Over the past few years, NFTs have become ubiquitous in everyday life and have been the subject of much discussion and controversy. While people initially bought JPGs for exorbitant amounts of money, as we move further into 2023, companies are beginning to realize that the technology behind NFTs is far more powerful than simply buying and selling images. It has the potential to revolutionize a wide range of industries and offers exciting features.
One of the most promising applications of NFTs is in the event industry. The excitement of buying a ticket is what kicks off a show. However, ticketing is undergoing constant evolution, from paper tickets sold at box offices to websites and electronic printouts. So, what's next?
What is NFT ticketing?
NFT ticketing is exactly what it sounds like: tickets in the form of non-fungible tokens living on a blockchain that act as admission passes for a certain experience, any live or virtual event, such as an entrance to a theme park, a sports event, or a concert. NFT tickets can be used to enter the event and prove its ownership and credibility.
NFT tickets are a relatively new concept, but they are gaining popularity worldwide. As more event organizers adopt NFT ticketing, we can expect even more innovation in this space. Companies and Web3 projects are already developing an infrastructure for promoters to sell NFT tickets. Ticketmaster has launched token-gated sales, allowing artists to reward fans with priority ticket access and exclusive concert experiences. Another example is the Coachella NFTs, which were sold for $1,5M and provide lifetime passes to the event, as well as access to exclusive areas and attractions.
And how is this different from regular digital tickets?
The benefits of NFT ticketing
NFT ticketing has lots of advantages over usual electronic tickets. Most importantly, unlike traditional tickets, NFT tickets are stored on the blockchain, ensuring secure and transparent management. Thus, it introduces a more transparent, secure and flexible way to handle sales and distribution of e-tickets and fan engagement. This approach offers increased revenue potential for promoters on one hand and provides fans with a safer and more exciting way to engage with events on the other.
Authenticity and security
The thing is, NFT ticketing offers a new way to authenticate ticket ownership and prevent fraud. Storing each NFT ticket on the blockchain makes duplication or counterfeiting virtually impossible. This ensures genuine tickets for fans and prevents scalping and other fraudulent activities by organizers and any third-parties.
Efficiency
Using NFTs enables efficient management of tickets, reducing the need for physical tickets. Blockchain technology enables reduced costs, quick production through minting, and fully automated distribution processes. Contrary to the traditional way of digitizing tickets, NFT can be minted and ready to put for sale in less than a minute.
Tradability
Yes, NFT tickets can also be officially resold on the secondary market or exchanged on online exchanges with their value depending on how much interest there is in the event. That means, users can sell tickets for upcoming events that they cannot attend, provided that a fee is paid to the ticketing platform each time the NFT ticket goes to a marketplace.
Of course, regular digital tickets can be resold too, however it is hard to verify their authenticity. As for NFT tickets, they can always be verified on the blockchain, so users don’t need to be afraid to purchase them on the secondary market.
Exclusive experience
NFT technology makes it possible to endow the tokens with various benefits with the guaranteed redemption by the NFT holder, giving fans a chance to be engaged in the digital experience to a greater degree, such as:
- Meet & greet — a chance to meet your favorite artist in person
- Official merch — including limited edition items confined to a particular event
- Access to unique content or event — exclusive behind-the-scene footage, afterparty or private fan club
- NFT autographs — proof of attendance NFTs with digital autographs as a memorable collectible
- Backstage passes — exclusive admission to soundcheck and behind-the-scenes area
- Artist giveaways — giveaway of the artist’s personal items or content
- VIP transfers — a fast track entrance to the venue and a comfortable aftershow transfer
With that said, NFT ticket holders don’t simply receive a ticket to an event but an immutable and often interactive digital asset. Issuers can send out notices, host surprise giveaways, create token-gated sites and services, and more simply by collating data associated with holders of a specific NFT ticket.
Case study: a white-label NFT solution for event industry powered by TRUE
A recent successful case study is the TRUE project, which powered the sale of NFT tickets for a hip-hop show in Lisbon and sold a quarter of all tickets through NFT technology.
TRUE is a company that is leading the way in this space, providing infrastructure and white-label solutions for event organizers who want to take advantage of this exciting new technology. In collaboration with Uventy, a creative production agency that handles event organization across Europe, TRUE launched NFT tickets for the popular Russian hip-hop band "Kasta" show in Lisbon and equipped them with unique utilities.
Uventy used the next gen TRUE white-label solution as their own fully functional NFT marketplace for ticket distribution.
TRUE provided all the infrastructure, including:
- White-label NFT Marketplace — a complete fully-functional service to mint and sell NFT tickets with full customization and own design;
- TRUE Wallet — a simple user-friendly tool to store and manage your digital assets;
- TRUE Fintech solution, featuring the option to purchase tickets with a credit card;
- The release of NFT tickets of different types with the embedded benefits from the promoter, like VIP entrance, welcome bonus, electronic memory book, etc.
Ticket distribution process
The process of ticket distribution with TRUE NFT ticketing solution is incredibly user-friendly. The user seamlessly logs into the merchant’s marketplace and buys the NFT ticket with his credit card or crypto via TRUE Wallet. Then, upon activating the ticket the user receives a unique QR code to submit at the entrance to access the show. Additionally, users can safely store their tickets in TRUE Wallet and receive benefits or trade them on the secondary market.
As a result, 25% of all admission tickets for the show has been sold via NFT, which indicates the relevance of the solution. That means, the NFT technology works well and people are not afraid to try it out!
The event promoter also shares a couple of words:
💬 Selling part of the tickets as NFTs is our first experience distributing tickets in this way. It turned out great, and I'm glad that we keep up with the times! We were able to sell no less than a quarter of the tickets as NFTs and plan to gradually increase this number as the NFT technology expands interaction with the audience, which is good for our business. We will keep adopting this technology within the concert industry.
The bottom line
In conclusion, NFT ticketing is an innovative technology that offers many benefits for both event organizers and fans. Although NFT tickets are still a relatively new idea and are not yet widely used in the ticketing business, we see that the event industry demonstrates readiness for mass adoption of the NFT technology. It has the potential to gain popularity as a means of managing and representing event tickets in the future by providing a more secure, transparent and adaptable method of handling ticket sales and distribution.
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