A new report has found that 91% of live music fans believe that dynamic or surge pricing should be illegal in the UK. The Music Fans’ Voice survey gathered data from more than 8,000 music fans across 8 cities between February and March this year. But what does this mean for arts and culture venues and events? And how can we optimise revenue and attendance, while also managing audience concerns?

At DynamO we’ve been helping cultural organisations navigate this challenge successfully for years, so here are some of our top tips:

1) Clarify what dynamic pricing really means

The results of this survey likely conflate scalping, surge pricing and demand-based pricing - three very different practices:

• Scalping = unauthorised resale at inflated prices, often using bots
• Surge pricing = prices rise rapidly based on real-time demand spikes (e.g. Uber model)
• Demand-based pricing = planned, data-driven adjustments before and during the sales window, often with limits

This conflation is understandably driven by frustration from one-off, high-demand events - like the Oasis saga - which are not representative of how responsible dynamic pricing works in audience-focused organisations with meaningful and ethical pricing strategies in place - like most theatres! The survey responses suggest a lack of understanding around what true dynamic pricing actually entails - which is designed to balance affordability and sustainability, and can often include lower prices.

2) Use segmentation to build trust

So how can we get audiences on board with a practice that can ultimately be beneficial for everyone? Transparent communication and clearer segmentation is key, and can help you better appeal to both cost conscious and cost ignorant attendees. Cost sensitive audience members prefer to buy tickets for less popular timeslots if the same performance can be enjoyed at a lower cost, whereas people who care more about time constraints will pay more for higher demand performances if a certain timeslot works better for their schedule.

Some practical steps include:

• Offering early access discounted or lower price range tickets to loyal audience members or specific demographics (e.g. under 25s)
• Applying dynamic pricing only to general public sales
• Communicating the use of price capping and fairness policies up front so that audiences can make informed decisions

3) Cap premiums

Increasing revenue is needed to meet rising costs. Dynamic pricing offers an alternative to simply raising all prices and completely excluding price-conscious audiences - an increasing practice amongst a small percentage of West End venues. It enables you to make the majority of inventory affordable, and let the premium seats flex based on demand - with capped limits.

4) Reinvest gains into inclusion efforts

Dynamic pricing revenue could similarly be channelled toward support funds or access schemes, making it part of the solution, not the problem. For example, the top 5% of high-price tickets could fund free or discounted tickets for underrepresented audiences or grassroots venue support - redistribution, not exploitation.

5) Adopt a long-term, sustainable approach

One of the most encouraging findings from the report is that almost all respondents agreed that live music events are an important part of UK culture. In order to keep this culture alive, it’s important that we’re able to find financially sustainable ticketing models - particularly in the face of the sector’s “imminent burnout alongside significant skills and workforce gaps,” plus diminishing government and philanthropic funding.

Dynamic pricing isn’t a case of greed - it’s about ensuring events remain viable by implementing time and cost-saving tools, while matching value with demand. It works particularly well in venues and events with:

• Many performances
• Seating with varied desirability
• Time and space for audiences to plan purchasing decisions in advance

In music events with one-night-only performances, there’s a much greater sense of urgency. But as an industry at large, the cultural sector has the ability to take a more balanced approach - including pre-set pricing stages, transparent calendars and fair access tools.

Dynamic pricing checklist

It’s understandable that audiences might be weary when ticket prices feel unpredictable or even unfair. Your work as a venue or event isn’t just about transparency - it’s about building a sense of shared values and trust. If you’re looking to explore dynamic pricing and want to do so in a way that places your audiences at the heart, remember to:

1. Educate audiences with simple guides on how your pricing works
2. Reserve fixed-price or discounted tickets for members, early buyers or specific demographics (i.e. under 25s)
3. Set and clearly communicate the use of price caps
4. Reinvest revenue from high-demand seats into access and inclusion programmes
5. Use dynamic pricing only where it adds value - whether you’re looking to grow your audience, increase revenue or achieve a balance of both

If you’d like to have a conversation to learn more about dynamic pricing and how it could help your organisation achieve financial sustainability, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch at info@dynamopricing.com.

Arts organizations are working under very difficult circumstances. The Centre for Cultural Value’s Culture in Crisis report illustrates how the UK’s cultural sector is “facing imminent burnout alongside significant skills and workforce gaps.” These gaps are leaving a workforce that is not representative of our society, and also exhausted teams who are not equipped for everything being thrown at them. There is simply not enough human resource to execute everything and so teams need smarter tools and processes that can help them. It’s absolutely natural to have a knee-jerk reaction to implementing anything new when you’re burned out and simply battling to put out fires every day. But taking a moment to implement time and cost-saving tools can help to fight those fires at their source so that there are fewer to deal with each day.

