Sellout verification protocol

Status and interpretation

Live Index Performance Estimate — not reported box office. This version 1.0.0 protocol defines what Live Index will accept before publishing an estimate; it is not a claim that observations have already been collected or that the protocol has been validated against actual settlements. No estimate rows are released with this document. A method can establish a reproducible decision rule without establishing any particular show’s attendance, gross, sellout status or promoter profit.

What a sellout claim establishes

Sellout is an attributed claim about a defined inventory, event and time. It is not a synonym for maximum physical capacity, paid attendance or a full-price sale of every seat. A performance can sell out its current configuration while unused building sections remain closed. State who made the claim, when, and what inventory they described. An undated promotional label cannot establish a dated outcome for a particular performance.

Evidence hierarchy

• A reported box-office record with paid attendance and defined sellable inventory is the strongest comparison when event identity and scope match. Preserve the source’s definitions rather than correcting them to a preferred vocabulary.
• A dated official promoter or venue sellout announcement supports a company-attributed sellout claim. It does not disclose complimentary attendance, final gross or private deductions unless those quantities are explicitly stated.
• A primary ticketing page saying sold out supports the displayed state at the observation timestamp and under the observed access conditions. Retain its qualification.
• Low visible availability, sold-out resale listings, fan posts and a crowded photograph do not independently verify a sellout. Hold rather than use those signals as a substitute.

Releases after the claim

Additional tickets may appear when production holds are released or a layout changes. Keep the original announcement and later observation with their timestamps; do not erase the earlier claim or declare deception without evidence. A sold-out presale allocation is narrower than a sold-out general sale. Where sources conflict, show the conflict and scope rather than selecting the version that makes the story more dramatic.

Comparability

A count of ticket scans, a sold-ticket count and cumulative festival attendance are different measures. State which one the source reports. Do not use a sellout announcement to calculate gross by multiplying capacity and the highest advertised price. Reconcile against later comparable box-office returns, keeping the announcement separate from the reported quantities. If inventory is undefined, the exact sell-through percentage remains not established. This protocol permits an attributed statement, not an estimate of artist income or promoter profit.

Release gate

Publication requires a dated primary ticket-inventory observation, a venue configuration source, primary price-band evidence, promoter and ticketing evidence, a confidence classification and a record-specific limitations statement. A later reading is a new observation, not an overwrite of the previous state. The pilot remains withheld from search and the sitemap until ten observations individually pass these requirements. Downloads are offered only for real released rows, never for an empty demonstration or synthetic sample. Inventory protocol, capacity protocol and price-band protocol describe different inputs; none substitutes for the others.