The Future of Ticketing
The Live
Equation
2030
2026
The Return
on Live
The social return
The financial return
agree live events are great for bonding with friends and family. The going-together is half the purchase.
value spending money on live experiences more than physical things. The willingness to spend is there but the price still has to justify itself.
Fans are still showing up.
What's changed is what a ticket has to earn back.
Five returns now weigh on every ticket, and each
one drives a force in this report.
The Emotional return
Kantar’s Global Monitor, an ongoing tracker of cultural values and attitudes across markets, calls the wider trend the Return on Me: people auditing every commitment for what it gives back. Live has its own version which we’re calling the Return on Live: the multi-currency payback of social, financial, emotional, confidence and clarity that a ticket has to clear before a fan commits.
Each force is a return fans are already auditing and each chapter investigates what will pass the audit, and what won’t.
The best live experiences now deliver a combination of:
Social return through connection, community, and belonging to
the cultures that matter to you
Financial return through value that feels justified,
beyond pure affordability.
Emotional return through anticipation, excitement, joy and escape.
Confidence return through flexibility, and the sense that
saying yes stays reversible.
Clarity return through knowing what is real, what is fair, and what
is worth trusting.
Deliver on all five returns and the ticket sells itself.
Miss one and fans start to do the maths.
The confidence return
agree live events feel like a form of emotional release, not just entertainment. This is a payoff fans are now banking on.
would rather pay more for a verified, guaranteed ticket than save money on an uncertain one. The upgrade fans value is knowing the ticket is real.
The Clarity Return
say the rise of algorithms and AI is making it harder to know which recommendations to trust. Fans want the machine's help but on their own terms.
Q7_11 Live events are great for connecting and bonding with my friends or family
Q7_13 I value spending money on live experiences more than buying physical things
Q7_3 Live events feel like a form of emotional release, not just entertainment
Q7_16 I'd rather pay more for a verified/guaranteed ticket than save money on an uncertain one
Q29_3 The rise of algorithms, AI and online content is making it harder to know what recommendations to trust
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
2
CONTENTS
Cultural Context
The Five Global Forces
Force 1 — Better Together
Force 2 — Elevated Experience
Force 3 — The Happiness Shortcut
Force 4 — The Certainty Premium
Force 5 — Living in the Algorithm Age
Global Market Snapshots
Australia
United Kingdom
United States
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
3
1.
Cultural
Context
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
4
CULTURAL CONTEXT
Every ticket to a live event
is now a bid for someone's most valuable asset:
the one thing money
can't buy back...
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
5
CULTURAL CONTEXT
Before the Data...
Something has quietly flipped in what people guard most closely, and it's no longer money.
In 2020, money was the resource people protected most. By 2025 it is time, and the gap is still widening. A ticket has stopped being a purely financial decision: it asks for a night from a full calendar, the energy to plan and coordinate, and the faith that the show will pay all of it back. In a world this stretched every ticket has to answer one question before anything else: what's my return on this?what's my return on this?
A ticket doesn't just ask for cash anymore; it asks for a slot in an already-full calendar, and the energy to plan and coordinate and the faith that the show will pay all of it back. People are only going to spend that if the return on me is real.
Fans arrive at every checkout with a new question:
what do I get back?
The question that this report asks next:
what Does ticketing Have to become for that return to keep being worth it?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
6
CULTURAL CONTEXT
Time has overtaken
money as our most precious resource.
Information and energy are also tracking upwards while money is travelling the other way, falling more steeply than any resource the tracker follows.
-9%
TIME
+6%
MONEY
selected MONEY as the most valuable, a decline of 9 points, the steepest fall of resources
now name TIME as their most valuable resource, up 6 points, the biggest rise of any resource
Time's share has climbed six points in five years and overtaken money as the resource people protect most. Nearly two in five people (37%) name it their most valuable everyday resource.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
7
CULTURAL CONTEXT
2020
2025
CHANGE OVER 5 YEARS
TIME 37%
+6
Money 32%
TIME 31%
Money 23%
-9
20%
+3
Information 17%
17%
+2
Energy 15%
Space 4%
4%
0
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
Kantar Global Monitor 2021-2025
8
CULTURAL CONTEXT
People are feeling poorer
and guarding their time harder, yet still going out a lot.
Monthly attendance at
ticketed events* PER REGION
35%
25%
20%
percentage increase of financial security and money-related concerns**
Two forces pulling in opposite directions, and every ticket bought sits between them.
Monthly attendance at ticketed events has grown
steadily in every market since 2020, a period that starts
in lockdown, so a large part of the rise was the world reopening. There's been steady growth in monthly attendance across regions since the post-lockdown years of 2022 and 2023, with the numbers stabilising more in the last 12 months.
+14
+14
+20
*Ticketed events: Concerts, sporting events, movies, museums, galleries, symphony, theatre
**Summary of financial statement changes from Kantar Global Monitor
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
9
CULTURAL CONTEXT
What matters most to people has not changed
Being honest and trustworthy remains one of the most widely held personal values across all three markets, barely moving in five years.
Across the three focus markets (US, UK, AU) of this report,
Global Monitor showed that honesty, balance and harmony have consistently topped people's values over the last five years.
of people consistently feel the importance of seeking balance and harmony in life to feel like they are getting the most out of it. There’s been little movement of this value in the last five years.
*Kantar Global Monitor 2021-2025
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
10
CULTURAL CONTEXT
The role of ticketing has shifted from access to value, trust and experience
Live events remain one of the few experiences that reliably
deliver emotional release, disconnection and social connection.
But in a world where time, money and energy all feel stretched,
attendance is no longer automatic.
Every ticket now has to earn its place.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
11
CULTURAL CONTEXT
The question is no longer:
Do People Want
live Experiences?
The question is:
Is it
worth my time?
Is it
worth my money?
Is it
worth my effort?
Will I get something meaningful back?
The five forces that follow are not separate trends. Each one
is a return under pressure, and that is the Return on Live.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
12
74
CULTURAL CONTEXT
FIVE FORCES SHAPING THE NEXT ERA OF LIVE
Demand isn't the problem. Fans still show up, and they will still pay. What's changed is that they want proof before they commit, and these five forces are where that proof is being demanded.
FORCE #1 Better Together
FORCE #2 Elevated Experience
FORCE #3
The Happiness Shortcut
FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
Force #5
Living in The
Algorithm Age
The purchase decision is now a group decision. 27% of Gen Z won't commit to a ticket until a friend does, against 18% of everyone over 30, and belonging is what brings them back: 71% say live events help them connect with like-minded people. The group is the unit of demand, and almost no checkout is built for it.
Expectations are rising, not falling. 70% say production, atmosphere and the overall experience matter more to them than they used to, and fans are now judging the whole night rather than the ticket, from travel and extras to what happens once they are inside. They will pay more when the return is visible, and walk away when it isn't. The experience has to prove itself.
Live has become emotional infrastructure, not an occasional treat. 75% call it a form of emotional release and 73% say it helps them disconnect. Both of these data points run highest in the US and UK, and lowest in Australia.
Premium has been redefined. It isn't just better seats anymore, it's certainty: that the ticket is real, that the price is fair, and that the plan can change. 79% would rather pay more for a verified, guaranteed ticket than save money on an uncertain one, and 82% say platforms will need stronger rules to stay fair. Confidence is what fans are now willing to pay for.
Algorithms shape what fans see but not what they trust. 68% say the rise of algorithms and AI is making it harder to know which recommendations to trust, and only 6% trust AI when deciding whether to attend, against 42% who trust friends and family. Winning the next era means making smart feel trustworthy, not just smart
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
13
CULTURAL CONTEXT
methodology
Two notes for the careful reader. Percentages are shown
as whole numbers. Generations are approximated from
age bands:
This is a portrait of the
whole market, not just the
people already deep inside it.
gen z
18 to 29
Millennials
30 to 44
In mid-2026 we surveyed 5,107* people across Australia,
the UK and the US: a general-population sample of fans who, in the past 12 months, attended a ticketed live event, bought a ticket to one, or tried to go and couldn't. Their answers are the core of this report.
We also surveyed 1,714** Tixel customers in the same three markets, asked the same questions, to see how a resale-engaged audience differs in its views. The two data samples were never combined. The main numbers you see in this report come from the general-population sample only and anywhere the Tixel customer panel is referred to, it appears in a clearly badged side-note.
GEN X
45 to 59
BOOMERS +
60+
We close out the report with three regional deep dives into Australia, the UK and the US, that help us understand the nuances of these markets.
UNITED STATES
UNITED KINGDOM
AUSTRALIA
*Kantar survey Gen pop
Australia (n=2073)
United States (n=1522)
United Kingdom (n=1512)
**Tixel survey engaged
Australia (n=737)
United States (n=321)
United Kingdom (n=656)
Both surveys were made up of nationally representative 18+ non-rejectors on in-person ticketed events IR 70%.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
14
2.
The Five Global Forces
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
15
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
FORCE #1
Better Together
The cultural shift underpinning this force is simple: going out is a group decision before it is a purchase. Even as broader social trends point toward isolation, live events are one of the places where the opposite is happening. Someone floats the idea, everyone waits to see who else is in, the group chat does the chasing, and one person pays for all of it. Fans are coordinating more than they did a few years ago. The group has always decided. What is changing is how much it decides and the gap is widest with the youngest fans, the ones with the most ticket-buying years ahead of them. Ticketing is built for one person with one card. And whether it’s a group of friends, sports fans, or the crew you go to musical theatre with, this chapter argues the unit of demand is the group. The group’s role doesn’t close at the gate either. Value is increasingly created in the shared experience and the community around the event, and what brings fans back is often the people they went with.
THE SHIFT
THE FORCE
Life moved onto screens.
Live is where people deliberately go
back to sharing something in person.
Better Together: The distance
between how groups decide and how checkouts are built. Who invites, who commits, who coordinates, who pays.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
16
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
Universal now, and expected
to grow
The power to connect is close to universal, making it the ground everything else in this force is built on. And the interesting questions are not whether people value going together, but how the going-together actually happens.
Life already moved onto screens. The new part is a correction, of sorts, as people consciously buy their way back to each other. And live events are where they do it.
say live events are great
for bonding with friends
and family
believe live events will matter more for social connection and wellbeing as life gets more digital
People are buying time together as much as they're buying access to an event. This is where "return on live" and "better together" line up: the personal reward and the shared occasion are the same purchase.
The data is not niche. It holds within a few points across every market. The one real movement is generational: belief that live will matter more for social connection runs 14 points higher among Millennials than among the over-60s, where it drops to 64%.
say people will increasingly
value real-life experiences
over digital ones.
expect people to make a conscious effort to reconnect
in person as lifestyles digitise
Q7_11 / Q8a_1 / Q8a_2 / Q8a_5. Agreement statements on bonding, social connection and consciously reconnecting in person.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
17
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
(Re)introducing: The Instigator
Behind every group at the gate is usually one person who made it happen. We call them the Instigator: 22% of people play the role, and another 20% are waiting for someone to play it.
22% present as The Instigator: they round the group up and pay. Another 10% are The Convincer, buying a spare then talking someone into coming. Count everyone who does either and around one third of fans are the reason the group gets there at all. One in five are The Follower (20%), waiting on someone else to commit first, and 11% co-plan but never touch the checkout. 7% didn't go, because nobody else was interested.
