Ticketmaster and How NFTs Are Changing the Live Music Industry

Ticketmaster and Avenged Sevenfold are changing the game with NFT-gated ticket sales. Here's why it's such a big deal and what you need to know to participate.

TylerD

Mar 29, 2023

TylerD's Market Summary

GM!

Today's top news includes:

Ticketmaster and A7X changing the concert ticket game
y00ts 1st day on Polygon
Blur adds a month
Nakamigos heat up
The Guggenheim embraces digital art

🎟 Ticketmaster and Token-Gated Tickets

The biggest news in NFTs this week is not from a PFP project.

It’s from Ticketmaster.

And the concert and event ticket industry is about to be changed forever (for the better).

On Monday, Ticketmaster officially launched its NFT-gated concert tickets in partnership with Avenged Sevenfold (A7X), according to Decrypt.

This comes after a successful pilot with A7X a few weeks back proving out the concept.

Before diving into what that means and how it works, let's look at some current problems with ticket sales.

Token-gated ticket sales are going to solve one of the core issues of the current live music industry

The Problems:

The current state live music industry has some serious issues that have only been ramping up as of late:

Average ticket prices have more than tripled since the mid-‘90s, even before they hit secondary
Fees added to each ticket can be as high as 78% of the ticket price
Tickets can be nearly impossible to buy on primary, as Ticketmaster often holds 90% of the supply back

That 3rd bullet is arguably the biggest gripe, and it forces the average ticket buyer onto the secondary market, where the average ticket is marked up 158%.

It can also lead to security issues as consumers are forced to use shadier secondary sites like Craigslist (maybe I'm showing my age) or do 1-1 deals with strangers to avoid mark-up, leading to risk of scams (or worse).

So what can solve these issues?

Ticketmaster is embracing NFT tech to evolve the ticket-buying process

The Answer:

NFT-gated concert ticket sales, and Ticketmaster is leading the charge.

Essentially, NFT holders have first access to purchase concert tickets on Ticketmaster in exclusive presales.

Here’s how it works:

Holders will connect their wallets
Verify ownership
Enter a special queue to buy tickets without all of the typical competition

Pretty great huh?

For Avenged Sevenfold specifically, holders of the Deathbats Club NFT had early access to buy tickets for upcoming shows in NYC and LA.

And it was majorly worth it.

One holder was able to buy two Section 2 tickets for $275, which just a few days later cost closer to $755.

That's a 175% savings - absolutely huge.

NFT holders are celebrating too.

The Deathbats NFT is up 129% on the month since this new utility debuted. It's now at 0.17 ETH ($300), up from 0.08 ETH a month ago.

Which is greatly outperforming about 99% of the NFTs in the market right now.

Why does this matter?

A few key reasons:

True fans receive primary access to tickets vs botters/resellers
Primary access leads to major cost savings (vs having to buy on secondary)
More security in the process

And this does not even scratch the surface of all of the other potential use cases musicians can unlock with NFTs (ticket stubs as NFTs, special fan experiences, token-gated song releases, etc.).

There is also no reason this use of NFTs can't extend beyond live music into all types of events with tickets.

How to participate?

Ticketmaster has made the token-gating feature available to any artist with its own NFT collection or one that has partnered with an NFT community.

So pay attention to any NFT drops from your favorite bands or musicians.

The Deathbats Club NFT served as the access point for the token-gated tickets - look for more of these collections to come

If you’re an avid concertgoer, weigh the NFT price vs potential savings and buy if it makes sense (it likely will).

Or lobby your favorite PFP founder to build some connections in the music industry for more utility.

Traders also have an opportunity here, but we’ll save that for a later discussion.

Overall, the concert and event industry is about to change big time with token-gated ticket sales.

Shoutout to Avenged Sevenfold and Ticketmaster for pioneering this tremendous use case for NFT technology.

Now, the question on everyone’s mind - wen Taylor Swift NFTs???

🥇 y00ts First Day on Polygon

March 28th will go down in the history books for Frank DeGods and the y00ts collection, as they made the irreversible move from Solana to Polygon.

The migration seemingly went very smooth, with very few issues noted and most holders praising the smooth experience.

