Dynamic Pricing Solutions for the Arts

Introduce flexibility into your pricing strategy and set ticket prices with confidence

A successful dynamic pricing model embraces data to reward arts and cultural organizations with increased revenue and a better understanding of their audiences.

Built on the principles of flexibility, trust and fairness, dynamic pricing becomes more than just a revenue maximization tool - it’s also an opportunity to boost audience loyalty by giving your customers access to what they value.

On this page, you’ll find new ways of thinking about demand-based pricing and practical tools to turn your goals into reality.

What is Dynamic Pricing

and why does it matter in the arts?

Dynamic, or flexible, pricing is the practice of setting ticket price based on demand. Prices rise when events are selling well, and reduce when sales fall. It’s a practice that’s commonly used in other sectors, from booking flights early to enjoy the best prices, to paying extra for flexibility when confirming a hotel.

Setting prices in response to demand can bring benefits to both arts organizations and audiences. Theaters and arts organizations which price flexibly have seen a positive impact on buying patterns, revenue and staff capacity.

When tickets go on sale at a fixed or highest price, it’s impossible to increase overall income potential and easy to reduce it. Last minute offers, inflexible returns policies and online purchase fees which don’t apply on the door, all work to deter early sales.

With a flexible, popularity-based pricing model, it’s possible to accelerate slow sales and maximize the potential of the most popular events.

Through Spektrix, you have access to a range of approaches to help you get started with dynamic pricing - from simple reports to help you understand buying behaviors, through to fully automated software solutions taking the work out of your hands.

Graph comparing the benefits of a theater's dynamic pricing model to prices across all organizations. The dynamic pricing model goes up with time.

Set Ticket Prices with Confidence

The benefits of dynamic pricing in the arts

“Price tickets too high, and venues remain half-full; too low, and potential revenue is lost. Dynamic pricing automates price adjustments - both up and down - within a set range. This enables swift reactions to demand fluctuations, better sales predictions, and revenue forecasting. The automated nature of dynamic pricing reduces manual interference, yet with human oversight, adjustments can be made swiftly when conditions change unexpectedly.”

PAL DANYI

Chief Development Officer, DynamO Pricing

READ THE BLOG

Is dynamic pricing right for your arts organization?

The pros and cons of flexible event ticket pricing

We’ve all read the headlines. Big arena tours have given dynamic pricing a bad press in recent months, raising questions about hidden fees and event prices that exclude many loyal fans.

That’s not what we’re suggesting. Finding the right price is as much about relationship management as revenue - with the principles of flexibility, trust, and fairness top of mind, you can take your audience with you on your journey.

To explore that idea further, we invited arts sector experts TRG Arts and Baker Richards to share their ideas about dynamic pricing. Read their blogs to learn why it’s vital to find the right pricing fit for your organization and patrons, and how everyone benefits when you find a model that works for you.

Dynamic Pricing and Audience Loyalty

“Dynamic pricing is not just about squeezing out every possible cent from a high demand show. It's a nuanced strategy that, when executed thoughtfully, balances revenue generation with audience building and loyalty. It helps you better understand your audience, respond to their behavior and needs, and make the arts more accessible.”

GRANT PAULEY

Content Manager, TRG Arts

READ THE BLOG

Double the Income, or a Double-Edged Sword?

“Often, the determination to go dynamic is driven by perceptions. A sense that dynamic pricing is the thing that everyone else is doing. Dynamic pricing can be new, sophisticated, modern and advanced – but also inflationary, unnecessary, expensive, confusing, time-consuming, and annoying.”

ROBIN CANTRILL-FENWICK

Chief Executive, Baker Richards

READ THE BLOG

Get started with Dynamic Pricing

Set benchmarks and make the case to your team and patrons

So you’ve decided to take the first step into Dynamic Pricing. What’s next?

Before you make the change, it’s vital to understand how your price models are working right now, and to spend time understanding the response from your team members and audience.

To make this a success, upskill your whole team - from box office counter to board level - to understand what your data tells you today, why you’re making the proposal, and how you’ll measure success.

