Author|bean sprouts
May Day is coming, and the music performance market is particularly lively.
Early this morning, "The Yuanqi Forest Music Festival was held as usual after being cancelled for 6 hours" rushed to the hot search on Weibo. The organizer officially announced at 4 a.m. that due to weather factors, the performance was cancelled that day, and the performance was normal on May 2.
6 hours later, @元气森林音乐节 posted again, in view of the current weather has basically met the requirements for holding a music festival, the Genki Forest Music Festival on May 1 can be held as usual. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
According to the statistics of Chop Pepper, nearly 30 music festivals were held in different cities during the May Day period. The Bubble Island Music and Art Festival with many well-known musicians at home and abroad has been held for 3 consecutive days, and the Strawberry Music Festival has officially announced 6 performances in May alone, and the Cactus Music Festival and the Beijing Infinite Music Festival have also started singing.
According to incomplete statistics, a total of nearly 50 solo concerts landed during the May Day period. Mayday officially announced 10 Bird's Nest concerts at one time, Phoenix Legend Beijing Station had to add another one due to too many people wanting to see it, and head singers such as Jay Chou, Wang Xinling, Deng Ziqi, Soda Green, and Jolin Tsai will also hold solo concerts in different cities one after another.
At the same time, "Whether you can grab a ticket mainly depends on whether there is a ticket in your life", "80,000 tickets for Phoenix Legend Beijing will be sold out in 1 second", "Grab a ticket and let me, the concert is my birthday"...... There are more and more voices such as not being able to grab tickets and being difficult to grab tickets.
Since last year, performance tickets have entered the trend of "hard to find a ticket", and I thought that this year would tend to be calm, but from the current point of view, "sold out in seconds" has almost become the standard configuration of the concert, and the red ticket grab button switched to a gray "out of stock registration" logo at the moment of ticket issuance.
Various ticket grabbing strategies, scalpers auctioning, and even rights protection guides and other related posts continue to be added on social platforms.
In fact, when most fans are still guarding mainstream ticketing platforms such as Damai and Maoyan, various secondary ticketing platforms, small program ticket-grabbing tools, and the organizer's official ticketing channels have begun to enter the game and get a piece of the pie, not only that, but platforms such as Douyin, Taobao, and Channels have also become new channels for buying tickets.
In the eyes of many fans, ticket grabbing has almost become a metaphysics.
Not long ago, the Phoenix Legend Beijing went on sale. As one of the most popular concerts this year, the number of people who "want to see" in Damai soared to 368,000 in just 4 hours after the Phoenix Legend concert was launched, and the number of "want to see" in Beijing has exceeded 1.7 million. This means that almost a million people are grabbing less than 50,000 tickets for a single show at the same time.
However, when countless people were disappointed in the face of the cold "out-of-stock registration", Zhizhi used a remaining ticket monitoring applet called "Ticket Release Again" to successfully squat on the return ticket.
It is understood that "Tickets Again" is a remaining ticket monitoring software, which can detect the inventory of multiple mainstream ticketing platforms such as Damai, Maoyan, Ticket Planet, Fun Island, etc., and return tickets, etc., after users copy the link they want to watch the performance in accordance with the operation guide, they can obtain relevant detection rights and interests by watching advertisements. In addition to "Tickets are released again", there is also "Tickets for the Performance" that also has the same function.
After monitoring the ticket notification, if it is a platform such as Maoyan, Fun Island, and Ticket Planet, you can jump to the corresponding mini program to buy a ticket with one click, but if it is Damai, you need to go to the APP station to buy it by yourself.
Although many netizens said after testing, "I didn't notify at all", "It's useful but it's not big, I still have to fight for Internet speed", "I keep reminding that there is a ticket, but I don't have a ticket when I click in". But it still can't stop enthusiastic fans, and during the ticketing period of popular performances, third-party monitoring applets will even have bugs due to too many people.
