Michelle Plant, Ticketmaster UK's VP, marketing, has told Music Week that the music industry can rely on the company as the live sector emerges from the Covid pandemic. 

Ticketmaster UK came out victorious in the Ticketing Company category, which returned to the Music Week Awards for the first time since 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company held off competition from Ents24, Event Genius, Eventim, Skiddle and Twickets.

See Tickets took the trophy two years ago, but this year Ticketmaster reigned supreme for the first time since 2017. Plant delivered a passionate speech after accepting the award, calling the victory a “fantastic surprise” and saying, “We’re all pleased to be back to live music finally, after almost two-and-a-half years”.

Backstage, surrounded by a jubilant team, Plant told Music Week that Ticketmaster has been able to support its artist and festival clients, alongside the rest of the industry, during the pandemic.

“We’ve still had events going on sale throughout,” Plant said. “We’ve seen from all the traffic coming onto our site that everyone couldn’t wait to get back out to live shows. We have kept engaging with our fans all the time and making them aware of all the great events they can come and see, not just this year, but next year as well.”

Over the course of 2021, Ticketmaster helped more than half a million people gain entry to a range of festivals including Creamfields and Wilderness, and rolled out fully digital ticketing for Reading & Leeds. The company also launched Smart Help, a new customer support service.

Plant said that the industry can “rely on” Ticketmaster and the relationships its staff have across the business.

“We’re really good at what we do, we’ve got fantastic clients and great people working with us day-to-day all around the country,” she said. “We’re really excited that everyone loves live entertainment and everyone loves Ticketmaster.”

Finally, Plant paid tribute to her team. 

“It’s not just about our clients, the team make this happen, they make it worthwhile coming to work every single day,” said Plant.

After Ticketmaster won this category in 2017, Eventim took the crown in 2018 and Twickets won in 2019.

Earlier this year, Ticketmaster announced a live music discovery partnership with Snapchat. The business has also opened offices in South Africa. 

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