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“I’m too busy to implement a complex new pricing tool”

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With modern software and data analytics tools, dynamic pricing is accessible to any team, however busy, thanks to automation. DynamO developed a very straightforward and easy-to-use interface and provides free support and assistance. Setting up the dynamic pricing parameters for a typical theatre performance (3-5 different ticket categories) takes 2-5 minutes for our clients. Even very small theatres and music groups with only 1 person managing ticketing are achieving great results using DynamO.

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“We have lots of one-night shows and we don’t have autonomy on price-setting (we have to set prices in line with promoters / producers), so dynamic pricing can’t work for us”

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Dynamic pricing can be applied to a wide range of events, including one-time performances, festivals, sports events, and more. Predicting the success of a one-time event can be very tricky as success depends on multiple variables: big names, promotion partners etc. However, dynamic pricing actually helps to mitigate the risk associated with one-off shows or short runs. Over time it becomes a highly effective tool to support performance lifecycle evaluation and decision-making.

When first implementing dynamic pricing you can talk to your partners about whether they want to do it or not, and if not you don’t have to dynamically price their shows. Once you have dynamically priced a few shows you can show them the data to evidence the potential ROI they are missing out on and they will likely choose to participate, as we’ve seen with numerous clients in this position.

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“If the prices are always changing how can I forecast accurately?”

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Forecasting is always an educated guess about the future. With dynamic pricing, forecasting is actually more reliable than with fixed / static pricing, because it reacts to market fluctuations and generates additional yield on popular shows while boosting audiences at less popular performances / events. Ticketing managers can predict based on their past experience as they usually would. The only change they need to make is that they should expect better results both in revenue and tickets sold than ever before. A typical DynamO client generates 14-17% average revenue growth while reducing unsold inventory by over 20%.

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“We often have to paper / discount heavily at the last minute to fill a show, dynamic pricing will only exacerbate this late booking behavior - we want to encourage early bookers!”

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Dynamic pricing can help encourage early booking and aid in avoiding last minute discounts to fill an event. In many cases prices increase as the event date approaches and availability decreases. There are many logics that can be applied in dynamic pricing and it’s never guaranteed that tickets will be cheapest at the beginning of the sales period, or at the end of it, or anytime in between! While it can provide a kind of gamification opportunity to ticket buyers, there is not a simple and consistent rule that they can follow. With dynamic pricing they can’t just wait and be guaranteed a cheap ticket.

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“As a not-for-profit organization, I don’t think it’s a good fit - dynamic pricing is designed for profit-making companies.”

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All kinds of cultural institutions can benefit from dynamic pricing. Optimizing ticket sales allows you to break down cost barriers across your programming and reach a wider audience, while ensuring financial sustainability. Dynamic pricing strengthens any mission-focused organization’s pricing strategy. It can result in wider availability of cheaper tickets and longer periods of availability for high-demand performances. Organizations such as the Hungarian State Opera, Operetta Theatre, and Palace of Arts have demonstrated how beneficial this approach can be. With the additional revenue generated, these institutions can further improve service quality and invest more in their artists, creating a positive social impact.

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“Ticket buyers don’t want another layer confusing them - it’ll stop them from completing their purchase”

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• While dynamic pricing does introduce a variable, it doesn't need to complicate the process or slow down purchasing. Some people check the prices more than once before deciding on whether to buy the ticket or not, but the process itself is the same.
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• At DynamO re-pricing frequency can be set by the ticket inventory holder (organizer’s / venue’s ticketing team) and can vary between approximately 15 minutes up to days. More frequent price updates result in smaller changes in prices which means that most individual customers don’t notice, or the difference for them is negligible. Tickets that are already in the cart don’t change price even if there is a price update in the meantime for the rest of the tickets. Until the checkout process has finished (either  through a completed purchase or cart abandonment) the price of tickets in the basket will remain the same.

• Dynamic pricing is a useful tool as part of your wider pricing strategy to attract and retain audiences, it can complement your existing membership programs, discounts / offers, and multiple ticket categories.

• Dynamic pricing makes it easier for your audiences to get the best tickets, at the best price by purchasing directly with you. Dynamic pricing disincentivizes scalping and bots by lowering the second-hand sellers’ profit. If they buy a lot of tickets with an automated bot, they pump up the price for themselves as usually there is a limitation of how many tickets can be purchased at the same time.

