Lollapalooza, Boomtown & Wacken As Proof: TagMix Helps Festivals Sell Tickets Faster

Back in March, Pollstar first took a look at the technology of TagMix, which allows artists, festivals, and venues to create high-impact live marketing content.

High impact, because the engineers behind TagMix found a way to match the high-quality audio coming out of a show’s mixing desk with the video content captured of the show. It follows that videos appearing online receive the audio quality intended by the artist, as opposed to a plethora of bad-sounding user-generated content ending up on the internet post show.

Content producers for festivals, artists, and venues can capture and post broadcast-quality content in the moment, while the artist is still on-stage. “This has a significant impact on the algorithms, as they favor ‘fresh’ content (rather than yesterday’s), and good quality sound,” TagMix COO explained, adding, “having both results in significantly higher-performing social media posts in terms of the reach, engagement and residual ticket sales generated.

“It also makes the artists likely to share the festival’s content to their own audiences, further multiplying the exposure, and generates vast amounts of FOMO from people outside the festival wishing they’d bought a ticket and vowing to be first-in-line for one to the next edition.”

Several festivals have started using TagMix for the first time last year, including Lollapalooza in the U.S., Boomtown, and Truck in the UK, or Wacken Open Air in Germany, and they’ve all announced their fastest-ever ticket sell-outs this year.

Remarkable results in times when many festivals especially are struggling in the post-pandemic economy.

Lollapalooza for instance, announced a 74% increase (over 141,000 new followers) in its TikTok audience during the four days of its 2024 edition “after shifting to a real-time content model that featured TagMix,” a press release from TagMix states, adding, “the festival subsequently sold-out in under one hour when tickets went on sale earlier this year.”

Audiences crave real-time content immediately these days. Combined with broadcast-quality audio, a combination that was not possible before TagMix technology was first released to the industry last year, it makes for genuinely good content.

“This,” the press release continues, “effectively maximises social media algorithm performance, incites artists to share the festivals’ content, and creates powerful Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) for those tuning-in online while the event is underway.”

The positive results mentioned above attracted attention from other festivals, and the company’s client base grew threefold for this year’s festival season. New adopters this summer include Tramlines, Y-Not, and Reggae Land (UK); Open’er (Poland); Electric Love (Austria); Kessel (Germany); and Electric Forest and Austin City Limits (US), with more to be announced over the coming weeks.

TagMix was also deployed at Lollapalooza India (Mumbai), Balad Beast, and 1001 Nights (Saudi Arabia) this year.

Touring artists who’ve used TagMix include Chase & Status, Becky Hill, Fatboy Slim, Pete Tong’s Ibiza Classics, Madness, and The Libertines, and prominent venues such as Ibiza’s Hï, Ushuaïa, UNVRS, Alexandra Palace (London), and The Prospect Building (Bristol).

Andy Dean, TagMix founder and CEO, commented, “We understand the pressures that festivals face, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see our technology genuinely helping event organisers achieve faster sell-outs and deeper audience connections. It’s clear that audiences crave authentic, in-the-moment experiences, and we’re committed to supporting events as they navigate these challenging market conditions. Our goal remains simple: help festivals connect meaningfully with their audiences, creating memorable experiences that resonate and drive growth.”

Clients using TagMix need an app which is available for MacOS and iOS. They drag-and-drop their video clips into the app, and it upgrades the audio quality in a fraction of a second. Here are examples of recent concerts utilizing the tech, including Olivia Rodrigo’s Governors Ball performance in June, and Charli xcx’s performance at Orange Warsaw in Poland in May.

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