The Ticket Fairy is techs best hope against Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster’s dominance has led to big service fees, scalpers galore and exclusive contracts that some people argue exploit venues and artists. The approval of venue operator and artist handling giant Live Nation’s merger with Ticketmaster in 2010 grown an anti-competitive juggernaut. The Department of Justice is reviewing charges brought by Ticketmaster’s biggest competitor AEG that it pressures venues to sign ticketing contracts under veiled menace that artists would otherwise be routed to different concert halls. Given its ubiquity, it’s become difficult for venues, artists and followers to avoid Ticketmaster, which costs fees as high as 50% that some consider unfair.
The Ticket Fairy had wished to wrestling away domination of venues from Ticketmaster while committing followers ways to earn tickets for pertaining their friends. The startup is attempting to do this by offering a technologically advanced ticketing platform that is not merely handles sales and check-ins, but acts as a full-stack Salesforce for concerts that can analyze purchasers and run advertising campaign while thwarting scalpers. Co-founder Ritesh Patel says The Ticket Fairy has increased revenue for event organizers by 15% to 25% during its private beta focused on dance music festivals.
Now after 850,000 tickets sold, it’s officially launching its ticketing suite and actively poaching venues from Eventbrite as it moves deeper into esports and conventions. With a little more scale, it will be ready to challenge Ticketmaster for lucrative clients.
Ritesh’s combination of product and engineering knowledge, rapid progress and charismatic passion for live events after throwing 400 of his own has attracted an impressive cadre of angel investors. They’ve delivered a $2.5 million seed round for Ticket Fairy, adding to its $485,000 pre-seed from angels like Twitch/ Atrium founder Justin Kan, Twitch COO Kevin Lin and Reddit CEO Steve Huffman.
The brand-new round includes YouTube founder Steve Chen, former Kleiner Perkins partner( and Mark’s sister) Arielle Zuckerberg and monies like 500 Startups, ex-Uber angels Fantastic Ventures, G2 Ventures, Tempo Ventures and WeFunder. It’s also scored music industry angels like Serato DJ hardware CEO AJ Bertenshaw, Spotify’s head of label licensing Niklas Lundberg, and celebrity lawyer Ken Hertz, who reps Will Smith and Gwen Stefani.
” The aims of starting The Ticket Fairy was not to be another Eventbrite, but to reduce the risk of the person running the event so they can be profitable. We’re not just another shopping cart ,” Patel says. The Ticket Fairy charges a comparable rate to Eventbrite’s $ 1.59+ 3.5% per ticket plus pay processing that delivers it closer to 6 %, but Patel insists it offers far stronger functionality.
Constantly clad in his golden disco hoodie over a Ticket Fairy t-shirt, Patel lives his product, spend late nights dancing and taking feedback at the events his patrons host. He’s been a savior of SXSW the past two years, administering the aging festival that shuts down at 2am with multi-night after-hours raves. Featuring top DJs like Pretty Lights in creative locations cab drivers don’t believe are real, The Ticket Fairy’s parties have won the hearts of music industry folks.
The Ticket Fairy co-founders. Center and inset left: Ritesh Patel. Inset right: Jigar Patel
Now the Y Combinator startup hopes its ticketing platform will do the same thanks to a slew of savvy features 😛 TAGEND
Earn A Ticket- The Ticket Fairy supercharges word of mouth marketing with a referral structure that lets followers get a rebate or full-free ticket if they get enough pals to buy a ticket. Indeed, 30% of ticket customers are now sharing a Ticket Fairy referral connection, and Patel says the return on investment is $30 in revenue for each$ 1 paid under in rewards, with 10% to 25% of all ticket marketings coming from referrals. A public leaderboard further encourages referrals, with those at the top eligible for backstage extends, free merch and barroom tabs. And to prevent mass spamming, simply buyers, spouses and street teamers get a referral code.
– The Ticket Fairy supercharges word of mouth marketing with a referral system that lets fans get a rebate or full-free ticket if they get enough pals to buy a ticket. Indeed, 30% of ticket buyers are now sharing a Ticket Fairy referral associate, and Patel says the return on investment is $30 in revenue for each$ 1 paid under in rewards, with 10% to 25% of all ticket marketings coming from referrals. A public leaderboard further encourages referrals, with those at the top eligible for backstage passes, free merch and bar tabs. And to prevent mass spamming, simply purchasers, partners and street teamers get a referral code. Creative Payment Options – The startup offers “FreeFund” tickets free of charge occurrences that otherwise meet massive no-show rates. Customers pay a small deposit that’s refunded when they scan their ticket for enter, deterring RSVPs from all the persons who won’t come. Purchasers can also pay on layaway with Affirm or LayBuy and then earn a ticket before their obligation is due.
– The startup offers “FreeFund” tickets for free occurrences that otherwise realise big no-show rates. Customers pay a small deposit that’s refunded when they scan their ticket for entryway, discouraging RSVPs from all the persons who won’t come. Buyers can also be used pay on layaway with Affirm or LayBuy and then earn a ticket before their indebtednes is due. Anti-Scalping – The Ticket Fairy offers identity-locked tickets that must be presented with the buyer’s ID on advent, which intends patrons can’t scalp them. Instead, the startup offers a waitlist for sold-out occurrences, and buyers can sell their tickets back to the company, which then redistributes them to a particular friend or whoever’s at the top of the waitlist at face value with a new QR code. Patel says client SunAndBass Festival hasn’t had a scalped ticket in five years of working with the ticketer.
– The Ticket Fairy offers identity-locked tickets that must be presented with the buyer’s ID on reaching, which necessitates customers can’t scalp them. Instead, the startup offers a waitlist for sold-out occurrences, and buyers can sell their tickets back to the company, which then redistributes them to a particular friend or whoever’s at the top of the waitlist at face value with a new QR code. Patel says patron SunAndBass Festival hasn’t had a scalped ticket in five years of working with the ticketer. Clever Analytics– Never wasting an opportunity, The Ticket Fairy lets events compile contact info and challenge before ticket sales start with its pre-registration system. It can create multiple variants of ticketing locates designed for different demographics, like stone versus dance followers for a celebration, racetrack marketings and demographics in real hour and relay instant stats about check-ins at the door. Integration of email directors like Mailchimp and sales pixels like Facebook plus the capacity needed to instantly retarget people who vacated their browse via Facebook Custom Audience ads stirs marketing easier. And all the metrics, budgets and overheads are automatically organized into financial reports to eliminate spreadsheet busywork.
Posted by dj0pium- Posted in DJ News
Jun, 09, 2019
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