• Implementing dynamic pricing is a great opportunity to communicate with your audiences and help them understand why this is beneficial to them. You can help them understand how it will work and how they can get the best prices and availability according to the models that you have set up. This may be about booking early, or letting them know that they will no longer have to rush to get seats at the blockbuster show. DynamO can provide guidance and support on this.

“Dynamic pricing is only for profit driven organizations. It won’t help us reach new audiences or build lasting relationships with our communities.”

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Arts organizations need income in order to operate and bring their unique value to audiences and communities. Historically in the UK this has been generated through a combination of national or local government funding, philanthropic giving and earned income (i.e ticket sales). With a 16% real terms cut in arts funding since 2017, the shortfall needs to be picked up for the cultural sector to continue doing their vital work. Philanthropy in the UK is not as strong as in North America and although it has trended upwards since 2018 evidence shows that we can’t rely on this. The area where organizations have most control is their earned income.

Maximizing this is fundamental to survival. 

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Increasing ticket revenue supports all organizational goals whether that is better-paid artists and staff, higher production values or more community and outreach work. Without financial stability, organizations and the value they bring for their communities is at risk.

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“Dynamic pricing isn’t good for audiences, they won’t respond well…”

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• When implemented transparently and fairly, dynamic pricing is accepted by audiences as it reflects market realities and provides opportunities for better deals. DynamO has helped organizations to introduce dynamic pricing successfully across millions of tickets across Europe, UK and US without receiving negative feedback.
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• Well-set dynamic pricing can include cheaper ticket options. Buyers can benefit from lower prices during periods of lower demand, making events more accessible to a broader audience. 
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• Dynamic pricing can, and should, be combined with membership programs, early-bird pricing, and discounts/coupons, to allow you to reward loyalty, and ensure that no barriers are put in place for harder to reach communities.

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Anna Hetényi, Head of Ticketing at Müpa (Palace of Arts), shared her experience with combining dynamic pricing and their established loyalty program:

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"DynamO implemented their dynamic pricing solution with maximum flexibility, fully accommodating our specific needs at Müpa. They seamlessly integrated their system with our well-established loyalty program, allowing us to preserve its benefits for our loyal customers. For instance, during our pre-sale periods, we offer tickets at fixed prices, and once these periods end, we switch to dynamic pricing. This approach has enabled us to maintain customer satisfaction while optimizing our revenue through a tailored and adaptable pricing strategy."

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“Dynamic pricing is just about increasing prices, it’s not fair on the audience”

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• Smart dynamic pricing adjusts prices based on demand and other factors, it’s not simply designed to increase ticket prices as far as they can go. It's used to optimize both sales and attendance, often resulting in better deals and cheaper tickets for the audience which can support your organization to grow your audience base. Well-differentiated dynamic pricing allows organizers to offer cheaper tickets than ever before. For example, the Palace of Arts in Budapest offers lower-priced tickets as they can offset them with higher prices for more popular seats.
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• Ticket buyers willing to buy early or during off-peak times can secure better prices and you can engage your members or other loyal attendees to help them understand this. Event organizers should use transparent communication, controlled maximum prices, and avoid unethical tactics like pressuring hesitant customers. DynamO encourages clients to be transparent about their dynamic pricing strategies and never uses pushy tactics. Prices are primarily determined by demand and its pace.
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• Transparency in pricing strategies is crucial, and reputable sellers make it clear that prices may fluctuate based on various factors. Additionally, tickets placed in the basket do not change prices, and any additional fees (e.g., handling or convenience fees) are separate from dynamic pricing.
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• The decision to keep low-price tickets is up to the ticket inventory owner, but DynamO always recommends including affordable options. More expensive tickets can offset the revenue lost from cheaper ones. Initial ticket batches may also be sold at reduced rates, and prices can decrease for events that are not selling as expected.
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• Dynamic pricing can make tickets available at lower prices during initial sales or off-peak times, benefiting budget-conscious buyers. Increases that are applied should be small and incremental, rather than huge differences that will shock and annoy. A small difference is acceptable to an individual buyer, and cumulatively over time these can make a big difference to the financial stability of the organization.

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In contrast to the belief that dynamic pricing simply increases ticket prices and locks out some audiences, it can be the key to understanding the true market value of your ticket inventory, and being able to price strategically. As part of a well-rounded pricing strategy, you can maximize ticket revenue and make tickets available to the widest possible audience at the same time.

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