Sign up for IQ Index
The latest industry news to your inbox.
FKP Scorpio has announced a new collaboration with War Child, an international rights organisation that supports children and young people living in conflict areas around the world.
The companies say they will combine their expertise in order to “empower concertgoers and music lovers to contribute to a better future for children in need”.
“We hope to spread awareness of the vulnerable situation of children in conflict-affected regions and collect funds to strengthen their safety, education, mental health and self-empowerment,” according to a statement.
Through the partnership with FKP Scorpio, War Child will be seen at most of FKP Scorpio’s events, with initiatives aimed at inspiring visitors to get involved and support their mission.
Ticketing companies Ticketmaster, Eventim, AXS and Tickster will support the partnership and work with FKP Scorpio to maximize awareness of War Child’s work.
“We look forward to spreading the message and supporting War Child’s work in every arena and stage”
“We are proud to partner with War Child and use our platform to make a difference for children affected by war and conflict,” says Bozo Rasic, CEO of FKP Scorpio Sweden. “Through our concerts and festivals, we can reach a wide audience and engage them in the work for a better world. We look forward to spreading the message and supporting War Child’s work in every arena and stage.”
Ranjani Srinivasan, CEO of War Child Sweden, adds: “We are incredibly excited to begin this collaboration with FKP Scorpio. For us, it is super important to be able to collaborate with the business world, especially with the music world, as music has an obvious place in War Child’s work. FKP Scorpio has a strong commitment to War Child’s work to ensure that no child ever grows up in war. This is a collaboration that inspires us! We look forward to all the fun we will cook up together in the future.”
This collaboration will involve several initiatives at FKP Scorpio’s events, including fundraising campaigns, information stations and digital activations to spread knowledge about children in crisis areas and War Child’s work.
War Child is the charity of choice for next year’s International Live Music Conference (ILMC), set to take place between the 25–28 February 2025.
The charity is also the longtime beneficiary of BRITs Week, an annual charity concert series featuring intimate one-off performances from big names in some of the UK’s best venues.
Since BRITs Week’s inception in 2009, the shows have raised more than £7 million for War Child to help children whose lives have been torn apart by war.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Eventim has temporarily postponed the resale for the German dates of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour after hackers attempted to steal digital tickets for the concerts.
Swift will visit Germany this summer for sold-out concerts at Gelsenkirchen’s Veltins-Arena (17-19 July), Volksparkstadion in Hamburg (23-24 July) and Munich’s Olympic Stadium (27-28 July). Her European tour launches in France tomorrow (9 May) with the first of four shows at Paris La Défense Arena.
According to Heise, cyber criminals are believed to have gained access to user accounts by trying out usernames and passwords from data dumps on the darknet, known as “credential stuffing”, before offering the tickets for resale on Eventim’s FanSale platform.
Eventim, which contacted the police over the matter, says the number of unauthorised resales was in “the low double-digit range”, while the transactions identified as fraudulent have since reversed, and the buyers refunded.
“By using Eventim.Pass with exclusively digital tickets, on the one hand, the identified, abusive transactions were reversed,” a company spokesperson tells Watson. “On the other hand, the funds of the buyers of the stolen tickets were secured from being forwarded so that they can be refunded.”
Eventim says it has reset the “passwords of accounts that we classify as potentially at risk”
It has reset the “passwords of accounts that we classify as potentially at risk”, and is encouraging other users to follow suit.
“As email and password data was used that has very likely been in circulation for some time, we recommend that users first change their email password and then the password for their customer account,” advises the firm.
Elsewhere in Europe, it was reported last month that UK Swifties are estimated to have lost over £1 million (€1.2m) in a wave of online scams since tickets went on sale for the European leg of The Eras Tour last July, according to data from Lloyds Bank.
Meanwhile, a so-called Taylor Swift bill has been signed into law in Minnesota, US, to offer online ticket buyers more transparency and protection. AP reports the law, which will apply for concerts or other live events held in the state, will require sellers to disclose all fees upfront and ban resellers from selling more than one copy of a ticket, among other measures.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Ticket insurance and protection operation, TicketPlan, has partnered with Eventim UK to provide refund protection solutions to customers purchasing tickets via the Eventim.co.uk platform.
Announcing the deal, TicketPlan relationship and development director, Ben Bray, says, “We are naturally delighted to partner with Eventim UK to provide our first in class, refund protection services to fans booking tickets via Eventim.co.uk. The Eventim name is synonymous with being a trusted, market leader in ticketing services and live entertainment internationally, and we are very excited to be working with such a world-renowned brand.”