And general community sentiment feels high and positive around the move, even if some of the numbers don't paint quite as rosy of a picture.

By the numbers

Some notable stats from y00ts after their first day on Polygon

11,400 y00ts have migrated to Polygon (~85% of supply)
1.72 ETH floor on Polygon
~220 ETH trading volume ($358k)

Polygon also saw a surge in trading volume on the day with a $1.97M total (+128%), putting it 3rd behind just ETH and Solana.

Polygon saw a 127% surge in volume on the day tho y00ts were just 2nd in volume

Definitely a lot of positives there. An 85% migration in the first 24 hours is insane and incredibly impressive.

The volume is what worries me.

This was a marquee day for y00ts, and they only made it to 12th on the overall NFT volume board.

They were not even the top collection on Polygons, as new collection BROZO did 60% more volume with $611k in sales.

The primary concern with moving to Polygon is the lack of liquidity on that chain, and those concerns are still very valid.

We will see what tricks Frank has up his sleeve to keep these moving this week and going forward.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of the major headlines from a slow weekend in NFTs:

Trading volume came in at 22k ETH on Tuesday, down about 5% from Monday
Blur announced 2x points for the month of April (cue loud groan from most NFT participants), along with a delay to the launch of their "Something New"
Disney laid off its metaverse team of around 50 employees, as part of a broader round of layoffs (totaling 7,000)
MetaMask squashed rumors of a potential airdrop, calling the rumors false and dangerous
SuperRare announced its next RarePass airdrop artist as Sarah Zucker, with the airdrop happening on 4/4
Nakamigos soared 70% to a 0.3 ETH floor as notable whales bought in and expressed longer-term conviction
Chimpers have been included in a new private beta for ThirdGate, a new platform offering perks and rewards from brands for NFT holders

Blur has extended season 2 and doubled points for April much to the dismay of most NFT traders

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

The crypto market was up big on Tuesday; BTC +5.5% at $28,400; ETH +5% at $1,810
SBF is facing new charges from U.S. prosecutors tied to the alleged bribing of Chinese government officials
DAO token holders now face potential liability, based on a recent ruling in he bZx DAO case tied to a $55M hack in Nov 2021
The Guggenheim Museum has appointed a new art curator in Noam Segal, who will have a seeming focus on digital art and technology
Tommy Hilfiger is launching a multi-metaverse fashion hub in partnership with 3d technology and VR platform provider Emperia

Tommy Hilfiger is throwing his hat in the metaverse ring along with Emperia

🚀 NFT Total Volume

Otherdeed (4,061 ETH, 1.86 ETH Floor)
Wrapped CryptoPunks (3,752 ETH, 63.8 ETH)
Nakamigos (1,832 ETH, 0.3 ETH)
MAYC (1,437 ETH, 13.1 ETH)
BAYC (1,368 ETH, 60.5 ETH)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase

Nakamigos (70%, 0.3 ETH Floor)
Pudgy Rods (21%, 0.34 ETH)
Seizon (17%, 0.17 ETH)
Beanz (8%, 1.43 ETH)
Otherdeed (8%, 1.86 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today has the 2nd to last Meme card drop in Season 2 and an Art Blocks Curated drop as highlights.

The AB drop is the primary one to watch, as Kim Asendorf makes her Curated debut.

The supply is high at 1,000, but if this approaches min price near 0.1 ETH, it becomes pretty attractive. And given the lack of interest in volume in AB lately, that is definitely possible.

Kim has other collections like Sabotage which hold a 1.5 ETH floor (264 supply), so it is very easy to see this one trading in the 0.3 ETH to 0.5 range.

Other than that, watch out for hyped new drops on Polygon after yesterday's BROZO drop was a quick 2x for minters.

Board Boys by Kurt Jurgen (9:00 a.m. ET); $4.20
Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET); 0.06529 ETH
Art Blocks Curated: Cargo by Kim Asendorf (1:00 p.m. ET); Dutch auction
METEORIA (8:00 p.m. ET); 0.055 ETH

Enjoy this write-up? Follow along with me on Twitter @tyler_did_it or reach out via email tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.

For all volume and floor price data, see Lucky Trader's Project Rankings page.

For all upcoming mints, see Lucky Trader's Project Schedule page.