POLAND Language: Polish | Population (millions): 38.6 Currency: Złoty/Euro | GDP/Capita (US$): 26,500 Internet Users (millions): 26.2 | Active Smartphones (millions): 24.2 Live music market 2015 (US$m): 190 | Projected live music market 2020 (US$m): 186
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oland has recently been enjoying a resurgence of disco polo, a genre that cannot be explained, but has to be experienced (check out YouTube). The genre experienced a boom in the 90s, and seems to be back, attracting up to 60,000 people to a single show. PRIMARY TICKETING The maket leader is eBilet. Marcin Matuszewski claims his company has a 35% market share, which he attributes largely to the fact that eBilet is an independent Polish company that knows the market and its needs inside out. Matuszewski puts Eventim second with around 22%, followed by Ticketpro (17%), Ticketmaster (6%), and “plenty of small companies” including Slovak outfit Ticketportal, which is steadily growing its Polish business. DISTRIBUTION OF SALES Online is the most important sales channel in Poland, with mobile becoming an increasingly important point of sale. According to Matuszewski, 40% of eBilet’s traffic already derives from mobile devices. “Box office sales are slowly diminishing by
David Gilmour began the European leg of his 2016 Rattle That Lock tour in Wrocław’s Freedom Square
the year,” he adds. According to Ticketmaster: “[their] online sales make up the bulk, with outlets the majority of the remainder.” Matuszewski reports that a third of the tickets sold through eBilet are print-at-home, and estimates that the overall market value is PLN600m (€138m), PLN500m (€116m) of which is generated online. The promoter cites the average ticket price as €17. Ticketmaster contends that, “paper tickets represent the vast majority, with print-at-home accounting for nearly a third of the tickets we sell.” The company estimates the overall value of the Polish ticket market at “up to 3.5m tickets” based on the information it gets from promoters. Mateusz Cwalina is sales manager for Stodola, a company that operates as a concert promoter, has its own ticketing system and runs a venue by the same name. In the year 2015/2016, of the 110 shows that took place in the Warsaw club, around 75% featured national acts. While Klub Stodola cooperates with the major companies, Eventim, eBilet and Ticketpro, it also uses its own ticket-selling system and box office at the venue. “A large number of tickets sold for concerts in Stodola come from our system. We offer our customers collector tickets so depending on the concert we have 15-25% of tickets sold at the box office, with the remainder sold online,” Cwalina says, adding that mobile tickets are becoming increasingly popular, confirming the overall trend. INTERNATIONAL/DOMESTIC SPLITS AND GENRES Rock/pop is easily the most popular genre in Poland, with classical music bringing up the rear, at least for Ticketmaster, where the genre represents around 10% of sales. The Polish live music market is dominated by local artists, at least in terms of volume of shows. Matuszewski confirms this, stating that his gut feeling tells him that, as far as quantity is concerned, the majority of tickets are sold for Polish acts, but that international acts generate more turnover. This is confirmed by Ticketmaster, which reports that just one quarter of the share is international, with national making up the majority. SECONDARY TICKETING The secondary market is still in early development. “I don’t have sales numbers, but they’re not huge. We do not feel it in any way,” Matuszewski says. The same goes for RFID or cashless offerings that have yet to enter the market. TAXES AND CHARGES VAT is 8% and the authors’ society rate of 7-10% is “the highest in Europe,” according to Matuszewski, who adds: “We sometimes add service charge (1-3 %), everything depends on the deal with the promoter.” According to Ticketmaster, “typically around 5-8%” booking and administration fees are added.
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