Eventim UK managing director, Martin Fitzgerald, adds, “Ticketplan were the first and natural choice for Eventim UK. We’re excited to be working with such a trusted brand and we know that our customers will benefit from their product and services.”
“Ticketplan were the first and natural choice for Eventim UK”
Established in 1999, TicketPlan is celebrating its 25th year of enabling ticketing companies, sports organisations, venues, attractions and events to provide an added value service to ticket buyers, and to develop a new and valuable incremental source of revenue.
For the fans, TicketPlan provides protection against their inability to attend pre-booked events and attractions due to specified unforeseen circumstances such as accidents, sickness (including Covid19), breakdown of transport, bereavements, and many others.
An ever-increasing number of organisations in the UK, Europe, and North America now trust TicketPlan to provide their ticket insurance and protection facilities. Among the companies that work with TicketPlan are See Tickets, Skiddle, Kaboodle, and Eventfrog, to name but a few.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Dynamic ticketing took centre stage during ILMC’s Ticketing: At What Price? panel, as leading executives debated whether the growth of market-based pricing in the US will be replicated in other major international markets.
Chaired by Kilimanjaro Live promoter Steve Tilley, the session brought together Eventim Norway and Sweden’s Marcia Titley, Ticketmaster UK’s Sarah Slater, AXS’ Chris Lipscomb and Arnaud Meersseman of AEG Presents.
Recalling going to see Bruce Springsteen at New York City’s Madison Square Garden last year, Tilley admitted he was prepared to pay “whatever it costs” to get into the show. However, Meersseman pointed out the practice was less established in territories like France, which made it harder to compete when booking top acts.
“We’re being pushed more and more by artists to incorporate dynamic pricing,” he said. “To them, it doesn’t make sense on a financial level to tour Europe compared to the US, where dynamic pricing is widely common.”
Meersseman speculated there would be “massive pushback” against the practice across France. “It’s also a question of accessibility, and fans are likely to end up wondering whether gigs will only be reserved for the rich in the not-too-distant future,” he warned.
Lipscomb added that dynamic pricing is already happening in several European markets, including the UK, and predicted it will increase in prominence sooner than most think.
“Ten percent of all UK shows may already be sold under dynamic pricing. In a couple of years, I’d expect that number will increase by 30%-40%”
“Ten percent of all UK shows may already be sold under dynamic pricing,” he said. “In a couple of years, I’d expect that number will increase by 30%-40% and maybe even rise higher to 70%-80%.”
The discussion segued into the secondary market, with Titley noting that while countries like Norway and Denmark put laws in place to prevent resales above face value, dynamic pricing was necessary to “drive higher revenue”.
“Ultimately, it’s all about protecting the fans, and I believe in combining tech and legislation to eradicate those excessive profit margins,” she said.
Ticketmaster has successfully introduced its own fan-to-fan resale service in the UK, and Slater said: “There are plenty of safe, face-value resale sites to sell your tickets to in the UK. We’ve heavily pushed the fact that tickets are transferable, but we always encourage customers to only buy from authorised sites.”
Sam Shemtob, director of Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing (FEAT), made a brief cameo to explain the role that the EU Digital Service Act will play in combating illegal ticket listings.
“If the ticket is being sold by a trader, that needs to be listed right at the front in a clearly accessible manner, and ticket resale sites will now be banned from using design tricks that manipulate consumers into decisions, such as “pop-ups” or giving prominence to specific choices,” explained Shemtob.
“Nailing the on-sale is absolutely critical, but marketing the shows via a long-term campaign with the artists up until the actual event is just as important”
Shemtob, who is collaborating with the European Commission on how to streamline a complaints mechanism for fans and promoters, launched ‘Make Tickets Fair’ last year — a campaign to educate and empower fans to avoid being ripped off by ticket touts.
“The platforms will also be required to make it clear throughout the buying process that the tickets listed are provided by a third party,” he said. “If a platform fails to do this and fans are led to believe that the tickets are provided by the platform itself, the platform can be held responsible for any tickets listed in contravention of national laws.
“All of these sites need to have a clear and simple complaint mechanism.”
Another major talking point was the perception that tickets must be bought as soon as they go on sale.
“Obviously, nailing the on-sale is absolutely critical, but marketing the shows via a long-term campaign with the artists up until the actual event is just as important,” Slater said, citing the concert industry’s shift towards post-sale engagement, which includes events integrations in collaborations with Spotify and TikTok, as well as creative marketing strategies to keep fans engaged.
