​

focus on the fans

​read in browser​

Hey. It’s been sad to think about Takeoff. He was just 28 years old. His life was just getting started. I can only imagine how his family and loved ones feel right now. RIP.

Thanks again to everyone who has shared The Culture Report. The response has been strong, and I’m glad it’s resonating.

Today’s memo is about how to improve the concert ticket-buying experience for fans. I had a great conversation with DICE president, Russ Tannen.

DICE was the presenting sponsor for our Culture Report, so we also talked about some of the insights that stuck out to Russ as well. Let’s dive in.

Was this forwarded to you?

want your company featured in Trapital?

We are looking for a few more sponsors in Q4 who want to reach the artists, creators, and execs who read and listen to Trapital on a regular basis. Want your company to reach Trapital's audience? Reach out to us here.

how DICE makes ticketing more fan-focused

Concert tickets have been in the news for a bunch of reasons lately. Whether it’s dynamic pricing or additional fees, live music fans have voiced their frustration with the process.

But even if a fan is willing to pay the fees, there’s still some friction. One of the main reasons that fans don’t attend more concerts is because they don’t have anyone to go with, or they didn’t know that their favorite musician was in town.

Russ and I talked about all of this on the podcast. It was great to hear his perspective, especially compared to how things worked in the UK.

discovery fuels ticketing

In Europe, a single show can be sold by multiple ticketing companies, but in the United States, there’s typically a single point-of-sale on the primary market. For large venues, it’s Ticketmaster, and for smaller venues, it’s often Eventbrite. Given the landscape, DICE doubled down on discovery to differentiate itself.

Nowadays, 40% of DICE sales come from its discovery system and push notifications, which let fans know which shows are going on. The system pulls in different data points, like syncing with a user’s music library, tracking behavior inside the app, and more, to drive its suggestions.

Not only is the discovery feature a value-add for concertgoers, but artists and venues too. Organic in-app sales mean spending less time and money on their own show promotions.

owning the entire journey

Discovery is typically the first step of the process to attend a show, but there’s more in the customer journey that fans do leading up to a show:

• Listen to the artist’s music before the show
• Create a calendar invite to get it on everyone’s schedule
• Purchase the tickets once they go on sale
• See if other friends want to join too

In most cases, these are all on separate apps, but DICE brings them all together in one place.

The social component is a big part of DICE’s strategy. This can help make sure that fans don’t miss shows that they really want to attend.

not just the Bad Bunny effect

As you saw in our first-ever Trapital Culture Report, Latin music has had exponential growth in the US. Russ has seen a similar trend within DICE. From 2021 to 2022, Latin music ticket sales on the app are up 829%. Plus, Latin events listed on DICE have quadrupled between both years too.

We’ve all seen the huge streaming numbers, but it’s great to see this with Latin music concerts too.

It’s easy to pin the whole genre’s success on a superstar like Bad Bunny, but DICE is only working with artists in venues with less than 10,000-capacity. This movement is bigger than just one or two artists.

Riding this trend, DICE expanded into Miami over the summer, signing up Club Space to its platform. Russ said more Miami-centric venues will be inked in the coming months, as well as Latin America overall.

Listen to our full conversation here:

Hope you enjoyed this memo. If so, please share. Forward this email to someone who should read it. Text it to a friend. Drop the link in the group chat.

Share on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. Or copy and paste the link below.

​https://trapital.co/2022/11/03/how-dice-makes-ticketing-more-fan-focused/​

money moves

• is touring breaking musicians?
• how streaming has impacted the value of music​
• ​The Culture Report is here
• Primary Wave says it quadrupled the revenue for Whitney Houston’s estate in the past three years

enjoy Trapital? share it with a friend

Tell them to sign up. I'll send them next Monday's memo. Hit the link below to share:

Or share Trapital quick via text, email, or Twitter.​

coming soon from Trapital

Podcast: Megan-Holston Alexander - a16z Cultural Leadership Fund: I had a great chat with Megan about the fund she leads, getting more Black investors involved, and more. Drops next Thursday!