That 7% lost-to-friction group deserves a look. At the scale of live entertainment, "nobody else wanted to come" is a measurable, addressable slice of lost revenue, that can be classified as a coordination failure. The demand was there but the group never formed. There's an opportunity here: the industry may already know the importance of the Instigator, but perhaps there’s ways to help them do their job better.
We'll come back to the secondary market later, but group buying can be capped before the onsale even opens. Those caps are built to protect fans from brokers, and they apply to a group of friends in exactly the same way.
Artist manager Jodie Regan of Spinning Top Music, whose artist roster includes Tame Impala, Pond, Automatic and Whitney, said "One of the first things our agent or promoter asks before a show goes on sale is what the ticket limit is going to be. We can't allow more than four or six, because then we think they're going to sell them. So much of what we put in place on an onsale is about stopping people buying tickets to scalp them and rip fans off."
Those in the industry know the value of the person that rallies the group but it’s interesting to dig more into how many fans identify with this role, how many depend on it, and what it might cost when nobody takes it on.
panel
Tixel customers play the Instigator at close to double the market rate (38% vs 22%), and inside the panel the role holds flat across generations rather than peaking with Millennials.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
18
BACKGROUND . THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
% of fans who played each group role at their last ticketed event
22%
20%
11%
10%
7%
Lost to
social friction
The Instigator
Follower
Co-planner
The Convincer
buys for the group
waits for friends first
helps, doesn’t buy
buys a spare, convinces you to come
didn’t go
UNITED STATES
19%
13%
Americans are the least likely of the three markets to round the group up and buy for them
… but they are the most likely to
buy a spare ticket and find a buddy
Q6. "...which of the following describe how you approached the decision to buy tickets?" *The numbers don’t add up to 100 as the question was multi-select
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
19
74
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
Waiting is not
the same as
not wanting
20%
of people who attend live events identify as followers
One in five fans won't buy until
someone else does, and Gen Z
waits more than anyone.
20% of fans needed at least one friend to commit before
they would buy. Gen Z sits at 27%, ahead of every other generation, and it isn't a linear slope: Boomer+ waits
more than Gen X does.
The instinct is to read waiting as lukewarm interest but
fans who gave an explanation for this described aligning calendars and confirming friends are going, alongside
the budget check.
GEN Z
Millennial
Gen X
Boomer +
27%
19%
15%
19%
The follower isn't a weaker buyer. They're a buyer with a dependency, and the dependency is addressable.
Q12b Why do you usually buy tickets at that stage?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
20
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
I wait to confirm my schedule with friends and check my budget before purchasing.
Fan, Australia, 24
Because I need to check my schedule and be sure I'll be attending with a friend
Fan, UK, 22
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
FUTURE-LIVE: TICKETING TOmorrow
21
BACKGROUND . THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
Everyone is buying the same ticket.
Under-45s are expecting more meaning from it,
and they're the buyers who are inheriting the market.
LIVE EVENTS...
UNDER 45
OVER 45
...are great for bonding and
connecting with family members
82%
79%
...are becoming something people
actively participate in, not just watch
72%
...feel like once-in-a-lifetime cultural moments people plan their years around
69%
61%
...are expected to stand for something
not just stage performances
62%
60%
51%
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
22
74
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
We all bond by going out, but younger fans expect more from their night out
Connecting with friends and family at live events is close to universal, and the two halves of the market sit around 80% on it, just three points apart. That is the floor this force stands on, and it isn't moving Above that floor those under and over 45 start to separate when it comes to expectations connected to meaning. Younger fans are more likely to want to partake rather than just watch (+11pt ), to treat a show as a fixture they plan their year around +9pts), and to expect it to stand for something beyond the performance (+11pts). Nine to eleven points ahead on each measure is a meaningful difference. The half asking for more is the half that will be buying for the next twenty five years and iit's worth figuring out how you build the night for them.
All fans agree that live is about being with people, but those under 45 attach more meaning on top of that, by around ten points on every measure.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
23
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
Belonging,
by market
74%
73%
Belonging is not evenly distributed across the three markets.
64%
64% of Australia's general public say live events help them connect with like-minded people, the lowest of the three markets. The US sits at 73% and the UK is the highest on
this measure at 74%.
UNITED KINGDOM
UNITED STATES
AUSTRALIA
Q7_12. "Live events help me connect with like-minded people"
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
24
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
The Social
Journey
Continues EVEN
After Purchase
This is on par with the other biggest reason people sell, their own plans changing, at 32%.
So a ticket is about as likely to move because of someone else's life as the buyer's own, and the ability to recoup the money for any unwanted tickets holds a group's confidence to buy and commit
as a group.
The group decides when the ticket gets bought, and whether it survives.
of people who have sold a ticket did so because a friend or family member dropped out or they didn't want to go alone.
The easier it is for groups to adapt, the easier it becomes for people to commit in the first place.
Q18, base 3,312 fans who have sold a ticket.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
25
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
Why do you buy tickets early?*
Half of all fans have children at home, and among Millennials, a core ticket buying generation, it's two thirds. Parental households hold a lot of ticket volume.
“Gives more time to organise the plans for the day and whose going etc”
“Then I definitely have confirmation I am going and have plenty of time to organise time off, accommodation.”
UK, Male, 28
AU, Female, 18
"To secure good seats early, ensure availability and coordinate plans with family and friends."
US, Male, 40
"I organise friends that want to go so we can sit together."
“Better generally for timing and organising schedules for groups
of people to go together.”
UK, Male, 71
AU, Male, 38
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
*QN: Why respondents buy tickets early
26
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
The group
opens the door
Closing the sale is a different job. Asked to rank the main reasons for buying, fans put the line-up first (41% rank it top), then price (15%); "friends attending" is the first-choice reason for just 8%
but it’s in the top three for 30%. That may seem like a contradiction but you can think of it more as a funnel: the group gets a fan considering a show and shapes whether the night happens at all, but the artist and the price close the transaction.
Search engines, reviews and media coverage, online communities and social creators all contribute trust in the decision too, but they carry less weight, and AI carries least of all.
Discovery still runs through people
more than platforms. The group
opens the door; the line-up and
the price close the sale.
Friends and family remain the single biggest way fans hear about a live event (49%) and the second most trusted source when deciding whether to attend (42%), just behind the trust placed in event and ticketing platforms (47%).
Every paid channel, every algorithmic feed, every creator partnership sits behind good old-fashioned word of mouth
as a way of finding out.
Nicholas Greco of Untitled Group added: "Audiences aren’t very forgiving. If they think your line-up's mid, you'll know about it on social media within seconds. You're answering to your audience on line-up day, immediately. They're judging your homework as soon as it's out, and if you haven't done a great job you'll hear about it loudly."
Hear about events from friends & family
Trust friend & family recommendations
when deciding
Discovery and trust are where
the group does its real work.
Q4. "How do you typically find out about live events?" Q28. "...which of the following do you trust the most?" Q5. Reasons to buy, ranked 1 to 8; figures are the share ranking each reason first.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
27
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
Six steps,
built mostly
for two of them
say buying a ticket will feel
like the beginning of the
experience rather than just
a transaction
The ticket is one step. The journey is six, and ticketing is engineered for just two of them.
Both are engineered down to the second and neither lasts longer than a few minutes. The parts that take a fan months are the deciding, the organising, the re-planning in response to life's curveballs, and the re-living. None of that is really part of it. The group's work happens in the steps that no single platform owns and there's an opportunity for those who think about the part they can play across the full journey.
The majority of fans say that in future, buying a ticket will feel like the beginning of the experience. Yet much of ticketing is built as though it's the end. Ticketing was designed as a transaction, so it got very good at the two moments when the transaction matters most: the onsale, which serves Invite, and the gate, which serves Attend.
Invite
Commit
Coordinate
Respond
Attend
Share
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
28
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
Group dynamics run the length of the journey: whether interest becomes plans, plans become purchases, and purchases become shared experiences.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
29
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #1 Better together
Where this goes next: The 2030 lens
The arithmetic is already settled. The generation least willing to buy alone becomes the default buyer inside the decade. Whether the reliance on friends is a life stage people grow out of or a habit they keep is an open question, and also the least important one: either way, a rising share of every sale sits behind whether a group forms. Discovery is moving the same way. Community is becoming the layer this market runs on, ahead of the creator economy and, for the youngest fans, ahead of search itself. The place fans decide is increasingly the place they already belong. Put those together and the shared cart, the held seat, the visible friend and the easy exit stop being features somewhere in the early 2030s. They become the default architecture of a checkout. The platforms that build them first will convert the demand everyone else keeps losing at the group stage.
Ticketing counts buyers but demand arrives in groups. And as fans say yes to less, shared occasions are more likely to make the cut.
The force in one line: Ticketing counts buyers but demand arrives in groups. Whoever closes that gap first owns the next decade of it.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
30
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #2 ELEVATED EXPERIENCE
FORCE #2
ELEVATED EXPERIENCE
Expectations are rising and budgets are tightening at the same time. That gap is the force. Fans haven’t retreated from wanting better, more elevated experiences. They still want memorable nights, premium moments and things worth talking about the next day. What's changed is that they're paying more for them and are pickier about what earns their time, so the bar the night has to clear has gone up from both directions at once. This chapter reframes what premium means for the next era. It has stopped being a better seat and become a judgement about the whole occasion, one that has to visibly balance before a fan will buy. Fans are still willing to spend. What has changed is that the spending goes through a finer filter now.
THE SHIFT
THE FORCE
Everything grew a premium tier and people got used to wanting it. Live is one of the few things they haven't traded down on.
Elevated experience is the distance between rising expectations and tightening budgets. Premium stopped being a better seat and became a judgement about the whole night.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
31
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #2 ELEVATED EXPERIENCE
Elevated expectations are not confined to the people in the front row
70%
Say production, atmosphere and the overall experience matter more than they used to.
72% US, 73% UK, 67% AUS
61%
Say events need to feel more immersive and memorable than they used to.
63% US, 63% UK, 57% AUS
57%
I expect live events to stand for something, not just stage performances.
60% US, 62% UK, 51% AUS
“Premium” has historically meant VIP seating and better sightlines. Fans are describing something broader now, a psychological equation that has to visibly balance before they'll trade up. As they become more selective with time and money, the standard for value is rising; production, atmosphere and memorability have to work together to make the price feel justified.
Artist manager Jodie Regan of Spinning Top Music, whose artist roster includes Tame Impala, Pond, Automatic and Whitney, said "We keep our ticket prices as low as we possibly can, but the show we want to put on sets the price. Generally speaking, if you want people to buy a more expensive ticket you have to put on a more expensive show."
As prices rise, the experience has to work harder, but the new definition of premium is broader than just VIP.
Q7. Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements about live events (e.g. concerts, festivals, sports, theatre)
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
32
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #2 ELEVATED EXPERIENCE
But ticket price is only part of the equation
ticket price
60% US, 57% UK, 69% AUS
additional costs (e.g. food, transport, accommodation)
34% US, 31% UK, 35% AUS
Affordability is shaped by the
whole cost of attendance
Fans assess affordability across the entire experience, not just
the ticket price at checkout. Travel (43%), the additional costs of attending (33%) and hidden processing fees (23%) are barriers that can each turn initial interest into something unaffordable, since this
is as much about value perception as raw cost. Cost pressure is particularly high in Australia, where nearly seven in ten identify ticket price as a barrier.