“Most people think that if they can’t get tickets within the first hour, they’ll end up being scammed when attempting to purchase them at a later time,” added Meersseman. “It all ties to what we discussed earlier about properly educating customers on the ticket sale process.”
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
CTS Eventim “significantly exceeded” its forecast for 2023 thanks to a “very strong” Q4, according to the company’s latest financial results.
The pan-European giant enjoyed a record year, attaining consolidated revenue of €2.359 billion for the 12-month period – a 22.5% increase on the previous year’s €1.926bn. CTS had previously projected group revenue in excess of €2bn for 2023 as a whole last October.
In the preliminary figures, the group also reported normalised EBITDA of €501.4 million, up 31.9% from €380.1m in the previous year. CTS’ full annual report for 2023 will be published on 26 March.
The growth was powered by the German-headquartered firm’s ticketing and live entertainment segments. Ticketing revenue rose 32.5% to €717m (2022: €541m), with normalised EBITDA leaping 46.6% to €382.4m.
For the live entertainment strand, revenue jumped 18.9% year-on-year to €1.677bn (2022: €1.410bn), with normalised EBITDA almost flat at €119.1m, compared to €119.2m in 2022.
The group figures include income of €37.4m to which CTS group companies are directly entitled, resulting from compensation paid by the German government to the joint venture autoTicket GmbH, Berlin.
“The year-on-year growth rates shown here reflect the success of the operating business”
“As the prior-year figures contained a similar volume of income that had been received under pandemic-related economic aid programmes, the year-on-year growth rates shown here reflect the success of the operating business,” adds a company statement.
According to Pollstar’s 2023 global rankings, the Eventim Group is the world’s second-biggest promoter. The firm’s portfolio includes festivals such as Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Hurricane, Southside,and Lucca Summer.
It also operates venues, such as the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, the K.B. Hallen in Copenhagen, the Waldbühne in Berlin and the Eventim Apollo in London.
Visions reports that more than 90,000 tickets have already been sold for Germany’s Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, which take place from 7-9 June at Nürburgring race track and Zeppelin Field, respectively.
Operated by CTS’ Dreamhaus subsidiary, the twin festivals will be headlined by Die Ärzte, Måneskin and Green Day. The events’ new premium camping offers are said to be almost sold out, while tickets for the Backstage Camp, Seaside Backstage Camp and Caravan Camping are already sold out.
“The demand for tickets is strong and the fans’ anticipation is huge,” says Dreamhaus CEO Matt Schwarz.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
CTS Eventim has announced it has surpassed €1 billion revenue within the first six months of a financial year for the first time.
The pan-European giant’s H1 2023 results showed €1.021bn in consolidated revenue, up 39% year-on-year, part of which is attributed to the lifting of Covid restrictions. However, revenue was also up 47% on the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
The German-headquartered company reported growth across all segments for January to June 2023, with revenue in Eventim’s ticketing division climbing 41% year-on-year to €284.6 million. Online ticket sales increased 23% on the same period 12 months earlier. Normalised EBITDA rose by 48% to €122.3m. Its core markets in Germany, Italy and Austria remain the biggest growth drivers.
Revenue in the live entertainment segment reached €751m (up by 39%), while normalised EBITDA for the segment improved to €48.5m (up 21%). In excess of €50m was generated in the US in the first half of 2023, with revenue for the year as a whole expected to top €100m. Highlights for the first half of the year included tours by Hans Zimmer and Pink, as well as international sporting events such as the World Athletics Championships.
“In the first half of this year, CTS Eventim has demonstrated great flexibility and entrepreneurial ingenuity on all fronts”
“The breadth and depth of our portfolio and the successful internationalisation of our business are the key drivers of our strong and stable growth,” says CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg. “After the market distortions caused by pandemic-related catch-up effects, we are now back to ‘business as usual’ at CTS Eventim. And ‘as usual’ for us means healthy organic growth and the development and expansion of new and existing business segments.
“In the first half of this year, CTS Eventim has demonstrated great flexibility and entrepreneurial ingenuity on all fronts, enabling us to successfully navigate current macroeconomic challenges and stay on track for healthy growth. All relevant key figures confirm that both the wider market and our group continue to perform at higher levels than before the pandemic.”
The group’s normalised EBITDA reached €170.8m for the first half of 2023 (up by 39% year-on-year) and €94.8m for the second quarter of 2023 (down 5% year-on-year), although earnings in Q2 2022 were boosted by government subsidies of around €25 million under pandemic-related economic aid programmes.
