says.

Value of market
It’s difficult to gauge the pure value of the market, but it’s clear that the US reigns as the largest music market in the world. Firms report activity is decreasing slightly, on par with other markets, as the post-pandemic rush starts to slow.

“Ticket resale is an inevitable and necessary part of the ecosystem to find a market-clearing price”

Secondary ticketing
In late July, news broke about another lawsuit. The District of Columbia (DC) attorney general filed a lawsuit against Viagogo-owned StubHub, accusing the platform of “deceptive” pricing and hidden fees: “StubHub intentionally hides the true price to boost profits at its customers’ expense,” said attorney general Brian L. Schwalb at the time.

It’s no secret that resale prices can soar in the unregulated US market. SeatGeek reported a 73% increase in the average resale ticket price compared to 2019.

“Ticket resale is an inevitable and necessary part of the ecosystem to find a market-clearing price,” D’Souza says. “To drive down prices, we need to rid the system of nefarious actors, and SeatGeek is working hard to keep bots out of ticketing and protect the fan experience.”

SeatGeek operates in both primary and secondary spaces, expanding its sports operations with 90 new NCAA university integrations into its platform. Ticketmaster also operates in both spheres and notes that its Face Value Exchange product has gained popularity recently, “helping to deter scalping while providing a place for fans to buy and sell tickets at the prices set by the artist or team,” Ostroff says.

TickPick, Vivid Seats, Lyte, TicketSwap, and Gametime also operate in the US secondary market.

International/domestic splits & genres
Latin, country, K-pop, electronic, jazz – what isn’t trending in the US? Eventbrite points out hip-hop and rap shows were its most attended genre last year, and DICE shares gothic, Afrobeats, heavy metal, and progressive house were its most in-demand. Eventim is seeing additional growth opportunities in exhibitions, state/county fairs, and other large-scale events.

“By targeting these diverse sectors, we can expand our market presence and leverage our expertise to drive sustained growth across a broad range of event types,” says Chad Phillips, CCO of Eventim USA.

“Laws, legislation, policies, and regulations only work so far and only if there is enough oversight, culpability, and ramification for the activity”

Cultural analysis
Though a public outcry following unprecedented demand for Taylor Swift tickets on Ticketmaster’s platform in November 2022 was swift (excuse the pun), tangible results have been slow to follow. Though some federal regulations exist, albeit a bit outdated, new legislation is stagnating at the congressional level, with the upcoming presidential election potentially hindering any immediate action.

The TICKET Act, which includes requirements for all-in pricing, banning speculative tickets, guaranteeing refunds for cancelled events, and prohibiting deceptive practices in online sales, passed the US House of Representatives in May and is awaiting a vote in the Senate.

The other major federal piece is the Senate-introduced Fans First Act, which was backed by 250 artists, including Billie Eilish, Lorde, and Green Day, though it’s still stuck in Committee. In addition to increasing price transparency, the bill would also bolster the 2016 Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, which prohibits scalpers from using software to buy high volumes of tickets.

“Ultimately, the enforcement of the law would be the most problematic as the mechanisms for enforcement are weak, especially if you look at the history of enforcement for existing law like the BOTS Act,” Andersen says.

Both pieces of legislation are championed by the National Independent Venue Association-backed Fix The Tix coalition. Together, industry professionals and event industry organisations – including DICE, Eventbrite, and See Tickets – are advocating for a more transparent and fair ticketing system for the US.

With multiple lawsuits and federal bills on the table, things could begin to shift for the US market. But a change in consumer behaviour may be the real solution, Andersen says.

“Ticket resales are driven by the customer, so there is no inherent solution as the customer will either find a way or pay the price to get a ticket; or sell it themselves,” she says. “Laws, legislation, policies, and regulations only work so far and only if there is enough oversight, culpability, and ramification for the activity.”

Taxes & charges
Taxes are determined on a state-by-state basis.