World Ticket Conference attendees were sure to see performers from all over Nashville, including this show at Kid Rock's bar.
Madeline Claire
The party was in Nashville last month, with more than 1,200 people attending the annual World Ticketing Congress. Held annually for more than a decade, the conference is organized by Gary Adler, longtime general counsel for the National Association of Ticket Brokers, a trade group whose members have transformed tickets from a market where you were out of luck if you didn't buy them on the day they went on sale to one where there is a near-continuous supply, often at a discount below face value.
Gary Adler speaks to the crowd
NATB
The ticketing ecosystem is vast and poorly understood. Multi-billion dollar silos exist, with executives competing for audiences and revenue. In their simplest form, these silos are the major ticket distributors, large and small, such as AEG, Ticketmaster, and Vivenu; secondary market ticket resellers, such as Vivid Seats, TickPick, and StubHub; and the major sports leagues, which manage their own ticket distribution. Additionally, theater tickets have their own distribution channels.
The World Ticket Conference is where representatives from all sectors of the industry meet with friends and competitors to learn how market forces and changing technology will impact the coming year. Trends for 2024 seem to portend higher demand and less price sensitivity for a handful of specific events. Ticket prices will also fall much more rapidly for nearly all events except for the playoffs for major sports leagues like basketball, football, tennis, baseball and hockey.
NATB advocates for fair and open markets at 2024 World Ticketing Congress
Eric Fuller
In what has been a contentious legislative year for the ticketing industry, the World Ticket Conference addressed key issues and provided perspective for members and guests: Demand for live entertainment of all kinds remains steady, but the economic situation is forcing a cash-constrained industry to make tough choices.
The industry is in a battle for control. Performers and sports leagues want monopoly power over pricing so that tickets for low demand events don't compete with discounted tickets. In other industries, this is seen as a form of price control and is frowned upon. Ticket companies don't want to compete with people who buy and hold tickets to sell later. If ticket prices rise later, consumers benefit because earlier buyers can sell tickets to consumers at a discount below the new higher price. Conversely, when demand slumps, ticket companies must compete with secondary market sellers who lower prices to market value. A study from the past year found that of over 80,000 live events sold, tickets for about 55% of events were sold at secondary market outlets for less than face value. In this industry, major ticket sellers don't want discounts, but fans certainly do. They've saved more than $440 million by buying tickets at the box office for less than the face asking price.
There is a fundamental misunderstanding of how primary and secondary markets affect each other and consumers. In the primary market, tickets are sold with the hope that they will sell out within the first few days of their release. The order is a pre-sale based on a very limited number of tickets, usually relying on a code release or paid affinity partners such as Spotify for access. The next day is a broader distribution of tickets for credit card partners such as American Express, Citibank, and Capital One. A specific sponsor credit card must be used to purchase tickets from that release. The third day of the pre-sale may be based on a code issued by the artist or venue to access a purchasing portal. And finally, on the fourth day, any remaining tickets are offered to the public.
Ticket scalpers are typically well informed about the on-sale and on-sale dates of these various tickets. They risk their own funds to purchase the tickets in the hope that the price will rise, but data now confirms that more than half of tickets sold are being reduced in price. Consumers' ability to purchase tickets at discounted prices is almost entirely the result of a free and competitive secondary market and the losses incurred by ticket scalpers who own tickets that are reduced in price.
It's expensive to put an artist on tour. If not enough tickets are sold when tickets go on sale, there's a risk that the show itself will be canceled, as artists like Jennifer Lopez and The Black Keys have done this year. Ticket scalpers take on hundreds of millions of dollars of risk buying inventory when tickets go on sale. These purchases not only help provide funds to secure tours, but also allow fans to make purchasing decisions only on the day of the show, rather than months in advance. For many fans, buying tickets to attend a show scheduled nine months away and tying up their money for that period is too risky. These purchases are often paid with very high interest rates on the consumer's credit card. Fans don't save money by buying tickets the day the show first goes on sale and paying 24.9% interest for more than half a year until the day of the show, when they'll likely be able to buy the same tickets on the day of the show for face value or less. In fact, smart consumers can choose to only buy tickets to events that are heavily discounted. There are plenty of options for that.
The secondary market makes it possible to hear about a show happening tomorrow and still be able to snag a ticket. Similarly, if fans find themselves traveling unexpectedly, there are plenty of options to purchase tickets at a discount last minute and still be able to attend an event while traveling.
A common refrain heard at the World Ticket Conference is simple common sense: ticket sales are too complicated for fans. Fans would buy more tickets if the process was simplified, rather than layering on the complexities of buying tickets, delivery delays, and the threat that tickets purchased in one market will be invalid if sold in another. The more frustrated fans feel, the less willing they are to buy tickets for anything other than a few megastars or playoff events. For future megastars to exist, the entire ecosystem needs to thrive. In a world where Amazon can deliver just about anything to your door in four hours with one click, it would be foolish for a company to annoy its customers into marching on Washington. At the moment, the entire distribution process is open to disruption. But it's unlikely to happen through government intervention. It will happen from fans deciding to only buy tickets on the day of the event. If that happens, the ticket sales ecosystem will have no one to blame but itself.
Hosting a conference with fierce competitors in a year when more than half of state and federal governments are considering whether to implement legislative changes is no small feat. Competition or not, the event will take place and the tickets will eventually be distributed from primary issuers through the secondary market, where they will be resold and into the hands of fans who scan their tickets at the event entrance gate. Millions of tickets are traded every year, mostly without incident. As the World Ticket Conference made clear, technology is continually improving the way tickets are distributed in the market. If there were problems, they would have been discussed. Like the proverbial dog that doesn't bark, the lack of discussion about tickets not selling at the gate didn't matter. Turf wars between markets, promoters and teams may be worth more in lost potential revenue than revenue protected. This could be a real-life case study in stepping on dollars and picking up dimes.
Interestingly, in a free market economy, the stock prices of ticket selling companies rise and fall based on supply and demand. While these stock prices fluctuate based on investor confidence in the potential revenue generated by these companies, state and federal governments are working to introduce rules regarding price, transferability, and who actually owns the rights to the tickets purchased. These are issues that are debated endlessly as major sellers representing artists and teams want to maximize prices whenever there is a “big selling” event, but don't want consumers to benefit from lower prices when their events underperform. In the stock market, you would be willing to allow prices to rise but prevent prices from falling. Imagine that!
People who work in live entertainment tend to be sociable and fans of performance. Bring them all to a city like Nashville and watch them come together. It's not rocket science; you're selling access to the fun. Gary Adler and his team hosted multiple dinners and cocktail parties, panels with industry leaders, and open discussions on issues facing the industry. There was even a keynote speech from Dr. J about his career in the National Basketball Association. After hours, there were events where everyone got together to bond and socialize, which is key to building a stable competitive community.
Don't miss 2025
Eric Fuller
The World Ticket Conference examines the issues facing all sectors of the ticketing industry. It brings together some of the most knowledgeable people in the industry for a chance to discuss the current situation and future direction face-to-face. It's invaluable context for an industry that's constantly evolving and expanding globally. Tickets are already on sale for next year's World Ticket Conference 2025, which will take place July 22-24, 2025 at the Omni Hotel in Nashville.