The H1 figures do not include the presale for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour – comfortably the top seller for the current year – which did not happen until July. CTS’ executive board says expects both revenue and normalised EBITDA to increase in 2023 overall compared with 2022.
The company’s share price had dipped by around 1% today (24 August), standing at €57.40 at press time.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Leading Swiss ticketing firm Ticketcorner has appointed Oliver Niedermann as the new CEO.
Niedermann joins the company from Raiffeisen Switzerland, the third-largest Swiss banking group, where he has been head of marketing for the past ten years.
At Ticketcorner, he will succeed Andreas Angehrn, who has played a major role in the company’s success in Switzerland since 2010. Angehrn will leave the company at the end of June.
Ticketcorner AG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ticketcorner Holding AG, which has been owned in equal shares by CTS Eventim and Ringier since 2010.
Ticketcorner processes more than 10 million ticket sales for 15,000 events per year
Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, chair of the Ticketcorner board of directors and CEO of Eventim Management, says: “We are pleased to have gained a highly qualified marketing and events expert in Niedermann, who will further expand Ticketcorner’s leading position. He brings with him the very best professional prerequisites to gain an even stronger foothold in the Swiss market and make our offer even more attractive to our customers.”
Marc Walder, vice-chair of the Ticketcorner board of directors and CEO of Ringier, added: “I look forward to working with Niedermann and continuing the Ticketcorner success story. The ticketing and events industry is still transforming at a rapid pace, and we are faced with many challenges. With Oliver, we will continue to strengthen the company’s leading position with innovative, smart applications and an attractive offer that meets the needs of Swiss customers.”
Ticketcorner processes more than 10 million ticket sales for 15,000 events per year. In addition to events in the entertainment, culture and sports sectors, this also includes the sale of ski tickets for about 60 ski resorts. The ticketing platform has 200 booking offices throughout Switzerland.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
The International Ticketing Report is a one-off annual health check on the global ticketing business, with emphasis on the sector’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The past two years have been turbulent for the business, but with consumer demand for live events now at an all-time peak, the challenges of fulfilling the most packed event schedule in history will test ticketers to the hilt.
Staffing, vouchers schemes and refunds, demand, consumer behaviour, communication, new products & services, secondary ticketing, pandemic lessons and recovery are among the challengers addressed by industry-leading experts in this extended report.
The report, originally published in IQ105, is in lieu of the International Ticketing Yearbook – a standalone global guide to the live entertainment market that will return in 2022.
IQ will publish sections of the International Ticketing Report over the coming weeks but subscribers can read the entire feature in issue 105 of IQ Magazine now.
To read the previous instalment of the report on secondary ticketing, click here.
Dealing with the various Covid restrictions, lobbying for government support, and having to make difficult decisions over staff cuts have been unprecedented tasks for ticketing company senior management over the past 18 months. But what have been the biggest lessons that they have learned throughout the crisis?
Eventim’s chief operating officer Alexander Ruoff is optimistic following the long pause in business. “People’s longing for live entertainment remains unbroken even after 18 months of pandemic, and the fans’ loyalty to their favourite artists,” he says.
“What was and is also great is the cohesion of our employees during the pandemic and how everyone worked together to ensure that CTS Eventim emerges even stronger from the crisis.”
But he is all too aware that the industry needs to do more to elevate its status in the minds of politicians. “Culture and the people’s need for culture and live entertainment apparently do not always enjoy the status in politics that would be desirable,” he says.
“Our industry was the first to go and the last to return, and it was tough,” says Ticketmaster’s Mark Yovich. “As a global business with global teams, we had colleagues experiencing every possible pandemic scenario at different times – so learnings, advice, and sympathetic ears were invaluable. They say your colleagues are like your family, and I never felt that more than over the last 18 months.
“Promoters and venues have had the opportunity to look into their ticketing needs in far greater detail than ever before”
“Throughout it all, to see our teams come together at this time to innovate, build, and execute incredible features as well as deliver incredibly complex customer service support in such short timeframes was truly inspiring.
“It was our job to deliver the tools our clients so desperately required in this crisis – and we did just that. So much so that we’ve had an abundance of new clients come knocking who saw this work and are now turning to us in need of a reliant, industry-leading ticketing service as they navigate the return to live.”
Total Ticketing‘s Martin Haigh sees opportunity for boutique ticketing firms to gain a stronger foothold as the recovery plays out.
“We feel that promoters and venues have had the opportunity to look into their ticketing needs in far greater detail than ever before and as such are way more self-educated and open to exploring new opportunities. So, this is a good time to erode into the incumbents’ market share,” he says.
