$11 tix at Opera Philadelphia: Revolutionary or risky?
Opera Philadelphia’s recent decision to introduce a pay-what-you-can model, with tickets starting at $11, has generated considerable buzz over the past week.
Spearheaded by visionary countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, their new General Director and President, this new initiative has been praised for its potential to attract new audiences by making opera more accessible.
Within 48 hours, Opera Philadelphia sold nearly 6,000 tickets—4,539 of them at the $11 level, and two-thirds of them new-to-file ticket buyers. Plus, 440 patrons added a voluntary donation to their purchase.
This bold move prompts several questions: Is this momentum sustainable? Is it a short-lived response to the novelty of the movie-ticket level price? Can they bridge the gap in earned revenue through contributed revenue for the foreseeable future? Will they encounter pressure to align programming with funders’ priorities?
The answers to these questions may lie in how well Opera Philadelphia can align its offerings with the real-life needs of its audience. As we’ll explore, simply lowering prices won’t suffice if potential audiences can’t see how opera fits into their lives. Sustainable success will depend on Opera Philadelphia's ability to create and communicate relevance, ensuring their offerings resonate deeply with both new and existing patrons.
Ticket cost isn’t a barrier for everyone
Providing accessible tickets for economically disadvantaged consumers is an essential part of any arts organization’s mission. But, when evaluating a new strategy, it is crucial to ensure that it’s addressing the root cause of a problem rather than just the symptoms.
Because, contrary to popular belief, not all consumers are sitting at home watching Netflix. People are getting out of the house, and they are spending money:
Four years after the pandemic, demand for pop concerts and sporting events has surged back. Sales for the biggest pop concerts are up 65% from 2019. All four major sports leagues had bigger attendance in their most recent season than they did in 2019. Even U.S. movie revenue has increased 300% since the height of the pandemic.
Consumers are spending an average of $131 on touring concert tickets, an average of $158 on professional sporting event tickets, and upwards of $40 for a movie date (when you toss in the popcorn and Diet Cokes.)
In contrast, many arts organizations are still facing significant challenges regaining their pre-pandemic audience base. According to IMPACTS Experience, performing arts organizations are projected to reach just 85.6% of their 2019 attendance this year.
It’s evident that Americans (at least the ones with purchasing power) are seeing less and less relevance in arts and culture offerings.
But lower prices alone won’t bridge the gap if potential audiences can’t see how opera aligns with their real life needs. As customer centricity expert Jay Baer says, “Relevancy creates time; relevancy creates attention.”
And let’s be clear: Relevance is not about price. It’s about perceived value. Specifically, it’s about value from the customer’s point of view—not the organization’s.
Tackling the root cause of audience decline
As Clayton Christensen stressed in Competing Against Luck: People don’t buy products; people buy outcomes. What's relevant for the consumer are the products (and the marketing) that promise an outcome the consumer is seeking.
In fact, when a customer finds a product that effectively helps them solve a struggle, meet a need, or reach an aspiration, wrote Christensen, “They don’t resent the price—they’re grateful for the solution.”
What does this mean for the arts sector? If a concert isn’t seen as relevant, even free tickets may not be enough to compel attendance. On the flip side, when an offering effectively meets their needs, they may actually be willing to pay premium prices.
In short: Perceived lack of relevance is the root cause of audience decline. The solution? Find out what outcomes our target audiences are seeking.
If those needs aren’t being met—or if the marketing isn’t showing how the offering is relevant to them—then lowering the ticket price alone won’t solve the need for a growing, loyal audience base. It won’t automatically make the opera experience more relevant.
A lower ticket price doesn’t automatically make opera more accessible either. Why? Without a strategy that helps your target audiences see how relevant your offerings are to the outcomes they seek—you won’t be able to convince them that your offerings are for them. That it’s worth their time. That they fit in. That they are welcome.
But if we can tie our offerings to customer needs, we have a much better shot.
Long-term, sustained audience growth requires a deep understanding of what your audience values and consistent efforts to align your offerings with those values.
It’s an iterative process, which I cover in depth in my six week course, Audience Alchemy, designed to help arts leaders align their offerings and marketing with what audiences truly value: outcomes that improve their lives.
Conclusion
Opera Philadelphia’s $11 ticket model is a bold experiment in making opera more accessible. But the long-term success of any innovation in our sector depends on more than just affordability.
By embracing the principles of customer centricity, we can ensure that we’re not just lowering financial barriers—but also creating experiences and marketing that attract and retain a diverse audience by being deeply relevant to their lives.
Framing arts and culture offerings from the customer’s perspective of value does not diminish the intrinsic value of the art form itself. Rather, it’s a strategy to ensure that—in today’s noisy and stressful world—more people can benefit from its transformative power.