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New Data on Use of Apps for Ticketing

ISSUE 30 • January 2025

App Icon of e-ticket and a hand holding a phone

By Alan Brown

For several years, we’ve tracked the slow but steady adoption of ticketing apps by arts organizations, particularly overseas. In the US, the Metropolitan Opera recently launched the “Met Opera app” to manage its rush ticket program, and service organizations in several US cities are considering an app for shared used by local arts groups. In light of all this it seemed timely to add a few exploratory questions about app use in our Communications and Media Use Survey this past summer, and I’m happy to share some topline findings with you. The sample consists of 4,843 responses from ticket buyers and members at a cross section of 16 orchestras, theatres, ballets, multi-disciplinary presenters, and a few museums.

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Our first question was about familiarity with ticketing apps: “What is your experience buying tickets through apps on a mobile device?” with the following results:

– 47% indicated they’re “experienced using apps to buy tickets”

– 29% indicated they have “a little experience using apps to buy tickets”

– 24% indicated they “don’t have any experience buying tickets through apps”

In sum, three-quarters of all respondents reported having at least some experience using ticketing apps. Respondents under age 65 are more than twice as likely than respondents over age 75 to have experience with ticketing apps, with the highest experience reported by respondents age 45-54 (71% “experienced”). It’s not difficult to see that use of apps for ticketing will be nearly universal in another 5 to 10 years.

Of the 74% of respondents with at least some experience using apps for ticketing, we asked what specific apps they have on their mobile devices, with the following results:

– 65% Ticketmaster app
– 39% Eventbrite app
– 27% StubHub app
– 20% SeatGeek app
– 11% TodayTix app
– 4% Fever app
– 6% Other
– 21% None of the above

Logos of Popular apps

In other words, 79% indicated having at least one ticketing app on their mobile device, and most reported having more than one. Given the historical resentment surrounding Ticketmaster and its 2010 merger with Live Nation, it’s a bit ironic that nearly half of these fine arts ticket buyers have the Ticketmaster app on their phones. I should allow for the possibility that people actually love these companies. More likely is that consumers will tolerate almost any array of ticket prices and surcharges when it comes to seeing their favorite pop artists, and they’ve accepted the app as the means to the desired end.

So, are arts consumers ready to do business via apps?

Well, yes. But only if the app covers program offerings across multiple organizations, with the exception of very large organizations with tons of programming.

In the survey, we asked, “If cultural organizations in your community were to offer an app that allows you to discover cultural events and buy tickets, how likely would you be to use that service?” Results are consistent for respondents under age 65, with a third saying they’re “very likely” to use an arts app, and half saying they’re “somewhat likely.” Only 15% to 20% said it’s “not at all likely” they’d use such an app.

The potent combination of event discovery and ticketing

While many arts organizations already support mobile ticketing, apps can also serve as event discovery platforms – consolidating two important tasks in one platform: 1) figuring out what you want to do; and 2) acquiring the tickets. Just ask the folks at Fever or Resident Advisor about the power of event discovery platforms to drive in-app sales. 

Of course, launching community-wide arts apps will require a level of cooperation between arts organizations, funders and local service organizations that is not exactly a big priority right now. Regardless, it strikes me as short-sighted that more service organizations and funders aren’t actively looking at new communications and ticketing platforms that can lift the whole arts and culture sector.

With added functionalities, arts apps just might be a gamechanger. Consider the ability to quickly invite friends with the click of a button (avoiding the need to communicate via another channel), the ability to access program information in advance or listen to a podcast, or the ability to add past events you’ve attended to a personalized scrapbook accessible in the app, and you can start to see how a well-developed app might help to stimulate attendance by tearing down some of the barriers that so many people experience.

With email click-through rates trending downward, and with similar downward trends for print and broadcast media, it seems obvious that a coordinated, sector-wide pivot towards the next generation “arts app” is long overdue. By and large, our audiences are already there. The only question at this point is if we, as a community of nonprofit cultural organizations, want to design and maintain the platform, or if we’re content letting commercial businesses run away with it, as has been the case with so many other aspects of the ticketing marketplace.

If you’re interested in diving deeper into the data discussed in this post, we’ve added aggregate data on App Usage from the Communications and Media Use Survey to our Public Dashboard. Members with dashboard logins can find this new report titled App Usage in the Public Dashboard. Members without personal dashboard logins can use the login provided at the bottom of our Audience Outlook Monitor newsletters.

If you’re not yet a member of the AOM community but would like to access our free Public Dashboard, simply subscribe to the Audience Outlook Monitor newsletter to join. Each year, we add new datasets to the dashboard, making audience research findings available to a broader range of people and organizations. Joining our community is an excellent way to stay informed and access valuable resources that support your work.

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