At Dice, Russ Tannen also sees opportunity. “We discovered a huge underserved live music audience living outside of major cities,” he states. But he laments that, “There isn’t enough transparency for artists in live.”
TixTrack CEO Steven Sunshine observes, “We have seen the past 18 months as a strong positive as it has made ticket sellers more interested in mobile and cloud-based solutions as well as digital ticket delivery, timed-entry ticketing, and many other features and functions that have been a part of our ticketing offering even pre-Covid.”
“We discovered a huge underserved live music audience living outside of major cities”
On a positive note, Skiddle’s head of marketing, Jamie Scahill, believes consumer confidence will not take long to rebuild. “We’ve seen a yearning by all demographics of the public to get back out and experience events and we’re confident that this demand will be set to continue as more and more people become comfortable with going out again,” he says.
“The pandemic has highlighted how good the live entertainment ticketing industry is,” states The Ticket Factory‘s Richard Howle. “Our primary concern was to do the right thing by our clients and customers and that passion to deliver great service has shone through.
“As an industry we normally only make the headlines when things go wrong and the fact that we have gone through the last 18 months with very little in the way of bad headlines, particularly when compared to other industries, such as travel, is testament to what a good job we have done.”
And looking at things from a personal point of view, AXS director of ticketing Paul Newman says, “The last 18 months have made me realise the importance of both physical and mental wellbeing, and I fully intend to carry forward the good habits I have developed in both my professional and personal life.
“Business-wise, I think that maybe the ticketing industry realises there is a stronger need to work together on finding solutions to the issues we all face.”
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Marcia Titley has been appointed managing director for ticketing operation Eventim Sweden.
Titley has been MD of Eventim Norway for almost four years and is also part of the Eventim Scandinavia Management Team.
She will continue as MD of Eventim Norway, adding Eventim Sweden to her current role.
“It has been very exciting to introduce Eventim solutions to the Norwegian market,” says Titley. “I’m looking forward to working closely with the Swedish team, and sharing our experiences and expertise from Norway, to further grow our business in Sweden and in Scandinavia as a whole”.
“I’m looking forward to working closely with the Swedish team, and sharing our experiences and expertise from Norway”
Jens B. Arnesen, CEO of Eventim Scandinavia, says: “I am convinced Marcia will bring a lot of best practice into the Swedish market and will be able to carry out our growth strategy together with the local team. In collaboration with our Scandinavian Support and Marketing teams we are able to help our partners by providing both local and cross border experience.”
Titley replaces Jay Sietsema who will end his position as MD for Eventim Sweden on 30 November 2021 to “pursue new challenges outside the company”.
Eventim Scandinavia has offices in Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm and is a fully owned company within German live entertainment behemoth, CTS Eventim.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Independent UK-based ticketing company Bristol Ticket Shop has announced it is closing down, citing overdue payments from a debtor.
Launched in 1987 as a concession in Virgin shops and then in record retailer Our Price, Bristol Ticket Shop later found its own home in the centre of the UK city of Bristol. With a focus on supporting the local music scene, Bristol Ticket Shop also sold tickets to events such as Glastonbury Festival and Download Festival.
“After more than 30 years being part of Bristol’s incredible music scene, Bristol Ticket Shop is sadly closing,” reads a post on the ticketer’s Facebook page.
“All the staff here are devastated. The list of incredible events we have supplied tickets for is overwhelming. There are so many regular customers, old and new, that we have really enjoyed talking to over the years and we will miss you all dearly.”
“After more than 30 years being part of Bristol’s incredible music scene, Bristol Ticket Shop is sadly closing”
The management team owes the closure to “news that a debtor owing a large amount of money was unlikely to be able pay in a timely manner”, as well as to the illness of the company’s owner, which has “had a large impact on the resilience of the business”.
The company states it is instructing a third party to negotiate with promoters in order to ensure that “there is as little impact to the customer as possible”. Although the ticketer aims “to honour tickets for future events”, it notes this may not always be possible, in which case refunds will be issued.
Bristol music fans have responded to the “sad news”, showing support for the ticketer, which formed a “huge part” of the local live scene.
According to the International Ticketing Yearbook 2019, the primary ticketing business in the UK is “incredibly competitive”, with major international companies including Ticketmaster, See Tickets, AXS, Eventim and Eventim taking a large share of the market.
Many local independent outfits, such as Manchester’s Ticketline, Birmingham’s the Ticket Factory, Leeds’ Ticket Arena and Nottingham’s Gigantic – now majority owned by DEAG – also perform well.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.