The more time we spend online, the more we crave real human connection.
The more AI content floods our screens, the more we value real experiences.
Every piece of data we can find points to the same thing: IRL is in higher demand than ever.
UK live music spending is now £2 billion higher than pre-covid levels.
Ticketmaster says concert ticket sales just hit record highs.
88% of people will cut spending on “things” to prioritise “experiences.”
65% say they seek out IRL events to balance out the time they spend online.
We are beyond the “Covid bounce” and now in a structural growth trend for IRL and events.
Like many things in the music industry, the word “thriving” does not apply to all.
Megastar stadium tours and big festivals are doing well as fans prioritise one or two blow-out events per year. The big players like Live Nation and Ticketmaster just had a record quarter.
However, we can’t ignore the fact that grassroots venues and clubs are still being squeezed, while blue-dot fever plagues the middle class of touring artists. For example, one owner of 5,000 cap venue reported a 60% drop in ticket sales.
IRL is back … but concentrating at the top.
Sometimes we start researching a new topic and realise that it’s way bigger than we can capture in one weekly report. That’s definitely the case here.
The live music ecosystem is a monster. Each of the categories below could be an entire report on its own. And the widening economic gap between the biggest live events and everyone else deserves its own report.
So treat this week as a primer: an overview of some of the key sectors and companies in the live music ecosystem. Use it as a starting point to dig deeper or identify gaps for opportunities.
Live Nation: The world’s biggest live music company, combining ticketing, promotion and venues.
Ticketmaster: The largest mainstream ticketing platform (owned by Live Nation)
OCESA: The largest Latin American promotion company.
AEG: The second-biggest live music company. Owns ticketing companies, promoters and venues.
AXS: Ticketing platform (owned by AEG).
Fever: Live event discovery and ticketing platform.
DICE: Mobile-first tickets and events.
CTS Eventim: Europe’s biggest ticketing company.
See Tickets: UK and EU ticket platform (owned by CTS Eventim).
Eventbrite: A self-serve event and ticketing platform (recently acquired by Bending Spoons)
SeatGeek: Ticketing and resales.
Tixel: Startup focused on face-value ticket resales between fans.
Twickets: Ethical resale marketplace at face-value.
TicketSwap: Fan-to-fan resale platform.
Introducing SIX - the first product we’ve built at STVDIO Labs. It’s an AI agent for independent artists. Unlike ChatGPT or Claude it analyses your streaming and social stats and knows your goals and long-term vision.
It can also upload your music to Spotify, find playlists, create a rollout plan and EPK. SIX is in beta now - you can try it for free.
Ticket Tailor: Self-serve ticketing tool for independent organisers.
ITM: Tickets and data-capture for independent events.
Ticket Fairy: Ticketing platform for festivals, club nights and independent live events.
Skiddle: A UK events platform.
Tixr: Used by independent festivals and venues.
Ticket Source: Self-service ticketing platform for local and grassroots events.
Set.Live: Allows artists to capture emails and phone numbers from their gig audiences.
Laylo: Fan CRM and drop platform that drives tons of audience capture through live event announcements and activations.
SWSH: Collect and share video clips from live shows.
Bootleg.live: Live recordings of concerts.
ITM: Fan-activation layer to track and capture all attendees and how they engage.
Coachella Innovations: Coachella’s R&D arm for testing new live formats and tech.
Lux Machina: Augemtned reality and visual production company for live shows.
Disguise: Live visual experiences, graphics, projection, XR and immersive show design.
Moment Factory: Immersive entertainment, festival installations and experiences.
Snapchat: Recently powered festival lenses and IRL fan experiences.
Musion: Hologram visual performances.
Melody VR: Immersive VR music performances.
Best Nights VC: Berlin-based investment firm focusing on nightlive and IRL experiences.
Universe: Ticketing platform used heavily in nightlife and experiential events
222: Social app for meeting new people through events and experiences.
XCEED: Event discovery and ticket booking for clubs and nightlife.
Discotech: App for guest lists, VIP tables, bottle service and club ticketing.
CAA: Adele, Bon Iver, Deadmau5
Primary Talent International: Kings of Leon, Wolf Alice, Alt J
THE TEAM (formerly Wasserman): Tyler, the Creator, Kid Cudi, Vince Staples
UTA: Bad Bunny, Lizzo, Guns’n’Roses
WME: Alicia Keys, Royal Blood, Sam Smith.
Opendate: Operating system for venues and promoters (bookings, tickets, marketing)
Fourvenues: Venue operations used by clubs, festivals and local venues.
Cymbal: Marketing platform for venues and events.
GigPig: Connects artists with venues.
StageRider: Manage artist riders and tech specs.
If you found this useful, please do forward it to your colleagues or share with your friends. If you have questions or thoughts, reach out to me on LinkedIn or by email at benjamin@stvdio.io. See you next week with another music industry report.
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