Niamh Byrne, artist manager and Chair of the UK's Music Managers Forum added "We're having to adjust our ticket prices to compensate for the extra charges, so that when the total price is presented to a fan it isn't seemingly extortionate, even though we don't have any control over that. We're still making decisions to make sure we protect fans and it isn't beyond their reach."
hidden processing fees or additional costs from ticket merchants
42% US, 45% UK, 42% AUS
hidden processing fees or additional costs from ticket merchants
28% US, 20% UK, 20% AUS
Consider the whole cost of attendance, not ticket face value alone. Be transparent about any additional processing fees that are not apparent upfront.
Q8. What stops you from buying tickets to events?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
33
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #2 ELEVATED EXPERIENCE
Raising the bar without raising the barrier
It's not surprising that higher-income households attend live experiences more but lower income households are still going out at a significant rate: two thirds of lower-income households have purchased a ticket or attended an event in the past 12 months.
Appetite doesn’t collapse under financial pressure, and expectations remain largely the same. While those in lower income households are 27 percentage points less likely to have attended a live event, they weigh what makes a live experience worth it as heavily as higher income households do.
The challenge is building experiences that preserve access (affordable luxury) while making quality, choice and value visible at every tier, not just the top one.
Randy Nichols, strategic advisor. artist manager and policy advocate in the US said: "Arena and stadium level concerts are now like Broadway shows. They're not an artist on stage. There's full production. There's major set changes, and the ticket price is supporting all this, and the fans want to see it. So they're coming back and sharing it on social media and creating these hugely successful tours. But the worry is how far can you push these limits?"
% who purchased or attended a live event in the past 12 months
92%
82%
65%
High-income
Households
(Highest fifth)
Medium-income
Households
(Middle three fifths)
Low-income
Households
(Lowest fifth)
Design elevated experience into every tier, not just the highest-priced ticket.
S5. Thinking about ticketed, in-person live events (e.g. concerts, festivals, sporting events, theatre or comedy shows), which of the following describes you in the past 12 months? Q7. Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements about live events. Income groups are fifths of household income within each market. Expectation comparison is adjusted for each respondent's overall agreement level across the Q7 statements.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
34
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #2 ELEVATED EXPERIENCE
There ARE Contradictions in how we assess our purchases
There’s some natural tensions at play when it comes to buying behaviour."
One asks what it costs, the other asks what it returns, and a cheap ticket to a disappointing night fails the second. That tension is what shows up when the price lands higher than expected.
When faced with a much higher-than-anticipated price not all of us just walk away. And the response isn't uniform — age matters more here than geography. 19% of Gen Z would walk away, against 56% of over-60s.
Gen X and Boomers+ are significantly more likely to simply walk away from the purchase (42% and 56%), those under 45 are far more likely to find a way to make it work (Only 19% of Gen Z would not attend, Millennials, 26%). If your event skews 45+, try to be as upfront as you can about pricing to avoid a "principle exit" over the end cost. If it skews under 45, there's more room to communicate price progressively.
Fans are applying two tests that pull against each other. Half cite an affordable price as a leading reason to attend, four in ten cite value for money.
50%
40%
Identify an affordable price as a leading reason to attend.
53% US, 48% UK, 51% AUS
Identify value for money as a leading reason to attend.
41% US, 39% UK, 44% AUS
Q5. What are the reasons you choose to buy tickets to live events? Q9. Imagine tickets for an artist you really want to see are more expensive than expected (e.g. you expect $/£200 but they are $/£350). What would you be most likely to do? Adapt*: 1) I would try to find a way to make it affordable 2) Use a payment option to afford the ticket 3) Save up and try for a resale ticket later
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
35
BACKGROUND . THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #2 ELEVATED EXPERIENCE
What would we do if the ticket was way more
expensive than we were expecting
Not sure
4
2
4
5
6
19
EXIT
33
26
12
42
7
56
7
16
14
4
13
ADAPT
28
11
4
32
5
26
23
19
17
19
20
PROCEED
15
11
TOTAL
GEN Z
Millennial
GEN X
BOOMERS+
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
36
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #2 ELEVATED EXPERIENCE
Where this goes next: The 2030 lens
Make “worth it” felt. Fans need to envision the return before they commit.
Perceived quality, total cost and what's included have to work together to make the price feel justified. As spending becomes more considered, events have to demonstrate what the extra actually buys.
When people look ahead, the expectations climb again. They expect live events to be emotional journeys, once-in-a-lifetime cultural moments, something to participate in rather than watch.
They expect buying tickets to feel like the beginning of the experience, not just a transaction, and they want more from a show than an artist simply playing songs.
Ask what would make someone buy earlier and lower prices leads, which shows where the pressure sits rather than what to do about it. Better seats or viewing areas comes next, while exclusive perks, the classic premium product, sit near the bottom. Certainty-drivers do a lot of work here, from guaranteed access before general sale, to avoiding fear of selling out (FOSO), and the ability to refund or sell a ticket if plans change. We'll talk about them more in Force 4: The Certainty Premium.
The force in one line: When the equation does balance, what fans are paying for is the feeling the night gives back. That is where this goes next.
Q14. What would make you more likely to buy tickets earlier than you usually do?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
37
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #3 The Happiness Shortcut
FORCE #3
The Happiness Shortcut
This is the emotional return, and it's the one fans are least willing to give up. Live delivers release and distance from the everyday, and it delivers both to a large majority of people.
THE RETURN On me trend runs the same way outside live: people are auditing what their commitments give back, and joy is a return they don't want to drop.
This next chapter explores how the next phase of growth could belong to the events that add more moments worth anticipating.
THE SHIFT
THE FORCE
People started auditing what their commitments give back. Live is one of the few that pays before the day arrives.
The Happiness Shortcut: The distance between the night the industry sells and the return fans are already counting. The anticipation, the release, the retelling.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
38
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #3 The Happiness Shortcut
“Something to look forward to, something to enjoy in the moment viscerally, and something to reflect back on."
Australian fan, 48
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
39
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #3 The Happiness Shortcut
One purchase, three payback moments
Happiness is hard to schedule. A ticket is one of the few things you can buy that
starts paying out the moment you pay for it, months ahead, on a date you choose.
That's the shortcut, and most of it happens nowhere near the venue: the night is
fixed in cost and capacity, while the months either side cost almost nothing to feed.
The Anticipation
THE EVENT
The Re-living
Fans describe the purchase as
the moment the plan becomes real.
This is also when the conversation
and hype starts, with over half of us (52%) saying it’s often as enjoyable
as the event itself.
The purchase is the moment a plan stops being an idea. The payout starts there, months before the doors open.
Around 3 in 4 of fans feel live events
are an important way for them to genuinely disconnect from everyday life, a form of emotional release, and
a break from algorithms, automation and digital overload.
This is the part the industry sells, and
it delivers release and distance from the everyday, for a large majority.
64% of fans say live events give
them moments worth sharing online.
The night keeps working afterwards,
in the group chat, the camera roll
and the feed.
Q7. Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following
statements about live events (e.g. concerts, festivals, sports, theatre)
Q29. Looking ahead, how much do you agree or disagree with the
following statements about the future of technology and live events?
Q12b. Why do you usually buy tickets at that stage?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
40
74
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #3 The Happiness Shortcut
For Parental Households,
Live Is A Protected Fixture
For the most part they look like any other fan, naming price,
travel and work at roughly the same rate as everyone else. Everyone wants the ticket to be cheaper. This half needs the
night to be possible.
Which is why the ticket does more work here than anywhere else:
it solves for a date night and turns a joyful intention into an arrangement. 60% call live a regular part of how they spend their free time, against 47% of fans without children. The obstacle is
real and unresolved, and they go anyway.
And the looking forward starts earlier here than anywhere else.
A night that takes a month to arrange gets a month of anticipation.
Half the fans we surveyed have children at home, rising to two thirds among Millennials. Often, for parents, happiness has to be scheduled and that changes what a ticket is for.
A quarter of fans with children at home name childcare or family duties as a reason they don't buy, against 5% of everyone else. This gap stays the same no matter how much money parents make, suggesting the problem is more about caring responsibilities than income.
The shortcut to happiness isn't just the night out, it's the ability to book one in the first place.
Q7. Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements
about live events (e.g. concerts, festivals, sports, theatre) (5pt scale).
Q8. What stops you from buying tickets to events?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
41
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #3 The Happiness Shortcut
"[Live] gives us something to escape mental overload and helps us focus on the good things."
UK Fan, 37 with children at home
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
42
BACKGROUND . THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #3 The Happiness Shortcut
The same barriers land very differently
depending on who is at home
Ticket price
56%
70%
37%
Having to travel too far
48%
Childcare or family
responsibilites
25%
5%
Children at home
No children at home
Q8. What stops you from buying tickets to events?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
43
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #3 The Happiness Shortcut
Anticipation is the first thing fans buy
Buying a ticket scratches an itch, and the weeks or months that follow are filled with little pops of anticipatory joy. 62% expect the emotional journey of a live music event to matter more than the setlist. That figure was stable across countries, and strongest among the fans who will be buying for longest: 67% of Gen Z against 52% of the over-60s.
The need feels immediate. And even though the night is months away, the reward is not.
"It’s a good feeling having something ahead to look forward to."
Fewer than one in five fans buy close to the event, and only 3% go right to the last minute. Emotional immediacy does not always mean spontaneous buying; purchase timing is reflected stronger by when desire aligns with affordability, availability and certainty. Fans are also saying yes to less. Three-quarters say they are more selective about social experiences than they used to be, and it is not for lack of appetite: 63% value spending money on live experiences over buying physical things, a majority that holds in every generation. Each yes has to carry more.
Aus, fan, 53
62%
believe the emotional journey of a live music event will matter more than the setlist
63%
value spending money on
live experiences over
buying physical things.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
44
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #3 The Happiness Shortcut
Thinking about how you usually buy tickets, when do you tend to purchase?
I make sure I have access to the presale
16
As soon as tickets go on sale
33
Early (well in advance of the event)
27
Closer to the event date
15
Last minute
3
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
45
74
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #3 The Happiness Shortcut
Where this goes next: The 2030 lens
As people get more selective about what earns their time,
they don't necessarily want more nights out. They want more dependable ones. Live already does something almost nothing else does: it lets you buy a feeling in advance, on a date of your choosing, and start collecting on the return immediately. That's a rare product, and the pressure that made it valuable isn't easing.
If happiness starts at the checkout, it can also be chipped away at long before the night arrives. A fake ticket, a cancellation, a friend who pulls out: the fan loses the night, and the months spent looking forward to it. The longer the reward has been building,
the more a broken plan hurts.
So the days between stop being a gap to be endured and become something to be designed for and defended. By the early 2030s the advantage sits with whoever can keep the feeling intact from the checkout to reliving the experience.
The feeling has to survive a whole journey.
Fans aren't just buying a show. They're also buying the months of looking forward to it.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
46
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
FORCE #4
The Certainty Premium
The previous force showed premium becoming a judgement about the whole occasion. The feeling that decides whether that judgement turns into a purchase is certainty: that the ticket is real, that the price is fair, and that the plan can change. Almost everything in our lives has become much easier to undo. Ticketing went the other way, and remains one of the last high-friction, high-stakes decisions left in most people's leisure lives. Fraud and scalping are trust killers, and trust is what commitment runs on. But that friction is solvable, not permanent. It's a result of how tickets are sold, priced and released, and what was built one way can be built another. The opportunity isn't simply helping people buy tickets. It's helping people feel comfortable committing.
THE SHIFT
THE FORCE
People are simplifying decisions everywhere, cutting effort and risk wherever they can.
The certainty premium is the distance between what a fan risks and what the ticket guarantees. A real ticket at a fair price, or a changeable plan.
