An Eventbrite survey of the UK public’s favourite local events suggests that mobile/in-app tickets are considerably more popular than they are prevalent.
4.82 per cent of respondents received mobile/in-app tickets for the last music event that they went to, while 19.47 per cent of respondents said they would rather have them, rising to 20.05 per cent amongst 30-44 year olds and 21.51 per cent amongst 18-29 year olds.
The survey also explored how people listen to musical acts before going to see them live.
Among the main UK on-demand music formats, physical (CD/cassette/vinyl) was most common, listed by 25.89 per cent of respondents, and was the most popular listening method for 30-59 year olds. The second most popular format was YouTube, with 19.29 per cent people streaming acts’ videos on the service before attending a gig; this was the preferred listening method for 18-29 year olds.
Spotify narrowly pipped iTunes to third place, with 12.69 per cent of respondents listening to an act on Spotify before attending a gig, versus 11.98 per cent using iTunes.
Music came out top of the pile for favourite local events, with 24.27 per cent of respondents listing music events, of any size, as their favourite event type within an hour’s travel.
Additionally, respondents were more willing to spend money on music than any other event type (those surveyed included sports, theatre/dance, food, art, and networking/classes/talks). 82.59 per cent said they would spend something on music events, with the most popular price bracket £21-35, as chosen by 24.22 per cent of respondents. Of the event categories listed, music was the only one where £0 was not the most popular response for how much they would typically pay.
Finally, it seems that gigs can still act as a discovery platform for new acts, as 18.17 per cent of respondents said that they hadn’t listened to the act before seeing them live, at the last gig they went to.
Interpreting the results, Eventbrite’s Katie McPhee said: “Perhaps unsurprisingly, music was the respondents’ most popular choice of local event. The data suggests that there is a demand for mobile ticketing that is not being met. We were also interested to see that, while there is a pronounced trend towards music discovery via streaming media among a younger demographic, physical formats still outperform YouTube, Spotify and iTunes as the main way people listen to acts before seeing them live.”
The survey, commissioned by Eventbrite, the self-service ticketing platform, explored people’s favourite local events, spend on different types of events, music discovery, and ticketing. It was completed by a randomly selected group of