by Jennifer Brisman, Founder and CEO of VOW
There was a time when the height of live music entertainment was charmingly straightforward. It was a group of friends piling into a Chevy Nova and hitting the venue hours before a show to buy general admission tickets at the door. It was thousands of young people dancing in a muddy field in eastern New York.
But it was also before music lovers had much choice, when comfort, convenience and special attractions or incentives at a concert or festival were even an option, let alone an expectation.
Birth Of The VIP Experience
As artists and venues evolved to appeal to a wider audience of live music fans and to explore new revenue streams through premium offerings, the VIP experience was born. Increasingly, special concessions, private lounges and exclusive merchandise were added to the mix, often packaged as a premium upgrade. Some of these benefits and amenities have even become part of the general audience experience over time, raising the standard of a night out for the typical concert goer.
But we’ve arrived at a new period in live music entertainment. With the general employment landscape changing, numerous industries are undergoing shifts driven by technological advances – including the mere anticipation of artificial intelligence. Many young adults – the demographic that makes up the largest percentage of live music attendees – face futures of greater uncertainty and less disposable income. And for an industry that has become overwhelmingly dependent on live shows, in-venue sales and – yes – premium VIP experiences and add-ons, that’s a conundrum.
+Read more: "Ethel Cain's 4-Night Run in Melbourne Taught Me About Deep Fan Connection"
Why the VIP Experience Must Change Now
The Great AI Employment Scare isn’t just theoretical. Data suggests an entire generation of new job prospects may be facing a shortage of opportunities. A graduate employability report from Cengage conducted last summer found that only 30 percent of 2025 graduates said they had secured a full-time job in their field at the time, and that only 41 percent of the previous year’s graduating class said they had done so.
Those numbers, then, represent not just a looming economic challenge but also a threat to the livelihoods of artists, musicians and other live performers, as well as the staff and infrastructure that support them.
Yet as we saw during the pandemic, while millions found themselves out of work or otherwise financially pressed, the urge to gather, seek entertainment and inspiration, and share a moment of human expression never waned. If anything, it grew. That raises some key questions about how live music providers will respond. What will be the level of concerted effort to fill seats at stadiums? How will festivals, in particular, be affected? Will price points be lowered? Will artists suddenly find themselves in greater competition for fan loyalty? And how will all of this affect the VIP experience?
"Revenue models can be expected to flip from bottom-up to top-down."
Most likely, as the music industry finds its profits slashed by these factors in the coming months and years, the VIP experience – despite its association with a premium price point – will actually become a bigger, not smaller consideration for artists and venues. Revenue models can be expected to flip from bottom-up to top-down. Identifying sponsorship opportunities and developing deeper, more creative relationships with partners will become more important than ever, and one of the related components that will come under the most scrutiny will be VIP experiences.
+Read more: "How To Create A Fans First Concert Industry"
A New Approach to Building the Live Music VIP Experience
Even now, there is no one-size-fits-all VIP experience that “works” for every artist, venue and show type. The amenities and inclusions that matter to purchasers of a VIP package for a Foo Fighters concert are likely very different from those at a Taylor Swift show. And as finances become leaner for the average concert goer in the near future, a deep discovery process will be necessary for artists, agencies and venues alike to learn the top priorities and preferences of the audience.
That figures to be a two-pronged approach: 1) the breaking down of barriers between bands and fans an 2) smarter data targeting and loyalty driven revenue collection.
Artists are going to have to become their own CMOs and CTOs, taking even greater part not only in product creation and delivery but also in learning consumer behavior and harvesting critical data. POS and email data are no longer enough.
"curate the end-user relationship... shrinking the distance between their fans and themselves."
The entertainers that will thrive in the days ahead will be those that best manage and curate the end-user relationship, removing layers and shrinking the distance between their fans and themselves. Whether they include travel-and-hotel packages, exclusive merch, invites to special performances and meet-and-greets, the artists will need to play a central role in determining what their fans’ ideal VIP experiences look like in the future.
"a seat at a concert is no longer just a seat"
It’s inevitable that the business model of concerts is going to shift toward VIP and premium experiences making up a much greater percentage of P&L. A seat at a concert is no longer just a seat. But it will be the obligation of artists, in addition to agencies, venues and other involved parties, to test out new tactics, connect with and listen to fans, collect more meaningful data and synthesize it all to deliver experiences that are truly valuable.
Jennifer Brisman is the founder and CEO of VOW, the first-of-its-kind platform transforming how the world plans and experiences live events. Drawing on more than two decades as an event industry expert, Jennifer has orchestrated hundreds of high-profile experiences and seen firsthand the fragmentation, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities that plague the industry. With VOW, she has built the first true OS for live experiences, a B2B2VIP enterprise solution that unifies logistics, data, stakeholders, and audiences into one intelligent, coordinated system.
