August 29, 2024 – JCA Performing Arts, a division of JCA that helps arts and cultural organizations leverage data-driven insights to grow audiences and revenue, recently released a new study on Trends in Audience Behavior: What’s Up in 2024?
JCA Performing Arts analyzed ticket sales and audience trends from performing arts organizations around the United States to see how the 2023-24 season performed relative to previous seasons.
Data for the study was gathered from 21 major organizations in different U.S. regions, including eight theatre companies, six music organizations, three opera companies, three performing arts centers (PACs), and one dance company. The analysis compares ticket sales and audience trends for 2023-24 to past seasons in 2018-19, 2019-20, 2021-22, and 2022-23.
New this year, JCA partnered with True Tickets to study the impact of individuals who attend shows with ticket buyers, known as shadow audiences.
Key findings include:
- Ticket sales have nearly rebounded, but income has not. Performing arts organizations are close to making a full rebound in terms of the number of tickets sold during a season. However, income is lagging significantly behind pre-pandemic levels, especially when accounting for inflation.
- There are more people, buying less. Although annual ticket sales for 2023-24 are 88% of pre-pandemic levels (2018-19), the number of constituents (ticket buyers) has increased to 103% compared to 2018-19. This indicates that each constituent, on average, is buying fewer tickets annually than they would have pre-pandemic.
- More than half of the audience for most organizations is new each year—but there is also an increasing number of returning audience members. A major post-pandemic goal across the industry was to replace audience members who lapsed during the pandemic, and this goal has been achieved. Additionally, there has been a rise in returning audience members since the pandemic.
“It’s great to see that the number of unique audience members in our venues has rebounded,” said Jamie Alexander, Director of Strategy & Insights and co-author of the study, “the challenge now is to encourage those individuals to attend more and buy more to make up for continued income shortfalls.”
The full study can be found here.
###
JCA (Jacobson Consulting Applications, Inc.) is the first and foremost independent consulting firm dedicated solely to the technical and operational needs of nonprofits. Our mission is to enhance the core information systems and processes at nonprofit organizations and arts and cultural venues. We elevate our clients’ information acumen, allowing them to make data-driven decisions to increase revenue, optimize operations, and build lasting relationships with their target audiences. The combination of deep expertise, the resources to deliver a complete solution, and the vision to innovate, makes JCA exceptional. Learn more at jcainc.com.
JCA Performing Arts, a division of JCA, helps performing arts organizations build data-backed intelligence and translate it into revenue-generating and audience-building strategies. Institutions served include dance companies, opera companies, performing arts centers, symphonies, and theatres. Learn more at jcainc.com/performing-arts.