The mystery of ticket grabbing is not only reflected in the plug-in tools, but the differences between different platforms are being amplified in the ticket grabbing wars again and again.
Even after experiencing a storm of public opinion, the popularity of the Mayday concert has not subsided. A while ago, Mayday officially announced 10 Bird's Nest concerts at one time, and if the capacity of a single show is 91,000, 10 shows means that a total of more than 900,000 tickets will be sold.
With such frequent performances and a large number of ticket sources, Barley showed "out of stock" in less than a minute after the first ticket was opened. However, on the other official ticketing platform for the Mayday concert, many fans successfully landed.
As an old fan for many years, Xiaobai squatted in front of Damai early before the ticket was issued, and asked his friends to grab tickets on Fun Island at the same time. At the moment of ticket issuance, Xiaobai was always stuck on the prompt page of "too many people in line", but his friend successfully grabbed the ticket. Xiaobai is not an exception, and many fans also feedback, "Mayday's tickets are really easy to grab on Fun Island", "My friend helped me grab Barley in three seconds, and I grabbed the return ticket to the island myself at half past two." ”
Of course, behind this difference, it has to do with the number of users of the platform itself. As a leading first-class ticketing platform, Damai has a higher number of users and activity, and it is naturally more difficult to grab tickets. It should be noted that this difference is not universal, and not all performances have differences in the success rate of ticket grabbing on different platforms.
Regardless of whether it is effective or not, these experience of ticket grabbing that has been perceived and summarized in practice has been transformed into one strategy post after another, circulating on various platforms.
"Unbind third-party software before grabbing tickets", "Don't grab the most expensive and cheapest", "5G> HOME WI-FI >PUBLIC WI-FI", "TURN OFF THE BACKGROUND", "START GRABBING WHEN THE COUNTDOWN 1s" ......
A week ago, the Times Youth League concert Chongqing station ticketed, Ah Si repeatedly watched a strategy video, and at the same time held two devices to rob, unfortunately, after the third time to enter the payment page was stuck, the ticket grabbing page turned gray. "I also asked scalpers to shoot for me, but I didn't get it," Ah Si told us.
Not only is it difficult to grab tickets, but in the complex ticket-grabbing environment, many fans are also facing problems such as damage to their rights and interests and being cheated.
In the Phoenix Legend Changzhou field, some netizens said that they bought a "pillar ticket", "I can't see anything, let alone see the stage, I can't even see the infield, and the whole audience just watched a pillar and had no impression." After the fermentation of public opinion, Phoenix Legend Linghua made a blog and said bluntly, "It is your right to defend your rights." In the end, under the coordination of multiple parties, the netizen successfully refunded the ticket, and the refund was completed before 10:00 on April 24.
In March this year, some netizens complained that they bought tickets for Lin Junjie's Suzhou concert on Maoyan, and after the payment was successful, they found that they were Li Keqin's concert tickets, and a 50% handling fee was charged for refunds. In the end, Maoyan Performance responded, "Negotiated with many parties and finally reached a decision to cancel the handling fee charged to this part of the user." ”
Not long ago, Deng Ziqi and Jay Chou's concerts also had problems such as tickets not being able to enter and fans being deceived.
Whether it is the difficulty of grabbing tickets or rights protection, behind the repeated ticketing contradictions, it reflects not only the market heat, but also the changes in the ticketing platform pattern under the current performance trend.
The hot demand will inevitably give rise to more supply sides, especially in the performance industry, as a key trading link in the industrial chain, the ticketing platform is not only of guiding significance for the supply of content, but also an important part of the competition of competitors in various industries to improve the business map.
One of the most obvious changes is that the first-level ticketing platform has entered a state of multi-agent competition.
According to the "2023 China Performance Ticketing Industry Research Report" released by iResearch, Maoyan and Ticket Planet have grown rapidly, forming a three-point pattern of "one super and two strong" together with Damai.
