Ticketing

One big change in the future of the live-music business will be the way that tickets are sold and delivered. Until quite recently, a promoter printed and sold the tickets for a show using a distribution system that involved the venue box office, a few record shops, and mailing tickets. The promoter would collect the money from sales as they were made and hold onto it until the settlement.

Now a whole raft of ticket purchasing and distribution systems are already available, and technology is being developed to make buying tickets even easier. You can purchase your ticket online or via your mobile phone and then print it out at home or have a code sent back to your mobile phone. You take your phone to the show, where it is scanned, allowing you entry. No more waiting for the post to arrive or standing in line at a box office to buy tickets. Ticket-purchasing technology using RFID (radio frequency identification—the same technology used in tags in clothes shops, electronic toll passes for cars, and travel cards on mass transit systems) is also being developed.