Q7_16. Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with “I'd rather pay more for a verified/guaranteed ticket than save money on an uncertain one.”
Q15. How much does knowing you can easily resell tickets if your plans change increase your confidence in buying tickets?
Q19. How often, if at all, have you paid what you considered to be a significantly inflated price for a ticket through resale or secondary marketplaces?
Q20. How often, if at all, have you experienced ticketing fraud in the past 12 months?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
47
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
People want live experiences, but the journey to commitment needs to feel lighter, safer and easier.
Making the buying feel as light as the attending is the lever that gets there.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
48
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
Address friction as a system, rather than a single barrier
Fans describe their timing more neatly than an on-sale actually behaves. Real sales spike at the on-sale, go quiet, then spike again as the event nears. That U is getting flatter and less predictable. The gap between what fans say and what on-sales do is a case of friction, not desire. That makes timing something the industry can move, rather than a fixed trait of any market. As Force 2 explored, a ticket sale has to overcome a lot of barriers. Some are about money. Others are just life: travel, work, childcare, plans already in the diary and none of these are easy to shift. There are some that are more malleable: hidden processing fees (22%), concerns about crowds/safety (22%), uncertainty about whether the event will be any good (16%), unfair dynamic pricing (13%), and no easy way out if plans change (9%). The levers work differently at each end. Better seats (46% against 28%) and a likely sell-out (44% against 33%) pull hardest on the people who already buy early. The one lever that pulls harder on late buyers is being able to undo the purchase: a refund or exchange would move 34% of them, against 25% of early buyers.
Price, changing plans, logistics, social drop-out, access and safety combine to make the yes feel heavy. But what if we framed purchase timing as a form of risk management?
Ask fans when they typically buy and the majority says early. Over 70% put themselves at the presale, the on-sale, or well in advance, and that holds in every market. Only 3% call themselves last-minute buyers.
Resolve the risk, reel in the purchase.
Q12. Thinking about how you usually buy tickets, when do you tend to purchase? Q8. What stops you from buying tickets to events? Q14. What would make you more likely to buy tickets earlier than you usually do?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
49
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
Why can’t we all be early birds?
There’s no doubt that early sales benefit the industry. The show gets planned, the cashflow lands, the marketing has somewhere to point.
The most cited factor in inspiring earlier buying is price, with 57% of fans saying lower prices would move them; better seats follow at 41%.
Sitting in equal second at 41% is the fear of selling out, which we call FOSO. It's the steadiest motivator on this list, moving less than two points across all four generations while the others swing much harder. If we think tickets are going to fly, we’re less prepared to take a risk. We’re logging on for the onsale, or in many cases, the presale.
There are three certainty levers that are relatively low cost and sit within
an organiser's control that are worth considering:
Guaranteed access before general sale sat at 28%. Australia leads on this lever, at 30%, vs UK (27%) and US (25%)
Allowing ticket liquidity: Whilst not easy to deliver, the ability to refund or exchange a ticket sat at 26%; An easier solve is allowing the ability to easily resell, which sits at 19% overall and rises to 24% among Gen Z.
Providing payment options was motivational for nearly 1 in 5 (19%), rising to 22% of under-45s (compared to 15% of those 45+)
“I prefer the peace of mind of knowing I’ve secured them early. Because I worry they’ll be snapped up if I wait.”
UK, FEMALE, 43
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
50
BACKGROUND . THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
The desire for certainty sits behind some key early purchase drivers
Lower prices (e.g. early bird tickets)
57
Access to better seats or viewing areas
41
Knowing the event is likely to sell out
41
Guaranteed access before general sale
28
Ability to get a refund or exchange tickets
26
Knowing my friends already have tickets
23
Ability to easily resell tickets if my plans change
19
Exclusive perks (e.g. VIP, experiences, merchandise)
19
Payment options (e.g. instalments / buy now, pay later)
19
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
51
74
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
82%
believe ticketing platforms and the wider live events industry will need stronger and clearer rules to protect and remain fair for fans
80% US, 86% UK, 81% AUS
Stronger rules are needed for fairness, and our trust to be paid back
Whether that conditional trust holds if the rules don't arrive is unknown.
What we can see is that fans aren't asking loudest where the harm is worst. The UK is the noisiest of the three, and it's the market where reform is closest to landing. Australia asks more quietly, and it already has the strongest fan protections. The US carries the most damage in this study and asks no louder than Australia. Predatory resale there is so embedded it has stopped looking like something that could be fixed. Quiet doesn't mean fine. Fairness is easier to build while fans are still asking for it.
When asked about rules contributing to fairness and protection, 8 in 10 fans believe both ticketing platforms and the wider live events industry need stronger and clearer rules. UK fans generally have higher expectations for safeguarding, compared to Australia and the US.
Ticketing and event platforms are our most trusted source when it comes to attendance decisions, even more than our friends and family. And the fans who trust platforms most are the ones demanding rules hardest: 87% of the people who name platforms as their most trusted source want stronger protections, against 79% of everyone else. Trust here is being lent on terms.
And we do believe we need protection: three-quarters believe bots and brokers are responsible for inflated resale prices. Nearly two-thirds expect their grip on access to tighten, not loosen. We'll come back to both of
those numbers.
Q8a. Looking ahead, how much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about society and live events?
(Q8a_6 platforms need stronger rules; Q8a_7 bots and brokers inflating prices; Q8a_8 industry needs clearer rules)
Q28. When deciding whether to attend a live event, which of the following do you trust the most?
Q29. Looking ahead, how much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about the
future of technology and live events? (Q29_2 brokers and bots controlling access)
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
52
BACKGROUND . THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
When deciding whether to attend a live event, which of the following do you trust the most?
Ticketing or event platforms
47%
Recommendations from friends or family
42%
Search engines
22%
Traditional reviews or media coverage
22%
Recommendations from online communities (e.g. Reddit, Discord, fan groups)
15%
Social media creators or influencers
14%
I don’t particularly trust any of these
12%
AI or automated recommendations
6%
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
53
74
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
One of the most risky places to buy a ticket could be at the top of the search results
23% of fans told us they had experienced ticketing fraud
in the past 12 months.
This number was markedly
worse in the US at 29%
compared to just 17% in AU.
The UK sat in the middle at 25%.
When asked whether they had experienced ticketing fraud in the past 12 months, 23% of fans told us they had. This rate sits higher than figures usually quoted in the industry. It is self-reported experience rather than verified incidence, and the base is fans who attended a ticketed event in the past year or tried to, so it’s a more exposed group than the general public.
One interesting finding is how the victim connected with the seller. Fans who bought a resale ticket because it came up as the top option when they searched online were defrauded at 52%, against 29% of other resale buyers. That gap holds inside every generation, and Gen Z buy via that avenue four times as often as Boomers+. Deceptive ticket websites have long been flagged as a risk, and search is where fans meet them. What this can't tell us is whether that top result was a scam site, a paid ad or a legitimate marketplace, only that the fans who took it were nearly twice as likely to be defrauded.
That gap holds inside every generation, and Gen Z buy via that avenue four times as often as Boomers+. Deceptive ticket websites have long been flagged as a risk, and search is where fans meet them. What this can't tell us is whether that top result was a scam site, a paid ad or a legitimate marketplace, only that the fans who took it were nearly twice as likely to be defrauded.
Q20. How often, if at all, have you experienced ticketing fraud in the past 12 months?
(By 'ticketing fraud' we mean situations where individuals paid for tickets that were fake,
invalid or non-existent, often through unofficial sellers, fraudulent
websites or people falsely claiming to have tickets available.)
Q17. If you've bought resale tickets in the past, why do you usually buy them?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
54
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
The younger the fan, the more they got stung:
GEN Z
Millennial
Gen X
Boomers
13%
5%
The easy explanation is that young fans are more likely to buy resale tickets, which is true, but it doesn't hold up. Among fans who have never bought a resale ticket at all, Gen Z are still defrauded at 24%, higher than Gen X who do buy resale.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
55
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
Scalping is everywhere but it isn’t everywhere equally.
Nearly half of all fans, 46%, have paid what they considered a significantly inflated price. The rate isn't the same everywhere, and the pattern isn't a coincidence.
Once again, our youngest fans are getting ripped off at a higher rate. Nearly two thirds of Gen Z have paid over the odds, 63%, against one in five Boomers at 20%. That 43-point gap holds in every market, from 36 points in the US to 52 in the UK.
Geographically, the US is worst off at 56%, the UK sits at 49%, Australia at 38%. Australians buy resale tickets less often than Americans, 55% against 67%, so part of that gap can be explained
by less exposure but it’s not the bulk of it. Among fans who have bought a resale ticket, an Australian is still far less likely to have been overcharged, 52% against 66%, and less likely to have been defrauded, 27% against 36%. Higher rates of resale follow an incentivised secondary ticketing environment, where there's money
to be made from flipping tickets at much higher prices.
Australia's 38% is not evidence that resale rules fail. It's what the problem looks like after they have been applied. Strong protections shrink the problem, but there’s still more to be done to stamp out predatory reselling.
75%
Say bots and brokers are responsible for inflated
resale prices.
75% US, 80% UK, 72% AUS
69%
Believe it’s becoming harder for genuine fans to access major music events at fair prices, compared to more predictable access models seen in sports
66% US, 71% UK, 70% AUS
63%
expect Brokers and/or bots will increasingly control who
is able to secure tickets to
live music events
63% US, 67% UK, 60% AUS
Q19. How often, if at all, have you paid what you considered to be a significantly inflated price for a ticket through
resale or secondary marketplaces? (Prices well above the original ticket cost, beyond typical booking or resale fees.)
Q20. How often, if at all, have you experienced ticketing fraud in the past 12 months?
Q17. If you've bought resale tickets in the past, why do you usually buy them?
Q8a. Looking ahead, how much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about society and live events?
(Q8a_7 bots and brokers inflating prices)
Q29. Looking ahead, how much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about the future of
technology and live events? (Q29_2 brokers and bots controlling access; Q29_11 harder for genuine fans than in sport)
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
56
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
"If an artist prices a ticket affordably, a secondary picks it up instantly, marks it up five, six times face value. That money leaves the ecosystem. It's not reinvested into other artists' shows. It's not reinvested in keeping the club's infrastructure going. These events, these promoters, run on very tight margins. If the scalpers sell 70% of the tickets at a huge markup, they may dump the last 30% at a cheap price, but they may choose to not dump them at all and just hold on to them. And then we have tons of people who don't come to the venue, and these venues make money on everyone who comes in."
Randy Nichols
Strategic Advisor, Artist Manager,
and U.S. Policy Advocate
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
57
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
FANS AREN’t SCALPERS
Two thirds of fans have sold a ticket at some point, and
60% have bought one from someone else. The reasons
on both sides are less glamorous than you’d think.
People sell because life moved
Most people buy resale because the front door was shut
Force 1 covered the social half of this, that a ticket is about as likely to end up in resale because of someone else's plans as the seller's own. The rest is ordinary attrition. 22% of sellers had been ill, 17% had the event rescheduled under them, 15% needed the money back and 9% bought the wrong ticket type. Only 8% said they were keen to try and make a buck.
37% of resale buyers were there because the original tickets had sold out, ahead of finding a better price at 26%, 22% just like buying late, and 21% bought from a friend or family member who couldn't go.