In the entire ticketing market, the first-tier ticketing platform has a crucial position in the industry. Because the first-level ticketing platform usually adopts a single pricing model, it can ensure that fans can watch the performance at a reasonable price, and the first-level ticketing platform is mainly in cooperation with the organizer, which is also more complete for consumers.
In addition to the growth of Maoyan and Ticket Planet breaking the original pattern, the first-level ticketing market has also ushered in competition from many organizers and even artists.
More and more performance organizers have begun to launch their own ticketing apps or mini programs for official direct sales.
It is understood that the affiliated company of Fun Island is 100% owned by Shanghai Chinese Culture and Performing Arts Co., Ltd. (CMC Live), and popular performances such as Mayday, Zhou Huajian, and Liu Ruoying are sold on the platform;
Modern Sky's on-site APP mainly sells tickets for modern artists' tours, strawberry music festivals and other performances, and you can also buy Modern Sky's peripheral products;
Xiaofeng Music Commune's WeChat store is also a platform directly operated by the organizer, mainly selling Xiaofeng's music festivals such as the Star Nest Music Festival and Cactus Music Festival, as well as tour tickets for bands such as Neon Garden, Fall Out Boy, Prism, and Black House, as well as the peripherals of its music festivals.
Some artists have also launched fan-exclusive apps to undertake the function of ticket sales. Jay Me is Jay Chou's first personal APP, which is exclusively authorized by his agency Jewell, and sells officially authorized genuine goods including concert tickets, DVDs, and Jay Chou's same style.
However, when the ticket was issued at Hangzhou Station a while ago, some netizens found that they could also grab tickets in the APP, but they needed to recharge 488 yuan to become a super VIP before they could grab it, which aroused questions and dissatisfaction among netizens. Although the follow-up related news proved that there were only 99 tickets sold on the platform, mainly for the benefits of fans, the topic still sparked heated discussions, #周杰伦杭州场抢票需先充值488元VIP#, #消保委点名周杰伦演唱会抢先充VIP#等词条冲上热搜.
Not long ago, the Times Youth League concert ticketed, although you can't buy tickets directly in the APP Times Fengjun fanclub under its brokerage company, but fans can get a privilege code in the fanclub and bind it with the ticketing platform Maoyan to obtain the ticket purchase qualification, and the privilege code is even circulated and sold at a price of about 100 yuan in the secondary market.
The change in the pattern of ticketing platforms is also reflected in the rise of secondary ticketing platforms.
According to the "2023 China Performance Ticketing Industry Research Report", from the perspective of live performance ticketing revenue in the first half of 2023, the primary ticketing market and the secondary ticketing market accounted for 55% and 45% respectively, and the gap was further narrowed. Second-hand ticketing platforms, led by the Ferris wheel, are taking advantage of the trend.
In contrast, the secondary ticketing platform adopts a dynamic pricing strategy, and the specific price is guided by market demand, which can adjust the imbalance between supply and demand to a certain extent. For the organizers, the secondary ticketing platform is also a means of maximizing profits, which can not only increase profit margins through premiums, but also reduce losses through discounted tickets, so some organizers will also allocate some tickets to sell on the secondary platform.
For consumers, the secondary ticketing market can provide a space for free circulation of tickets, and for many loyal fans, a reasonable premium is also acceptable. After all, as far as last year is concerned, compared with the sky-high scalper tickets that cost tens of thousands of yuan at every turn, the second-level platform with a premium of two or three times is indeed more acceptable.
In September last year, strong real-name began to be implemented one after another, eliminating most scalpers, but also a small number of scalpers tickets are more expensive. Under this new market change, the second-level ticketing platform, which is between the primary ticketing market and the scalpers, and is called the "regular army" by netizens, may grow further.
In addition, more and more third-party software is also stirring up the market. For example, as mentioned above, there are monitoring applets such as ticket release and performance remaining tickets.
According to data from the China Performance Industry Association, in 2023, the national box office revenue and the number of spectators will be 50.232 billion yuan and 171.1364 million respectively, a year-on-year increase of 150.65% and 83.01% respectively compared with 2019.
