The platform is building around event discovery, audience data and organiser tools, with its AI-led discovery product Shadow at the centre of its consumer offering
For most ticketing platforms, the transaction is the end point. For Varun Khare, CEO of thumpN, it is where the relationship begins.
In a conversation with Music Plus, Khare outlined the platform’s approach to live entertainment, which goes beyond selling tickets to focus on how audiences discover events and how organisers understand their customers.
That approach is reflected in one of thumpN’s biggest decisions. Unlike several players in the ticketing market, the company does not intend to produce or promote its own events.
Khare says the reason is straightforward. A platform that also owns event inventory risks competing with the organisers it is supposed to serve. thumpN instead positions itself as “neutral infrastructure”, with its role extending into audience data, marketing tools and discovery.
From ticket transactions to discovery
Khare believes there is a gap between how audiences currently discover events and how ticketing platforms have traditionally approached discovery.
Audiences already find events through Instagram, social feeds, WhatsApp groups, word of mouth and recommendation algorithms. Rather than trying to replace those channels, thumpN uses these behaviours as signals to understand what audiences might be interested in.
That thinking sits behind Shadow, its AI-powered discovery layer.
Rather than asking new users to search through a catalogue, Shadow starts by asking about their tastes, the artists they have seen live, who they attend shows with and what kind of experience they are looking for. Users can also indicate preferences through an in-app feature called Love/Like/Curious.
The early numbers are notable. thumpN says more than 100,000 users signed up in its first few weeks, while more than 250,000 conversations have taken place through Shadow. It also says over 40% of registered users have engaged with the feature and more than 150,000 event cards have been discovered through its various surfaces.
Those figures indicate early usage, but they don’t by themselves establish whether discovery is translating into ticket purchases or repeat attendance. That distinction will become increasingly important as thumpN moves beyond its initial launch period.
A changing live audience
One of Khare’s observations from the platform’s early activity is that audiences are going out across a wider range of formats, from arena shows to smaller events.
He believes the growth of more niche and community-driven experiences is changing how people discover live entertainment. That has influenced thumpN’s decision to move away from conventional search towards a conversational model, where users can describe what they are looking for rather than simply search for a particular artist or event.
There is a wider industry question here. As India’s live entertainment market expands, the challenge may not simply be creating more events, but helping audiences navigate an increasingly crowded supply of them.
For organisers, the same problem exists from the other side. Getting an audience to an event increasingly requires understanding where potential attendees are coming from, what they respond to and what else they attend.
Khare says thumpN wants information from the ticketing process to feed back into those decisions, rather than ending with the transaction. The company plans to share audience patterns, discovery insights and benchmarks with organisers so they can use that information for future events.
What All About Music X showed the platform
ThumpN’s first event partnership with All About Music X provided a different test of the platform.
The audience for AAM X was largely made up of music industry professionals, rather than a general concert-going audience. For him, the partnership also reinforced the idea that ticketing can involve more than processing purchases.
Khare says thumpN’s team works alongside organisers on areas including project management, ticketing and audience strategy, drawing on experience across promotions, production, artists, brands and venues.
That is an important distinction in an increasingly competitive ticketing market. Platforms are no longer competing only on the ability to process transactions. Discovery, customer data, marketing and organiser services are becoming part of the wider proposition.
What’s next for thumpN?
The company says it is now working on further developments across product features, discovery, ticketing and the consumer experience, alongside tools and insights for organisers.
The opportunity for thumpN lies in bringing these pieces together. If discovery can lead audiences to the right events, and the resulting data can help organisers better understand demand, the platform could play a role beyond ticketing.
That broader proposition is still taking shape, but it points to where thumpN sees its place in India’s growing live entertainment ecosystem.