Nearly all of this is just life happening either side of the purchase, and when that kind of flexibility and spontaneity is enabled, there’s more confidence to commit the next time around.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
58
74
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
For those that have sold a ticket/s in the past, this is why they usually sell
33%
23%
22%
17%
15%
13%
13%
11%
9%
8%
8%
5%
3%
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
59
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
The easier it is to change a plan, the easier it is to make one
Fans aren't highly sentimental about it. Asked how they perceive resale, 48% chose a positive frame: a safety net, a convenience, a route into a sold-out show. 36% chose a more negative one, mainly that it benefits scalpers or that the tickets are fake. Both are accurate descriptions, since both things are true of the larger secondary market.
I buy tickets [as soon as they go onsale] because it gives me a more flexible option if my schedule changes at the last minute.
Two thirds of fans say knowing they can resell if plans change increases their confidence to buy in the first place.
That's 67% overall, and it runs highest among the fans with the most buying years ahead of them: 73% of Gen Z and Millennials against 53% of Boomers. Flexibility stops being a feature and becomes an expectation as the market ages in.
Ask instead how it changes their behaviour and a different picture appears. 28% say resale options make them buy earlier or more comfortably, while 32% say that where flexibility is limited they wait, buy only when certain they can attend, or don't buy at all. Fans notice the safety net mainly when it's missing, which means the cost of not offering it is larger than the gain from offering it.
UK, FEMALE, 43
Fans commit hardest when they know they can back out.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
60
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #4 The Certainty Premium
Where this goes next: The 2030 lens
Fans will pay more for a guaranteed ticket right now, and they'll do
it because guarantees are scarce. As the generations who treat flexibility as standard become the centre of this market, that premium erodes into an expectation. Today certainty is a reason to pay more. In five years, its absence will be a reason to walk away.
A second clock is running alongside it. Australia already caps resale prices across most states. Britain's cap sits in draft and isn't expected in law before 2027-28. The United States has movement at state level and nothing federal. The direction of travel is the same in all three. The question isn't whether resale gets constrained, it's whether the industry designs those constraints
or has them designed for it.
But the prize isn't being ready when the rules land. It's the demand being lost today: the fans who delay, or buy only when they're certain, or never buy at all, because there's no way back out.
That revenue is available now, to whoever removes the risk first.
The rules are coming. The demand is here.
Build certainty in now and it's revenue. Wait until it's mandated and it's just table stakes.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
61
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #5 Living In The Algorithm Age
FORCE #5
Living In The Algorithm Age
Live is where people go to escape the algorithm yet the algorithm and AI is part of how fans are discovering, evaluating and accessing live experiences.
Fans have already worked out how they want to live with that: the machine can help, on their terms, with the give and take firmly in their hands. Algorithms can surface relevant events and make transactions easier, but greater automation also introduces questions about transparency, safety and fairness.
This force is about that conditional welcome, where fans will use AI, where they won't trust it, and the rules they want enforced around the people who misuse it.
Technology can open the door, but trust determines whether fans walk through it.
Machines moved into everyday decisions faster than trust followed.
Live is where fans still want a person at the other end.
THE SHIFT
Living in the Algorithm Age: The distance between what fans will let the machine handle and what they'll only believe from a person. Find it, yes. Vouch for it, no.
THE FORCE
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
62
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #5 Living In The Algorithm Age
Automation* may streamline ticketing, but fans will reward platforms that make access feel fair, safe and human.
Every finding in this chapter should be read against that distinction:
automation and trust are two separate things to build, not one.
*By "automation" here, we mean the systems fans already encounter without necessarily naming them: algorithmic event recommendations, dynamic pricing, bot-detection at checkout, and AI-assisted customer support.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
63
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES - FORCE #5 living in the algorithm age
Algorithms Shape What Fans See. People Shape What They Trust
expect technology, such as algorithms, will increasingly influence what live music events you are exposed to
65% US, 66% UK, 63% AUS
believe AI will make it
easier for people to find events and experiences
they will most enjoy
57% US, 55% UK, 47% AUS
Algorithms and AI will play a growing role at the top of the discovery funnel, helping fans navigate the events available to them. But exposure is not the same as endorsement.
When fans move from noticing an event to deciding whether to attend, trusted people, communities and established platforms carry more weight. AI can spark interest but trust turns interest into attendance and that trust is driven by our friends, family, or people online who have more clout.
Randy Nichols, strategic advisor, artist manager and US policy advocate said: "You could go to AI now and say, find me a ticket to see this artist. And due to the tools that the scalpers are using, quite often the
AI will recommend the scalper ticket before the legitimate ticket."
think online communities will become more influential than traditional search when discovering live events
61% US,60% UK, 55% AUS
say they trust AI or automated recommendations when deciding on a live event
6% US, 7% UK, 4% AUS
Fans will let the algorithm shorten the search. They won't let it make the call.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
64
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES - FORCE #5 living in the algorithm age
As Recommendations Multiply, Trust Becomes Harder
To Earn
feel the rise of algorithms, AI and online content is making it harder to know what recommendations to trust. Every market, every generation, the same answer.
More personalised content does not automatically create more confident decisions. As fans encounter a growing volume of recommendations, sponsored material and algorithmically selected content, the source and rationale can become more opaque.
Relevance alone is no longer enough. Fans also want to know why an event has been surfaced and what signals sit behind the recommendation.
Human and credible platform
signals make the possibility
feel worth acting on.
Q29. Looking ahead, how much do you agree or disagree with the
following statements about the future of technology and live events?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
65
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES - FORCE #5 living in the algorithm age
Live events feeding the feed
It is a judgement fans are just as willing to make about themselves, with 64% agreeing that live events give them moments worth sharing online; significantly higher amongst US and UK fans compared to Australians.
Banter also contributes here with 52% agreeing that the conversation and hype on social media before, during and after
an event is often as enjoyable as the event itself, highest amongst those under 45.
And as we look to the future, 69% agree that as AI evolves it
will become less distinguishable from online human behaviour,
a feeling that held steady across markets and ages.
78% of fans say that people are sometimes more focused on capturing live events than experiencing them. It holds in every market and at every age below 60, where it drops.
It is a judgement fans are just as willing to make about themselves, with 64% agreeing that live events give them moments worth sharing online; significantly higher amongst US and UK fans compared to Australians.
Banter also contributes here with 52% agreeing that the conversation and hype on social media before, during and after
an event is often as enjoyable as the event itself, highest amongst those under 45.
And as we look to the future, 69% agree that as AI evolves it
will become less distinguishable from online human behaviour,
a feeling that held steady across markets and ages.
As 2030 nears, we anticipate anything that is real, human,
and present to have elevated value.
Human and credible platform
signals make the possibility
feel worth acting on.
Q7. Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following
statements about live events (e.g. concerts, festivals, sports, theatre)
Q29. Looking ahead, how much do you agree or disagree with the following
statements about the future of technology and live events
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
66
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #5 Living In The Algorithm Age
We anticipate an elevated value being placed upon anything that can prove it is real, human and present.
78%
64%
52%
69%
believe that people are sometimes more focused on capturing live events than experiencing them
say that live events give them moments worth sharing online 80% US, 86% UK, 81% AUS
agree that the conversation and hype on social media before, during and after an event is often as enjoyable as the event itself 54% US, 56% UK, 47% AUS
believe that as AI evolves, it will become less distinguishable from online human behaviour.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
67
74
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES - FORCE #5 living in the algorithm age
Fans expect technology to make access easier
The role that parents are likely playing in managing technology on a younger person's behalf could mean they're spending more time thinking about the responsibilities it should or shouldn't have in their lives
expect technology, such as algorithms, will increasingly influence what live music events you are exposed to.
65% US, 66% UK, 63% AUS
expect technology to make it less risky to buy and sell tickets for live events.
55% US, 60% UK, 52% AUS
But there’s a lag in expectations around safety.
Fans expect technology to simplify ticket buying and selling, but confidence in its ability to reduce risk is not keeping pace, and the nine point gap between the two suggests that convenience alone is not enough. Fans feel convenience the moment they engage, while safety only announces itself when it fails, which could explain some of the lag. Every improvement in speed and ease needs an equally visible layer of verification, protection and reassurance. Fans younger than 45 had higher expectations of technology than those over 45, and households with children at home also expect more on both counts, not just because they skew younger.
Safety innovation has to be as visible as convenience innovation.
Q29. Looking ahead, how much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about the future of technology and live events?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
68
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES • FORCE #5 Living In The Algorithm Age
One of the
high-agreement beliefs across ages isn't about music, price or community. It's about escape.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
69
The FIVE GLOBAL FORCES - FORCE #5 living in the algorithm age
Make smart feel human
For now, the machine is barely in the room, but the feed is already embedded in it. Close to two thirds of fans find out about live events through a social feed, against 11% through AI. The interplay between feed-led and AI-led discovery is something to track as the AI layer becomes more prominent.
The reason this matters sits in this dichotomy: 77% of fans
say live events feel like a break from algorithms, automation and digital overload, one of only four beliefs in this study that does not split by age. Yet only 6% trust AI or automated recommendations when deciding whether to attend, the lowest of the seven options given. Fans go to live events to
get out from under the algorithm, and they’re not about to
hand it the decision on where to go.
Fans are not rejecting technology. They are asking technology to become more understandable, protective and fair.
Trusted systems should help people discover relevant experiences, explain why recommendations appear, verify what is legitimate and protect access from manipulation.
The strongest technology will not ask fans to choose between intelligence and trust. It will use intelligence to strengthen trust.
believe that live events feel like a break from algorithms, automation and digital overload
The future of ticketing is not simply smarter technology. It is smarter technology people can understand and trust.
Q7. Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements about live events (e.g. concerts, festivals, sports, theatre)
Q28. When deciding whether to attend a live event, which of the following do you trust the most?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
70
3.
Global Market SnapShots
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
71
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIA
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
72
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
Defining Characteristics
Of An Australian Ticket Buyer
76%
69%
20%
!
of the Australian fans we
surveyed attended a ticketed live
event in the past 12 months,
the highest of all three markets
vs 63% Global average
Make a point of securing presale access, showing the strongest presale culture of the three
13% US, 15% UK
Australian fans have fallen victim to scalping and fraud at a significantly lower rate than Brits or Americans. 38% have paid a significantly inflated resale price in the past, against 49% in Britain and 56% in the US. And 17% experienced ticket fraud in the past 12 months, against 25% and 29%.
Highest price barrier of the
three markets with Australians naming ticketing price as a
barrier to attending at a higher
rate than UK or US fans
Australia turns up the most, works hardest to get in first, and gets scammed the least. Price is the biggest barrier here, well clear of anything else Australians named.
S5. Thinking about ticketed, in-person live events (e.g. concerts, festivals, sporting events, theatre or comedy shows), which of the following describes you in the past 12 months? Q8. What stops you from buying tickets to events? Q12. Thinking about how you usually buy tickets, when do you tend to purchase? Q19. How often, if at all, have you paid what you considered to be a significantly inflated price for a ticket through resale or secondary marketplaces? Q20. How often, if at all, have you experienced ticketing fraud in the past 12 months?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
73
74
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
THE AUSSIE Buyer profile
attended a ticketed live event
over the past 12 months
wanted or tried to attend over the last 12 months but didn’t
Overall ticket purchases are high in Australia, with only a quarter failing to turn intention into action. When it comes
to event types, Australia sees concerts and sports fill the most seats, with music festivals less attended than in the
US and UK.