In fact, independent ticketing platforms such as Douyin, Taobao, and Channels have also become new content promotion + ticket purchase channels, and one after another new ticketing platforms are emerging.
Different from ticketing platforms that are purely sold, the ticketing of content platforms is often accompanied by content promotion.
At present, there are two main ways to sell tickets on Douyin: direct purchase and live broadcast with tickets, and the more conventional one is to use Douyin as one of the channels, and the organizer or ticketing platform will launch its own small program on Douyin to sell tickets. For example, in addition to ticketing platforms such as Damai and Maoyan, the Beijing Strawberry Music Festival also has two Douyin channels, namely "Douyin-Modern Sky" and "Douyin-Xuanyi Media".
In addition, users can directly search for keywords such as "concert" and "performance", and information about nearby performance tickets can also appear, and they can purchase them directly.
The other is to carry out live broadcast with tickets on Douyin, although live streaming has become popular, but live streaming with tickets is still relatively new. On the afternoon of April 30, the day before the start of the Beijing Infinity Music Festival, tickets were sold while @全国演唱会门票一边直播演出现场 and rehearsals. In the shopping cart, there is a double set ticket priced at 788 and a single return ticket priced at 380.
The comparison of chopped peppers found that the price of the live broadcast was the same as the ticket price displayed by Damai, but the single ticket price could be "reduced by 30 yuan" on the Douyin platform. According to the anchor, the concert tickets for the Beijing station of Shuimu Nianhua will be broadcast live next.
"Now the content platform cannot be ignored, we still have to use these new platforms to combine content promotion and ticketing, on the one hand, to let more users see the information, and live broadcast can also better interact with users and answer questions," a ticketing service provider told us.
During the live broadcast of @National Concert tickets, the anchor is also constantly answering questions to users in the live broadcast room about whether they can bring a power bank, whether they can bring an umbrella, whether they have a toilet, and how to check in tickets.
"However, the operating cost of live streaming with tickets is too high, which is a problem that currently exists, so we will choose this method more carefully," said a domestic large-scale performance organizer.
In fact, the video account is also involved in the performance business, but it is still in a relatively early stage, and the link is relatively long.
On the evening of April 30, @贵演票务在视频号直播话剧 "The Fire Illuminates the World", but there is no ticket link in the live broadcast room, and users can click on the @Guiyan ticketing avatar to enter the official account and buy tickets in the "service" section. This method combines content + ticket sales, and for users, it is a way to place orders while planting grass. However, at present, there are relatively few live broadcasts related to video account ticketing.
In addition, Taobao Live has also become a live broadcast channel for performance tickets. Fliggy's official live broadcast account @FliggyShopping & Eating Group not only livestreams tickets with attractions, but also sells tickets for many performances such as the Bubble Island Music and Arts Festival, Jake Miller 2024 Tour Beijing Station, and Huang Ling 2024 Tour Beijing Station in the live broadcast of "Travel with the Show" on April 17, in addition, it also includes tickets for performances such as the musical "Awakening Age" and the immersive suspense drama "The Sound of the Dome".
As a mature e-commerce platform, Taobao itself has advantages in transactions and live broadcasts, and Taobao users also have a strong consumption mind, which is highly compatible with live broadcast tickets, so with the rise of live broadcast tickets, Taobao may also become an important ticket platform for organizers and ticket agents in the future.
Looking at the entire performance market, it is actually only a very small number of top artists and super lineup music festivals that are hard to find, and since the second half of last year, many performances have had the problem of not being able to sell tickets. Therefore, for most organizers, the pressure of ticketing continues, and not only more diversified ticketing channels are needed, but also diversified forms of publicity and ticketing.
The changes in the ticketing market pattern and the increase in entrants are the inevitable response of the industry under the actual demand of the market, and in the long run, the diversified and healthy competition in the ticketing market is also an important foundation for the sustained and healthy growth of the entire performance market.