DICE Wants Music Ticketing To Be Less Transactional, More Fan-Focused

DICE president Russ Tannen moved to New York City in 2021 amid the pandemic with one lofty goal: grow the music ticketing platform’s business inside the competitive United States market. If that wasn’t challenging enough, this was all while live musical shows were still hard to come by. More than a year later, DICE is still in growth mode, not only in the US but with aspirations for other international markets too.

Russ was a day-one employee of DICE when it started in 2013 in Europe. What separated the platform then — and to this day — is its laser focus on the music fan. Unlike its major competitors, DICE is as much a discovery platform as a point-of-sale. Using the app’s own internal data, fans are recommended local shows to attend.

The recommendation system was created with the intent of improving the live music-going experience for fans. This same reason is also why the ticket price you see on DICE is the final price, no extra fees added at check-out. DICE tickets also can’t be resold outside of its app, ensuring true fans, not ticket scalpers, will have first access to see their favorite artists.

Russ joined me on the show to discuss the inner workings of DICE, from the app’s unique benefits for fans, artists, and venues alike to its overarching growth strategy. Here’s everything we covered:

0:33 DICE entering the US market amid pandemic
5:45 Competing against other ticketing platforms
10:04 Re-wiring consumer behavior around attending events
14:10 Prior partnership with Kanye West
15:15 Has there been any artist pushback?
17:22 Showing ticket price upfront, not at checkout
20:44 How DICE deals with ticket-buying bots
23:01 DICE’s investment in data science is paying off
31:00 Partnering with Ice Spice
33:20 Early signals that an artist is on the rise
35:30 Correlation between social media and streaming numbers on ticket sales
38:30 Differences in ticketing in US vs. other markets
41:44 Sales strategies for low-demand shows
45:08 DICE’s plans to tap more into Latin music market
49:45 Expansion is DICE’s primary focus in 2023

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