When it comes to music, pop is most prominent, likely in part influenced by kinds of acts that are international enough to tour to Australia. We have less of an appetite than Brits or Americans for alternative genres such as R&B, Hip hop, Reggae, and Jazz. Australians also see a lower range of genres live than Britons or Americans, 2.8 against 3.1 and 3.3. A narrower repertoire, and a fussier market.
Sitting at 17% attendance amongst event goers in the last 12 months, we’ll dig further into the continued rise of Country music in Australia later in this section. Amongst the resale engaged audience surveyed in 2025, other genres seeing an increase were rock, EDM, indie, metal and folk, with hip hop/rap, jazz and classical on a slight decline.
panel
A resale-engaged audience were much more likely to be concert- and/or festival-goers which was a similar pattern across markets: 90% of the Australian resale-engaged attended a concert (vs. 49% of the general population and 61% attended a festival (vs. 24% of the general population). They also leaned harder into pop and rock: 13–15pts higher than the general Australian market.
Q1. Which of the following event types have you attended in the past 12 months? Q3. Which of the following music genres have you seen live in the past 12 months?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
74
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
Untitled Group, whose Beyond the Valley New Year's Eve festival sold out again in 2026, speaks about being responsive to audiences.
"When we started Beyond the Valley 10 years ago we didn't have a nostalgia slot. We didn't feel like we could book a major pop artist and still be considered super cool. That's changed. People want fun music, they want to have a great time. It's a New Year's Eve festival, they're not going there to be serious. They want to scream “I Gotta Feeling” at the top of their lungs."
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
75
BACKGROUND . THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
Event type attended
Genre of music attended amongst
concert/festival/club goers
Music concerts
Sporting events
Theatre / musicals / plays
Comedy shows
Music festivals
Kids & family events
Arts / film / writers / food & drink festivals
Club shows / DJ events
Live podcasts / talks
49%
Pop
Rock
Musical theatre / Show tunes
Hip hop / Rap
Indie / Alternative
Country
R&B / Soul
Electronic / Dance (e.g. EDM, House, Techno)
Metal / Punk
Classical
Jazz / Blues
K-Pop / J-Pop / Canto-pop
World Music (e.g. Afrobeat, Latin, Desi)
Folk / Americana
Reggae / dub
45%
40%
47%
26%
32%
20%
28%
19%
17%
24%
16%
20%
16%
19%
13%
12%
13%
12%
7%
10%
8%
6%
4%
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
76
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
Sporting events sit as the second most attended format for Aussie fans.
"The Australian Open is a sporting event, it's for sport fans,
but like every category right now, people want more.
It’s a festival in January, not just a tennis match.
Every sporting code is doing that now, and it's happening globally. Everyone is trying to add a music element because they want to deliver more value to their ticket buyers.
It also brings in a much more diverse audience.
Not everyone is a sports fan, but most people
have an artist or a genre they love."
Nicholas Greco
Co-Founder, Untitled Group
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
77
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
Australia, the low-key market
So the presumption is that it's a difference in how people talk,
not in what they feel once they're in the room.
Context from outside this study: Kantar's Global Monitor shows cost-of-living and housing pressure intensifying faster in Australia than in Britain or America in recent years. That matters
for reading the reserve, because a recent squeeze changes what people do before it changes what they believe. Australians are adjusting, not resigned.
The practical read here is to sell the habit rather than the epiphany. This market attends at the highest rate of the three and it does so without needing to be told that live is transcendent. The emotional-peak campaign that lands in New York might land flat in Melbourne so perhaps it pays to put the budget behind reliability, presale strategy, and nailing the price.
Australia shows up more and says less. Don't mistake the quiet for indifference.
Australians are the least exuberant fans we surveyed. On all sixteen attitudes we tested, Australia's strongly-agree share sits below both Britain and America, by 3 to 16 points. For example, when asked whether live events feel like a form of emotional release, not just entertainment: 22% of Aussies strongly agree here, against 34% in Britain and 37% in America. Great for connecting and bonding with my friends or family? 28% strongly-agree against 37% and 42%.
This is national, holds at every age and the gap with other countries is widest among the younger generations. 27% of Australian Gen Z strongly agree that live events are a form of emotional release, against 41% of American Gen Z.
If Aussies were turning up less often than Brits or Americans we might read it as indifference, but they attend at the highest rate of the three.
panel
…less effusive, unless you’re a Tixel customer! Take a closer look at the resale-engaged respondent base and the strongly-agree is fairly equal across regions; Total agreement (slightly-agree and strongly-agree) on the emotional release marker ran significantly higher amongst Tixel customers than the general population: 90% vs. 70%, or a 20 point lift.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
78
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
Aussie attitudes are less amplified
AUSTRALIA
UNITED KINGDOM
UNITED STATES
Strongly agree, live events are a form of emotional release
22%
34%
37%
Strongly agree, live events are great for connecting and bonding
28%
37%
42%
Strongly agree that live events help me connect with like-minded people
19%
31%
34%
Live events give me moments worth sharing online
18%
31%
34%
Live events are becoming something people actively participate in, not just watch
17%
28%
28%
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
79
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
"There is definitely emotion in the Australian audience. When they become a fan of an artist, they're committing, and they're committing for a lifetime. It's why Australia is such a big fan development market for a lot of artists. We're nowhere near the biggest country, but Melbourne and Sydney are consistently in the top five markets for a lot of the artists we work with. A lot of Australians will also go to events because their friends are going. It becomes a cultural moment, a community moment. And Australians love going out."
Nicholas Greco
Co-Founder, Untitled Group
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
80
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
Best protected, least convinced.
Australia has the strongest fan protection against predatory resale of the three markets, with price caps legislated in most states. Britain's proposed cap on resale above face value was pushed back to draft legislation in May 2026 and is not expected in law before 2027-28. The United States has no federal price cap but has seen some traction in state legislation. The outcome shows in the fan data: Australians report the least ticket fraud of the three markets and the least exposure to inflated resale prices. Australians are also less willing than Britons to pay a premium for a guaranteed ticket, 77% against 83%. In the market where resale price caps are already law, a ticket that is what it says it is looks less like an upgrade and more like the minimum.
Experienced ticket fraud in the last 12 months
17%
25%
29%
Have ever paid a significantly inflated price for a resale ticket
38%
49%
56%
Q7. I'd rather pay more for a verified/guaranteed ticket than save money on an uncertain one. (Agree/disagree) Q19. How often, if at all, have you paid what you considered to be a significantly inflated price for a ticket through resale or secondary marketplaces? Q20. How often, if at all, have you experienced ticketing fraud in the past 12 months?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
81
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
However, scepticism persists. The perception that resale
tickets are fake or risky ran slightly higher than in other markets (16% compared to 12% and 13%), so the market with the best protections and the cleanest record is the one least persuaded of either.
65% say knowing they can resell if plans change increases
their confidence to buy, in line with Britain and America. What Australians want alongside it is certainty rather than a credit
line: guaranteed access before general sale is the strongest
early-buying lever of the three markets, while buy-now-pay-later
is the weakest.
When it comes to the buying decision, trust sits with the platform rather than the personality. Ticketing and event platforms are Australia's most trusted source when deciding whether to attend, at 49%, level with Britain and ahead of America's 43%. Social media creators and influencers are trusted by 11%, the lowest of the three, against 16% and 18%.
The same pattern runs through attitudes to technology. Australians are no more worried than anyone else about AI’s impact: 69% say algorithms and AI are making it harder to know which recommendations to trust, statistically level with Britain and America. What they lack is the optimism. Only 47% expect AI to make finding events easier, against 55% and 57%, and only 52% expect technology to make buying and selling tickets less risky, against 60% in Britain. Australians share the world's concern about AI without sharing its hope.
Factors that would
make me buy earlier
Guaranteed access before general sale
30%
27%
25%
Refund or exchange
27%
24%
28%
16%
19%
23%
Buy now, Pay Later
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
82
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
30% of Australian Gen Z
have experienced ticket fraud
against 13% of over-30s
though that is still the lowest Gen Z rate of
the three markets (UK 37%, US 46%)
They also lean hardest on flexibility,
with 71% saying resale confidence
lifts their willingness to buy against
64% of older Australians.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
83
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
Aussies love their country, but it’s a trot, not a gallop
The live business is moving more carefully. TEG shuttered its Australian country music division in August, six months after opening it, then cancelled Longhaul Festival, which was due to coincide with the long-running Tamworth Country Music Festival. Strummingbird lost its headliner when Post Malone called off his Australia and New Zealand tour. Ticket sales have not been discussed publicly, but the vibe is steady as she goes when it comes to meeting the demand of country fans.
Although it's not surprising that Australians trail Americans on seeing country live, country music continues its rise in Australia, up 2 points among resale-engaged fans since last year's survey, from 14% to 16%. In the general population, 17% of Australian event goers saw a country act live in the past 12 months. American country audiences skew older. Australia's skew young, which suggests the growth has further to run.
The appetite is not in question. Spotify has country streaming in Australia up 115% over three years, and Australia now ranks fourth in the world for listeners discovering the genre for the first time. Ella Langley's Choosin' Texas went to number one on the ARIA singles chart, alongside albums from household names Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, Zach Bryan and Keith Urban dominating the ARIA country albums chart.
Seen country music acts in the last 12 months
Gen Z
20%
22%
Millennial
18%
32%
Gen X
14%
28%
Boomer +
12%
33%
Q3. Which of the following music genres have you seen live in the past 12 months? Base: attended a concert, festival, club show or theatre, Q8. What stops you from buying tickets to events?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
84
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
In Australia, country fans are more adventurous than most, seeing 4.8 genres on average against 2.2 for other event goers.
The male and female split is even. They are no better off, and yet they name price as a barrier far less often: 54% against 69%.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
85
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
What Australians do is louder than what they say.
Australia is the market most likely to be misread from its own answers. It attends at the highest rate of the three, secures presale access at nearly twice the American rate, and carries the cleanest record on fraud and inflated prices. It also sits below both Britain and America on every one of the sixteen attitudes we tested. Read the survey responses and this looks like a lukewarm market. Read the behaviour and it is the most dependable one.
What they buy on is mechanics. Guaranteed access before general sale is the strongest early-buying lever of the three markets. Credit is the weakest. A verified ticket is treated as the standard rather than the upgrade. None of that requires a story about the future of live.
Nicholas Greco of Untitled Group adds: "Lately I’ve been
hearing comments about the Australian music industry being in a downturn, that no one's buying tickets. It's a lazy statement. People are buying tickets. If the products aren't exciting, people won't buy tickets, and you've just got to get the formula right. Every event and festival has to have a purpose, has to hit all of the elements: the community, the culture, the right artists, the right branding, the right marketing. That's what's cutting through."
The likely lever: two things compounding.
First, cost-of-living and housing-cost pressure has intensified faster in Australia in the past few years than in the UK or US, per that Global Monitor delta — this is a recent shock, which matters because recent shocks change behaviour faster than they change underlying attitude (people are still adjusting, not yet resigned).
Second, Australia is a smaller, more geographically isolated ticketing market with historically fewer competing tech-forward platforms than the US or UK. Less exposure to ticketing innovation may plausibly explain the AI/tech-trust gap as much as any deeper scepticism does.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
86
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • AUSTRALIA
Australians do not announce their enthusiasm, so anything that depends on them declaring it will under perform here,
and anything that rewards the way they actually buy will land.
