Empirical Analysis of Ticket-Sales Strategies in the Live Entertainment Market

Abstract

This paper proposes a concrete ticket-sales strategy in the live entertainment market by verifying the effectiveness of hybrid sales, which combine auction sales and uniform pricing methods, based on actual performances held in Japan. To conduct the social simulation of hybrid ticket-sales, we calculated the seat utility values of a particular theater and estimated the reserve price distribution of customers using transaction price data from ticket resale platforms. The results showed that while customer utility and revenue increased when auction sales seats were added, the introduction of more than a certain number of auction sales seats beyond the acceptable level of auction sales decreased customer utility. Furthermore, by allocating additional revenue from auction sales to adjust the uniform ticket price appropriately, we observed that setting approximately 40% of the total seats (700 seats) for auction is optimal for maximizing customer utility. This sales method ensures accessibility for a wide range of customers by providing premium seating to high-paying customers while maintaining affordable pricing for uniform pricing sales. Additionally, it was observed to be an effective sales system that can control illicit profits in the resale market and redistribute the profits from high resale prices to consumers and organizers.