The AMT Lab researchers and editorial staff are proud to announce the release of the 2015 Ticketing Software Survey.  After 3 surveys across 6 years, the research team is happy to announce that ticketing software systems are meeting most of the needs faced by arts institutions.  Click here to read the full report.

Yet, there were significant findings concerning differences that correlate with where the organization is located, its budget size or its discipline served. New to this report, a final open-ended question asked what one thing the user would like to see changed and the answers offer a sneak peak for vendors designing for the future.  As in previous years, the document includes suggested considerations and processes for those considering purchasing or changing their system.  

The report is created to be useful for both vendors and institution users.  With over 1000 organizations starting the survey and 802 qualified respondents, the data provides both a broad and deep understanding of ticket systems uses and needs. The chapters 2-5 analyze the data according to features used, perceived importance of features available, and qualities of user behaviors within features. This data is analyzed across geographic, discipline, and budget differences. For the first time, an additional section of questions investigated mobile use provides some of the most interesting news. The data supports findings by the Creative Interactive Digital Marketing study, noting that organizations are increasingly turning to digital and integrating mobile to engage with patrons. The surprising news was the low percentage of transactions actually happening on mobile devices at the end of the marketing tunnel at a mere 7.2%. Furthermore, mobile as a transaction point is 4th in a level of importance with web and phone transactions leading the methods. Clearly mobile is a part of everyday life, but while people are reading, viewing and deciding where and what to consume and engage via their mobile devices most are moving to the website or other modes to make the final purchase. 

This report will allow vendors to better update systems by understanding importance and behaviors attached to features.  Additionally, Chapter 7 outlines the one thing each person surveyed thought needed improvement for the future. 

The report provides institutions and users a practical understanding of opportunities in the use of ticketing software. The report reveals to institutions how they compare to their budget peers, their discipline peers and their geographic peers with respect to use of system and perceived importance of those features. Some will find the future needs a useful tool for generating ideas for their own systems.  Development officers will hopefully find the data of use for grants.  To that end, the report includes all the questions and response data as one of the attached appendices.

This research was significant project for the AMT Lab team.  It would not have been possible without the hard work and support of the following people:  Kathryn Heidemann, Katie Schouten, Stewart Urist, Danielle Gewurz, Jessica Blaise, Christine Sajewski, Kristen Sorek West, Jackie Shimshoni, and Michael Cunningham. Thank you to all and congratulations! 

Brett Ashley Crawford, Ph.D.
Executive Director/Publisher