Set Ticket Prices with Confidence

Find the price that's right for you and your patrons

How flexible ticket prices can open up new avenues for your loyalty strategy, audience development and revenue maximization.

WEBINAR: SET TICKET PRICES WITH CONFIDENCE

Screenshot of a webinar taking place on a laptop, with a chart on screen showing the right moments to dynamically adjust the price of tickets

Wondering how best to implement dynamic pricing in your venue?

If you're already using Spektrix, we offer practical support and strategic consultancy at no additional cost, helping you make informed decisions and maximize the value of our software, partnerships and community.

Through reporting and manual bulk updates, you can get started with dynamic pricing within Spektrix. Track how events are selling, and change prices quickly and easily in response to sales trends.

If you're eager to achieve even more, expert partners have built data tools and software solutions to support and automate dynamic pricing as part of your venue operations.

By integrating with Spektrix, these solutions import sales data, identify optimal pricing, and amend event prices automatically - reducing manual work for your teams, and helping you maximize revenue from your ticket inventory.

Explore Dynamic Pricing models

Find the right solution to achieve your objectives

It's my priority to...

Try out flexible pricing with our free reports

When you choose Spektrix, you can enjoy all of the tools, reporting and support you need to dip your toe into the water of dynamic pricing, with no additional cost or commitment.

Try pricing flexibly on a specific event or strand of work, to test impact and audience response; or simply explore your data to adapt pricing for different days of the week, start times or genres.

Get started with our free, downloadable resources - designed to help you achieve more, no matter what system you're using. Or get in touch if you're ready to learn more about our solution - from unlimited, inclusive support, to custom reporting and more.

Popularity-based pricing calculator

Use our ready-built calculator to help benchmark average ticket prices, giving you a starting point for a flexible pricing model.

Download the Popularity-based pricing calculator

Traffic Light Report

If you're pricing just a few events flexibly, use the Traffic Light Report to quickly identify patterns. Add your sales figures to the worksheet once a week, and use the Traffic Light column to quickly flag slow and fast sellers, then gradually increase prices to reflect demand.

Download the Traffic light report

Take a tour of the reports you'd enjoy as standard, as a user of Spektrix:

Average price tracker

See at a glance how the average price for a specific event compares to your average pricing across the season.

Post-event analysis

Explore a breakdown of the most popular price bands and the average price of events.

Customer and households report

Gain an insight into each audience segment's willingness to spend, with one of 40+ standard reports included in every Spektrix system.
Dig deeper into pricing data

Our Sector Consultant partners can advise on dynamic pricing strategy and much more. Their experience extends beyond pricing; they’ll compile data from Spektrix, alongside nationwide benchmarks and best practice, to analyze many aspects of your organization. Delve into audience loyalty, marketing segmentation, data-driven strategies, and innovative methods to bolster revenue streams and cultivate audience growth.

Baker Richards is a consultancy and software provider who help organisations to grow revenue and choose the pricing approach which is the best fit for them, including the Advantage Dashboards designed for Spektrix users.

JCA Arts Marketing is the industry leader in pricing for arts and culture organizations in North America, helping them increase revenue and ticket sales through pricing and inventory management.

With tools like Revenue Accelerator, TRG Arts is an agency committed to building resilient and thriving for-profit and non-profit business models.

Get Started with a Dynamic Pricing Partner
Build efficiencies through pricing automation

Our integrated dynamic pricing technology partners harness the power of algorithms, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

Powered by these technologies and by the data they can draw from Spektrix, they dynamically adjust your ticket prices based on real-time sales data.

Using the Spektrix API, these partners can automate the pricing adjustment process, minimizing manual labor and maximizing revenue potential.

Working in dynamic pricing since 2000, Digonex offers automated and customized solutions developed by Ph.D. economists.

DynamO’s software-controlled pricing can respond to demand in near real-time with automatic, demand-supply-based pricing.

Vatic supports patron-driven pricing by analyzing buying behavior and daily sales trends.

Get Started with a Dynamic Pricing Partner