This is the market where long-horizon, aspirational ‘future of ticketing’ messaging will not land, while tangible, immediate “cost/benefit” messaging will resonate. Australians will not be convinced, they will be shown
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
87
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • UNITED KINGDOM
UNITED KINGDOM
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
88
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • UNITED KINGDOM
Defining Characteristics
Of A UK Ticket Buyer
86%
83%
74%
59%
Want ticketing platforms to have stronger rules and protections to stay fair for fans, the highest of the three markets. vs. 80% US and 81% AU
Willing to pay more for a verified, guaranteed ticket than save money on an uncertain one, again the highest of the three. vs 78% US and 77% AU
Say live events help them connect with like-minded people, level with the US and well clear of Australia. vs 73% US and 64% AU
Say live events are a regular part of how they spend their free time, the highest of the three markets. vs 54% US and 48% AU
The UK asks more of ticketing than either other market. Fans here want stronger rules, they will pay more for a ticket they know is real, and more of them count live events as a regular part of how they spend their free time.
Q7. Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements about live events (e.g. concerts, festivals, sports, theatre) Q8a. Looking ahead, how much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about society and live events?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
89
74
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • UNITED KINGDOM
THE BRITISH Buyer profile
of the British fans we surveyed attended attended a ticketed live event
purchased tickets for themselves or others
Live reaches further into the population here than in either other market. Only 5% of Britons had attended nothing at all in the past year, against 12% of Americans, and only 20% wanted to go to something and missed out, the lowest of the three markets.
Concerts and sport lead as they do everywhere, but the format that separates Britain is the stage. 35% saw theatre, musicals or plays in the past year against 21% of Americans and 32% of Australians, and the same signal comes through in the music, where 22% saw musical theatre or show tunes against 14% in the US. Let’s not ignore that at 31%, Brits love a music festival.
Pop is the biggest single genre at 47%, well clear of the 35% it takes in the US. Where Britain sits lower is on the genres that dominate American stages, with hip hop at 28% against 43%, country at 17% against 28% and rock at 37% against 47%.
Rave lineage, still showing up in the data. Club and DJ event engagement runs higher in the UK than in the US or Australia. And with World Music also ranking meaningfully higher, the UK wants a bit of flavour to their music.
wanted or tried to attend but didn’t
Context from outside this study:
Tixel's UK customers look quite different from the general market, with 86% attending a concert against 55% and 84% attending a festival against 31%. That 53 point festival gap is the largest between Tixel's customers and the general market on any event type, in any of the three markets. Club and DJ events run at 31% against 13%.
S5. Thinking about ticketed, in-person live events (e.g. concerts, festivals, sporting events,
theatre or comedy shows), which of the following describes you in the past 12 months?
Q1. Which of the following event types have you attended in the past 12 months?
Q3. Which of the following music genres have you seen live in the past 12 months?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
90
BACKGROUND . THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • UNITED KINGDOM
Genre of music attended amongst
concert/festival/club goers
Event type attended
Pop
Rock
Hip hop / Rap
R&B / Soul
Musical theatre / Show tunes
Indie / Alternative
Electronic / Dance (e.g. EDM, House, Techno)
Country
Jazz / Blues
World Music (e.g. Afrobeat, Latin, Desi)
Classical
Metal / Punk
K-pop / J-pop / Canto-pop
Reggae / dub
Folk / Americana
Music concerts
Sporting events
Theatre / musicals / plays
Music festivals
Comedy shows
Kids & family events
Arts / film / writers / food & drink festivals
Club shows / DJ events
Live podcasts / talks
55
47%
43
37%
28%
35
24%
31
22%
27
17%
17%
22
17%
17
16%
13
15%
14%
7
10
10%
10%
9%
8%
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
91
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • UNITED KINGDOM
The UK is the market that expects the most
None of that reads as detachment. 74% of Britons say live events help them connect with like-minded people, level with the US and well clear of Australia, and 81% expect people to increasingly value real-life experiences over digital ones, the highest of the three markets.
The two halves are the same people. Among Britons who feel that like-minded connection, 89% want stronger platform rules, against 77% of those who do not, and two-thirds of the UK market holds both views at once. In Britain the pressure for fairness comes from live's biggest enthusiasts.
Niamh Byrne, Chair of the UK's Music Managers Forum and co-founder of Eleven Management whose roster includes Gorillaz, Blur and Bastille said "British fans having higher expectations around fairness in ticketing is largely to
do with the fact that it's been such a high-profile issue
in the UK. There's been a lot more investigation. The more awareness fans have, the less they tolerate unfair practice, and the more aware the industry is, the better the decisions it makes for fans. It becomes less acceptable to do things which are not fan-friendly."
Britain wants ticketing governed, and it says so more firmly than either other market.
86% agree that ticketing platforms will need stronger rules and protections to remain fair for fans, and 86% say the same about the wider live events industry. What separates Britain is the conviction behind those numbers, where close to half strongly agree against roughly a third of Australians.
The same firmness carries into the diagnosis, with 80% saying tickets are being bought by bots and brokers and sold on at inflated prices. It does not extend to everything, and on the broader sense that fair access is getting harder Britain sits within a couple of points of Australia, a gap too small to call.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
92
BACKGROUND . THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • UNITED KINGDOM
Brits “Strongly Agree.” or feel more passionately,
about fairness of ticketing at a higher rate than
Americans or Australians
AUSTRALIA
UNITED KINGDOM
UNITED STATES
Ticketing platforms will need stronger rules and protections to remain fair for fans
37%
47%
39%
The live event industry will need clearer rules to protect fans
36%
46%
41%
Tickets are being purchased by bots/brokers and sold at inflated prices
30%
43%
38%
It’s becoming harder for genuine fans to access major
music events at fair prices
27%
30%
29%
Q7. Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements about live events (e.g. concerts, festivals, sports, theatre)
Q8a. Looking ahead, how much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about society and live events?
Q29. Looking ahead, how much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about the future of technology and live events?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
93
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • UNITED KINGDOM
Still waiting for the rules it asked for
The Government's Putting Fans First consultation ran from
January to April 2025.
In the King's Speech of May 2026 a Ticket Tout Ban Bill was published in draft, proposing to cap resale at the original ticket price, cap platform fees, limit how many tickets one seller can list, and hand enforcement to the CMA.
Publishing it in draft rather than as a bill was read as a delay. UK Music called it a betrayal of millions of music fans, and Which? warned the process could run long while touts continue to thrive.
So the market with the highest expectations is also the one where the fix has been promised and not yet delivered.le
As a price-capped, ethical resale ticket platform, Tixel submitted to "Putting Fans First" in the hopes that the price cap it already applies becomes the standard rather than the exception.
Britain sits in the middle on damage. On both ticketing fraud and having paid an inflated resale price, UK fans report more than Australians and fewer than Americans.
The argument has been on the public agenda for two years.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigated Ticketmaster's Oasis sale and closed the case in September 2025, finding no evidence of dynamic pricing but securing voluntary undertakings on how tiered prices are shown to fans.
Experienced ticket fraud in the last 12 months
18%
25%
29%
Ever paid a significantly inflated resale price
38%
49%
56%
Q19. How often, if at all, have you paid what you considered to be a significantly inflated price for a ticket through resale or secondary marketplaces?
Q20. How often, if at all, have you experienced ticketing fraud in the past 12 months?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
94
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • UNITED KINGDOM
Brits queue the fastest
The demand for flexible payment isn't evenly spread. It peaks with Millennials, who are most likely to be juggling live events with rent, mortgages and family costs.
37% of UK fans buy the moment tickets go on sale, the promptest onsale culture of the three markets.
What would motivate
me to buy earlier?
Brits like being first in. The job for organisers is to make
that easy.
Price is the weakest lever here: lower prices drive early buying less in the UK than in Australia or the US, and they're the hardest thing to change. Better seats help, but the levers organisers actually control matter more: presale access, resale options and flexible payment.
27%
19%
19%
Guaranteed access
before general sale
Ability to easily resell tickets if my plans change
Flexible payment options
Q12. Thinking about how you usually buy tickets, when do you tend to purchase?
Q14. What would make you more likely to buy tickets earlier than you usually do?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
95
BACKGROUND . THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • UNITED KINGDOM
Purchase Timing distribution
As soon as tickets go on sale
37%
79%
identify as early purchasers
Early (well in advance of the event)
28%
I make sure I have access to the presale
15%
Closer to the event date
13%
Last minute
3%
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
96
74
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • UNITED KINGDOM
Pop all the time. World music, occasionally.
Of the three markets, only the UK has a genre that leads at every age, and only the UK has a diaspora-music audience this size.
Pop, at every age
The diaspora scenes
Pop is Britain's biggest genre at 47%, ahead of rock on 37% and hip hop on 28%. What makes it unusual is that it holds it’s #1 position — no British generation puts anything above pop, from Gen Z at 55% down to the over-60s at 34%.
That is not true anywhere else we looked. Australian Gen X puts rock ahead of pop and Australian over-60s go to more musical theatre, while in the US pop is beaten in all four generations, by hip hop among Gen Z and by rock among everyone older.
On the current shape of the market, Britain's youngest audience is also its most pop-heavy, and if Gen Z holds onto pop as they age the way their parents have, it will be pop at the top for some time yet.
Britain's biggest lead over the other two markets is on the genre the survey files under world music, meaning Afrobeat, Latin and Desi scenes. 15% of British gig-goers saw a world music act in the past year, against just 9% in the US and 8% in Australia.
It is a young audience and a London one. 21% of British gig-goers under 45 saw a world music act live against 6% of those over 45, and while every market skews young on this genre, Britain's under-45s are at roughly twice the rate of their American or Australian counterparts. In London the figure reaches 28% against 11% across the rest of the UK, and both the youth and the London effect hold when you control for how many genres a person sees.
These are the broadest fans in the country, seeing 5.4 genres in a year against 2.5 for everyone else, and the least blocked by cost, with 37% naming price a barrier against 59%.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
97
74
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • UNITED KINGDOM
"In my role at the MMF I hear a lot of managers talk about the difficulty at mid level, and for emerging artists too. There are fewer venues. It's harder to get to your second, third, fourth record and build from that. The landscape's tough right now."
Niamh Byrne
Chair of the UK's Music Managers Forum and
co-founder of Eleven Management whose
roster includes Gorillaz, Blur and Bastille.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
98
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • UNITED KINGDOM
Britain is where fairness becomes non-negotiable.
British fans demand protection harder than anyone else and say they would rather pay more for a guaranteed ticket, which means the premium they are currently willing to pay is the first thing to disappear. Compliance will be the price of entry. The fans who feel most connected at live events are the same ones asking hardest for the rules, 89% against 77% of everyone else, so the audience still choosing between platforms that all comply is the one that came for the connection in the first place. That's the half of the equation legislation will never touch.
The market that commits fastest, demands the most protection, and expects technology, not just legislation, to deliver it.
Fans got here before Parliament did. 86% say platforms need stronger rules and 80% say bots and brokers are already inflating prices, the highest readings on either measure in the study. The draft Ticket Tout Ban Bill is catching up with a public that has made up its mind. If it passes, the UK becomes the first market to run resale caps and bot enforcement as national law, and fairness stops being a differentiator because every platform has it.
There’s a proven demand for protection, and the future will belong to those those that build that fairness while the law is stuck in its debate cycle, and wear it visibly.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
99
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • UNITED KINGDOM
The UK Is Here For A Good Time. They Expect the Industry Will Help Them Get There.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
100
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • United states
UNITED STATES
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
101
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • United states
Defining Characteristics
Of A US Ticket Buyer
56%
67%
21%
43%
of US fans have paid what they considered a significantly inflated price on resale, at least once. vs. 49% UK and 38% AU
would find another way in rather than walk away when a coveted ticket costs more than expected
vs 61% UK and 62% AU
usually buy late, either closer to the event or at the last minute. vs 16% UK and 17% AU
of US fans name ticketing platforms as their most trusted source, the lowest of the three markets
vs 49% UK and 49% AU
The US is the most exposed market and the most resourceful. Fans here commit later and when a ticket costs more than expected, they’re the least likely to let it go.
