Poll Star

What Poll Star does

Pollstar is a Fresno, California-based B2B data provider and trade publication serving the global live entertainment industry, founded in 1981 and operating for over 40 years. The company delivers authoritative concert boxoffice data, tour histories, artist and venue information, and industry contact databases to artists, artist managers, venues, promoters, agents, and broader live entertainment professionals worldwide. Pollstar positions itself as the "Voice of Live" and serves as the industry-standard reference for boxoffice reporting and tour performance benchmarking.

The company's core technology is the Pollstar Data Cloud, a database platform covering boxoffice and Route Book data for over 319,000 artists from shows performed 1999 to present, enabling subscribers to search, filter, and build custom reports. Supporting products include the Global Live Boxoffice (30-day rolling ticketing data with tickets sold, gross revenue, and sell-through percentages), Artist & Venue Tour Histories, Artist Availability and Venue Availability matching tools, and a searchable Company Directory of industry contacts. Pollstar also publishes weekly industry-standard benchmark charts — the Artist Power Index, Concert Pulse, and Live 75 — that function as reference performance indicators across the live entertainment sector.

Revenue is generated through a tiered subscription model comprising a Base Subscription, Pollstar Premium Weekly (a premium content tier), and an Ultimate Subscription that unlocks Data Cloud access and the full industry contact database. The company employs 51-100 people and distributes through direct website subscriptions supplemented by an enterprise field sales motion (Schedule Demo and Request a Free Demo CTAs). The customer base is horizontally segmented across artists/management, venues/promoters, and broader live entertainment professionals, and Pollstar's data is further distributed through the Route Book ecosystem shared with millions of consumers and worldwide data partners.

Name

Poll Star

Legal name

Pollstar

Website

https://pollstar.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1981

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Pollstar is a 40+ year-old B2B data subscription platform serving the global live entertainment industry with concert boxoffice data, tour histories, and industry contact databases covering 319,000+ artists from 1999-present.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Live Entertainment Industry Data & Analytics

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)

SIC

Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)

akta.pro primary industry

Media & Audience Measurement Analytics (BPAHALAO)

Keywords

• Concert boxoffice data
• Live entertainment analytics
• Tour history database
• Artist venue availability
• Industry contact directory

Headquarters

HQ city

Fresno

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Subscription Services: Pollstar operates primarily on a subscription-based model with multiple tiers including a base subscription and an Ultimate Subscription package that includes Data Cloud access. Customers pay recurring subscription fees for access to boxoffice data, tour histories, and industry contact databases.
2. Premium Weekly Content: Pollstar Premium Weekly provides exclusive industry knowledge, detailed concert data, and venue information available only to subscribers, representing an upsell tier within the subscription model.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Pollstar is a subscription-based live entertainment industry data platform that provides comprehensive concert boxoffice, Route Book, and tour history data covering 319,000+ artists from 1999 to present. Its core offering is the Pollstar Data Cloud within the Ultimate Subscription tier, which enables subscribers to search, filter, build custom reports, and access the Live Entertainment Industry Contact database, complemented by Global Live Boxoffice tracking, Artist and Venue Availability matching tools, weekly industry charts (Artist Power Index, Concert Pulse, Live 75), and a Premium Weekly insight subscription.

Product overview

Pollstar is a live entertainment industry data platform offering a unified portfolio of data products and subscriptions. The core offerings include Pollstar Data Cloud (an Ultimate Subscription tier enabling search, filtering, and custom reporting on concert Boxoffice and Route Book data from 1999-present, plus access to the Live Entertainment Industry Contact database), Global Live Boxoffice (30-day recent data on tickets sold and gross revenue), Artist & Venue Tour Histories (self-service event and boxoffice data), Artist Availability Tool (genre and sales-based artist matching), Venue Availability Tool (capacity and type-based venue search), Company Directory (industry contact database), and weekly Pollstar Charts (Artist Power Index, Concert Pulse, Live 75). Additional subscription offerings include Pollstar Premium Weekly for exclusive industry insights.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Pollstar Data Cloud Cloud-based subscription tool within the Ultimate Subscription tier that allows users to search, view, filter, and build custom reports based on concert Boxoffice and Route Book data from shows performed from 1999-present, and unlocks the Live Entertainment Industry Contact database for viewing, filtering, and downloading.
• Global Live Boxoffice Continuously updated database showing the most recently published boxoffice data within the past 30 days, including tickets sold, gross revenue, and percentage sold metrics for live events.
• Artist and Venue Tour Histories Provides self-service event and boxoffice data for artists and venues, giving subscribers comprehensive historical tour information to support deal negotiation leverage in the modern concert marketplace.
• Artist Availability Tool Matching tool that helps venue operators find artists suitable for their location based on genre, past crowd sizes, ticket sales, and box office revenue performance.
• Venue Availability Tool Search tool to find open venues for artists using filters for minimum and maximum capacity and venue type parameters.
• Company Directory Searchable directory of live entertainment industry companies that can be filtered by company type and location to find relevant business contacts and opportunities.
• Pollstar Charts Weekly published charts including the Artist Power Index, Concert Pulse, and Live 75, based on reported boxoffice numbers showing industry performance, trends, and which artists are generating revenue.
• Pollstar Premium Weekly Premium subscription service providing exclusive industry knowledge, detailed concert data, venue information, and weekly insights available only to subscribers.
• Route Book Database Database where promoters and venues add their events to be shared with millions of consumers and worldwide data partners across the live entertainment ecosystem.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 319,000 artists tracked in the database
• +2 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Songkick: Concert tour tracking and discovery service with a sizable artist events database (now Live Nation-owned); overlaps directly with Pollstar's tour history and live event data products and target promoters/agents.
• Bandsintown: Concert discovery and tour data platform that maintains a large artist events database and serves both consumers and industry; competitive with Pollstar's Route Book and Artist Availability products in artist/tour information.
• Chartmetric: Subscription-based music industry analytics platform providing artist, streaming, social, and touring data to industry professionals — directly comparable to Pollstar's B2B data subscription model and target buyer base of managers, labels, and promoters.
• VenuesNow: Trade publication covering the live entertainment venue industry with boxoffice and business intelligence; directly comparable trade-publication model and target audience of venue operators that overlap with Pollstar's venue and promoter subscribers.
• Luminate (formerly BuzzAngle Music): Subscription data and insights provider for the music industry with comparable B2B recurring-revenue model and focus on industry measurement; overlaps with Pollstar in delivering authoritative, paid industry intelligence to entertainment professionals.

Others

• Hypebot: Music industry news and data commentary site focused on the business of music; adjacent information/news player in the same ecosystem that Pollstar serves, often cited alongside Pollstar as a music industry data source.

Emerging players

• Setlist.fm: Crowdsourced concert setlist and tour data platform with a large grassroots data set on live music events; competes with Pollstar in historical concert data coverage and artist tour information.

Broad incumbents

• Live Nation Entertainment: World's largest concert promoter and ticketing operator with proprietary ticket sales and touring data; an incumbent that holds its own boxoffice and tour information, partially substituting for Pollstar's data on its own shows.
• Billboard Pro: Music industry trade publication with charts and Pro subscription tier serving industry decision-makers; comparable trade-publication-plus-data hybrid model and overlapping target buyers in labels, managers, and promoters.
• Variety Intelligence Platform: Subscription data and business intelligence arm of Variety covering the broader entertainment industry; overlaps with Pollstar in delivering paid B2B industry intelligence, but serves a wider (film/TV/media) buyer base.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/pollstar
• Facebookfacebook.com/pollstar
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/pollstar

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Poll Star