Q9. Imagine tickets for an artist you really want to see are more expensive than expected
(e.g. you expect $/£200 but they are $/£350). What would you be most likely to do?
Q12. Thinking about how you usually buy tickets, when do you tend to purchase?.
Q19. How often, if at all, have you paid what you considered to be a significantly inflated
price for a ticket through resale or secondary marketplaces? By "significantly inflated",
we mean prices well above the original ticket cost, beyond typical booking or resale fees.
Q28. When deciding whether to attend a live event, which of the following do you trust the most?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
102
74
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • United states
THE US Buyer profile
of the American fans we surveyed attended attended a ticketed live event
Engagement with ticketed live events over the past 12 months has been lower in the US than other markets. However, there is a clear untapped demand with a third of fans keen to attend but unable to, mostly due to availability, affordability or convenience.
Music concerts, sporting events and music festivals are the three leading ticketed live event formats in the US. Smaller venues and sporting events drive more frequent attendance.
Rock and hip hop/rap both run meaningfully above the UK and AU. R&B/soul and country preferences are stronger here than in either of the other two markets specifically, not just stronger than a blended global figure, and this market has less emphasis on pop.
This suggests an opportunity to unlock participation through better-value offers, improved access and event propositions that reflect local genre preferences.
purchased tickets for themselves or others
wanted or tried to attend but didn’t
Q1. Which of the following event types have you attended in the past 12 months? Q3. Which of the following music genres have you seen live in the past 12 months?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
103
BACKGROUND . THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • United states
Genre of music attended amongst
concert/festival/club goers
Event type attended
Music concerts
Sporting events
Music Festivals
Comedy shows
Kids & family events
Theatre / musicals / plays
Arts / film / writers / food & drink festivals
Club shows / DJ events
Live podcasts / talks
49
Rock
Hip hop / Rap
47%
42
43%
Pop
35%
29
R&B / Soul
32%
Country
Metal / Punk
Indie / Alternative
Jazz / Blues
Electronic / Dance (e.g. EDM, House, Techno)
Musical Theatre / Show Tunes
Classical
K-pop / J-pop / Canto-pop
World Music (e.g. Afrobeat, Latin, Desi)
Reggae / dub
Folk / Americana
28
28%
23
18%
16%
21
15%
15
14%
12
14%
10%
8
8
10%
9%
9%
9%
9%
9%
8%
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
104
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • United states
In the US, price is the reason to go, as often as it’s the reason not to
Price is doing double duty. 60% name ticket price as something
that stops them, and 53% name an affordable price as a leading reason to attend, again, the highest of the three markets. Those
are answers to two different questions, and they point at the same thing: in America the decision runs through price whichever way
it's going.
So this isn't a market that needs convincing the night is worth it.
It believes that more firmly than anywhere else. It's a market that needs the arithmetic to work, and will try the hardest to balance
the equation.
Affordability is the most-cited reason American fans attend and one of the biggest reasons they don’t. The payoff they’re weighing it against is among the highest in this study.
Price Cuts both ways
Ticket price stops me buying tickets
60%
An affordable price is a leading reason I attend
53%
On every emotional measure in this study, American fans sit above the other two markets surveyed. Live as release, as escape from the everyday, as the way you spend time with the people you care about all rate higher than British or Australian fans.
Americans aren't deciding whether they want to go. They're working out if they can, and how.
Q5. What are the reasons you choose to buy tickets to live events?
Q7. Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following
statements about live events (e.g. concerts, festivals, sports, theatre)
Q8. What stops you from buying tickets to events?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
105
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • United states
Ticket resale is the road, not the detour
of US fans have bought a resale ticket, the highest rate of the three markets.
have paid what they considered a significantly inflated price at least once, again the highest against 49% in the UK and 38% in Australia.
Resale helps US fans access sold-out events, find better prices and make last-minute decisions, even when it costs them more
Asked which single phrase best reflects their view of resale, just over half of US fans (51%) pick a functional or matter-of-fact one: a safety net when plans change, a normal part of modern ticketing, a convenient way to buy or sell, or a way into sold-out events. A third (34%) lead with a criticism: that it mainly benefits scalpers, that the tickets are usually fake or risky, or that it makes prices feel less accessible. One in seven say they have no strong opinion at all.
Usage is higher, but so is the burn.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
106
BACKGROUND . THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • United states
Why US fans buy resale tickets
Original tickets were sold out
I found a better price on a resale ticket
I often decide to go at the last minute
I wanted a specific seat/section/ticket-type that was unavailable elsewhere
My friend or family needed to sell their ticket(s)
I changed my mind and wanted a different date/location
It came up as the top option when I searched online
32
27
21
18
18
14
14
When asked why they usually buy resale, US buyers are most often chasing something they can't get elsewhere: a sold-out show, the seats they wanted, or a different date or venue. Other times they found a better price, or they decided to go at the last minute.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
107
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • United states
Credibility is up for grabs
However, the search finding deserves a double click.
A quarter of US fans name search engines as a trusted source, and resale buyers who say they usually buy because a listing came up top when they searched online report ticketing fraud
at 51%, against 33% of other resale buyers. That is an association rather than a cause.
Listings at the top of search engines are often bought. A 2018 review by the US Government Accountability Office found that white-label resale sites frequently appear as paid search results for venues and events, charging fees sometimes above 40% of the ticket price and marketing themselves in ways that could mislead buyers into thinking they were buying from the venue. Paying for placement is ordinary advertising but building a website that tries to pass for an official one is not. Deceptive ticket-selling websites are a pervasive problem across the US.
This has prompted a wave of state-level legislation. Alongside states like Maryland, Maine, and Oregon, a growing number of states have now enacted laws banning secondary marketplaces from using look-alike URLs and deceptive site designs to mimic official venues.
One in eight American fans don’t trust any of the most common sources of information when deciding whether to attend a live event.
Ticketing platforms are the most trusted source American fans cited when deciding whether to attend. That lead is just one point over recommendations from friends and family, and at 43%, is the lowest platform trust of the three markets, against 49% in both Britain and Australia.
Below the top two there’s a steep drop. Search, media coverage, creators and online communities all sit between 17% and 25%. AI is trusted by just 6%. And 13% of American fans say they don't particularly trust any of the options offered.
Q28. When deciding whether to attend a live event, which of the following do you trust the most?
US Government Accountability Office, Event Ticket Sales: Market Characteristics and Consumer Protection Issues, GAO-18-347, April 2018
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
108
BACKGROUND . THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • United states
Trusted sources of information when deciding whether to attend
Ticketing or event platforms
Recommendations from friends or family
Search engines
Traditional reviews or media coverage
Social media creators or influencers
Recommendations from online communities (e.g. Reddit, Discord, fan groups)
I don’t particularly trust any of these
AI or automated recommendations
43
42
25
22
18
17
13
6
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
109
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • United states
In Britain and Australia, ticketing platforms
are clearly the most
trusted source.
In America, the
trusted-platform
position is still vacant.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
110
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • United states
Rock still leads America. Hip hop is inheriting it.
R&B and soul reach 32% of US music-goers against 24% in Britain and 16% in Australia. Country reaches 28% against 17% in both. Two genres that are minority interests elsewhere are mainstream here.
Top music genres American fans have seen live in the last 12 months
The United States is the only one of the three markets where Pop isn't the biggest live genre. Rock is, at 47% of American music-goers, and it still leads clearly from Gen X upward. But not below it. Among Millennials, Rock is fairly level with Hip hop/Rap, and among Gen Z it has already lost: 60% of American Gen Z’s saw Hip hop or Rap live in the past year against just 40% for Rock.
The two fan bases are shaped differently, too. Hip hop's American audience sits in the two youngest generations, three quarters of it under 45, whereas Rock’s reach spreads evenly across all four generations.
hip hop / rap
Rock
Gen Z
60%
40%
Millennial
48%
49%
53%
Gen X
33%
Boomer +
8%
41%
Average of all US fans
43%
47%
Q3. Which of the following music genres have you seen live in the past 12 months? Base: attended a concert, festival, club show or theatre, Q8. What stops you from buying tickets to events?
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
111
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • United states
America will find a way in.
They pay for that resourcefulness. 46% of American Gen Z met ticket fraud in the past year and 69% have paid an inflated price, the highest of any generation in any market we surveyed. Over 45 the pattern reverses: the third of fans who wanted to go and didn't is mostly Gen X and Boomers, at 42% and 43%, against 28% of under-45s. Trust is moving with them, but not towards platforms. Platform trust is flat across every American generation under 60, at 44 to 46%, and drops only among Boomers. What splits by age is everything else: 28% of Gen Z trust online communities against 5% of Boomers, 31% trust creators against 3%, and 15% have bought a resale ticket because it came up first in search, four times the Boomer rate. Under-45s also ask for rules least loudly, 78% against 86% of Boomers.
The fans who will define 2030 are already in the data, and they split America down the middle.
This makes America the one market where fairness is still a competitive position rather than a cost of entry. In Britain, when the rules arrive, every platform becomes fair by statute. Here, being demonstrably fair stays something a fan can actually choose between.
Under 45, Americans find a way in. Only 19% of Gen Z and 23% of Millennials would walk away from a ticket that costs more than expected, against 51% of Boomers, and they name price as a barrier far less often, 52% of Gen Z against 73% of Boomers.
UNITED STATES
US fans carry the most damage of the three regions: The highest rates of fraud and inflated prices. The lowest trust in ticketing platforms. And the largest share of fans who wanted to go and didn’t.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
112
GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOTS • United states
By 2030 the American fan finds a way in, pays for the privilege, and trusts no single source to tell them where to go. No platform will be given that position by default.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
113
SUMMARY
Every ticket has to earn its place. By 2030, so will every platform.
In 2020 people guarded their money. In 2025 they guard their time, and the gap is still widening.
By 2030 a ticket is no longer a purchase, it’s a bid for someone's evening, their friends' evenings, and their faith that the night will pay all of it back. The fans who will decide whether the payoff is there are already in this data: they are the under 30s who go out the most, get burnt the most, trust platforms about the same as everyone else, and trust their friends, their communities and their creators a lot more. Beyond Gen Z, here’s what else we think will shape live as we approach 2030.
The ticket becomes a plan you join, not a thing you buy. It’s bought by a group, split without a spreadsheet, and passed on when someone drops out at the price it was bought for. Everything wrapped around the room, from onsale to exit, either protects the feeling or gets cut.
Fair might stop being a selling point. It depends who moves first. If Britain's Ticket Tout Ban Bill passes, fair becomes the law there and stops separating one platform from another. If Washington keeps leaving it to the states, fair stays a choice a fan makes. Australia keeps buying from whoever already behaves. Either way, the trust goes to whoever built fair before it became mandated.
The machine could finally earn a fan's trust. Unless it's sold to the highest bidder. A feed already knows which show a fan would have missed. The question for 2030 is whether it says so, or sells that spot to whoever pays. Sell it, and the smarter it gets the less fans believe it. The industry decides which, not the technology.
The Live Equation, 2030 — The Future of Ticketing
114
