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When tickets go on sale tomorrow for the April 4 Guster concert at WorkPlay, fans of the popular band will find the online buying experience a bit different. That’s because WorkPlay, Guster, and TicketBiscuit have collaborated to present an “All In Price”. So, when the ads say advance tickets are $25, fans will truly pay only $25 per ticket. The price will be the same whether the fans buy online, over the phone, or in person, and there will be no added fees at checkout.
Why is this significant? The standard industry practice with live entertainment ticketing is to advertise one price, but when ticket buyers go online to purchase, several fees are heaped on to the total. For example, across town from WorkPlay at the larger arena in Birmingham, tickets to a popular upcoming country show are advertised at $27, but after ticketing fees, delivery fees, and order processing fees are added these tickets actually end up costing the buyer almost $20 more per ticket. Fans have long complained that ticketing fees are exorbitant and unnecessary.
The concept of an “All In Price” is not entirely new. Live Nation / Ticketmaster experimented with convenience fee- free tickets during the summer of 2010, but fans complained that the fees were dropped for only the least expensive lawn seats. Ticketmaster announced on a company blog in August 2010 that it would present fees earlier in the purchase process, yet the fees presented don’t include add-ons like ticket delivery and order processing charges.
By contrast, all of the advance tickets for the April 4 Guster show are the “All In Price” of $25, with no added fees or charges at checkout. Prices will be $27 on the day of the show.
“The collaboration of a ticketing company, a venue, and an artist to arrive at a fair price represents a new way of making live entertainment a more pleasurable experience for the fans,” TicketBiscuit CEO Jeff Gale said. Todd Coder, who recently joined TicketBiscuit as the Director of Business Development, added “The process was pretty easy, it just required clear and open communication among all parties, and a bit of willingness to deviate from the way things have always been done. A lot of credit goes to WorkPlay and Guster for helping us make this happen.“
TicketBiscuit plans to use the positive experience with Workplay to make the All In Price more common in live entertainment. We’ve recently launched a website, www.allinprice.org , to share our approach and insights with other venues, artists, and ticketing companies hoping to further the practice. “The fans demand an All In Price for tickets, and if we can give it to them, they will buy more tickets.” Gale said.
Tickets for Guster go on sale at 10 am Wednesday, January 19, at the All-In-Price of $25. They can be purchased at www.workplay.com or over the phone at 205.879.4773.
What a great piece of news heading into the holiday season, and what a great way to set the stage for 2011. We announced today that we’ve secured a round of capital from C&G Capital Partners in Tuscaloosa, AL. Mike Chambers and John Gaffney are the principals of C&G, and in addition to their investment, they’re going to bring a motherlode of insight, advice, and mentorship to our team. To say that Team TicketBiscuit is excited about having these guys on board would be a colossal understatement. Big ‘Biscuit props to Zane and his team over at Founders Investment Banking, and our friends at Goodrich Law Firm for their guidance and help through the process!
Throughout the history of our company, we’ve developed technologies and services to help our clients sell more tickets and operate more profitably. Consider that in the last 24 months alone, we’ve rolled out mobile ticketing, Facebook and Twitter integration, Customizable Print-at-Home tickets, and an Affiliate Program that puts our client’s events on huge industry websites like eventful.com, SongKick, SonicLiving, JamBase, and more.
With this capital, we’re going to continue aggressively investing in technologies and services of this type. We think that’s a smart move – one that will benefit our promoter and venue clients, our investment partners, and live entertainment fans. As Jeff Gale, TicketBiscuit’s CEO, said in the official press release, “ We’ve got an amazing team of developers, industry veterans, and generally brilliant people. And we’re laser-focused on delivering real, innovative solutions to the challenges facing live entertainment ticket sales.” Let’s do this!
More Info:
Birmingham Business Journal: TicketBiscuit Secures Capital Funding
AL.com: Birmingham-Based TicketBiscuit gets Capital Infusion
Official Release from Founders Investment Banking: TicketBiscuit Secures Growth Funding Round
Todd Coder (Image source www.b-Metro.com)
TicketBiscuit is excited to welcome Todd Coder to our team! Todd begins work for TicketBiscuit on November 10 and will be laser-focused on spreading the ‘Biscuit love to the nation’s best music venues.
And Todd knows music. He originally joined WorkPlay as talent buyer in 2006, and has been instrumental in establishing it as one of the top music and entertainment venues in the nation. Consistently voted best music venue in Birmingham by its patrons, Todd introduced an increased frequency of nationally recognized artists to the WorkPlay Theatre and WorkPlay Soundstage. Over the last year, he produced a ton of events outside of WorkPlay, among them the Hangout Beach, Music & Arts Festival, the Concerts for the Coast Series which included Bon Jovi and Brad Paisley, and Back to the Beach 2010 featuring Vince Gill & Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Todd’s new position with TicketBiscuit is part of a unique arrangement that we envision will be mutually beneficial to both TicketBiscuit and WorkPlay. In addition to his role with us, Todd will also continue to book national and regional talent for WorkPlay, while transitioning day-to-day duties to WorkPlay staff. Our CEO, Jeff Gale, explains: “Todd’s renown as a music industry expert and extensive network will unlock opportunities for TicketBiscuit to gain new marquee clients, and TicketBiscuit’s reputation and resources will help Todd establish new relationships and bring more national talent to Birmingham at WorkPlay. Everybody wins, especially Birmingham.”
Drop Todd a line at tcoder@ticketbiscuit.com .
Wow. While doing a little morning web surfing today I watched as one of our ticketing competitors crashed during a high demand onsale. The drama unfolded on Twitter as legions of angry fans cried FAIL. It reminded me of the Live Nation / Phish disaster from last year, though this appeared to be a much smaller event.
The fact of the matter is, there are very few ticketing providers that can handle extreme ticket demand. We’re proud to say that we’re one of them, as recently proven by our management of the ticketing for Garth Brooks’ Benefit Concert for the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, which took place yesterday (Sunday, August 1).The Sun Valley Summer Symphony entrusted TicketBiscuit with this event by allowing us to secure the ticketing rights to the concert in 2009.
The tickets went on sale over a month and a half in advance. We instantly saw demand equal to several times the supply of tickets available, and we sold them all within minutes. That sort of phenomenal spike in demand is difficult to manage, but TicketBiscuit proved our solution has the ability to handle it.
The best part is that we’re able to provide this level of reliability to our clients without a lot of additional cost to them. As demand increases, computing capacity is added via Amazon EC2 in real time. We’re able to bring on an arsenal of additional servers within seconds, and ensure that no ticket buyer has a frustrating experience due to website timeouts. After demand subsides, the solution scales back to normal operating levels. Since we only add capacity when it’s needed, we’re able to provide the capability at a drastically lower price point.
Sun Valley Summer Symphony Executive Director Jennifer Teisinger says,”From the onset [TicketBiscuit] has been fantastic. Not only is their software smart, reliable, and robust, but the service and attention we’ve received throughout the process has been remarkable. I’d recommend them to anyone.
We never stop thinking of cool ways to help our clients sell more tickets. Today, we’re launching the TicketBiscuit Affiliate Program to the general public.
How does it work?
The concept is pretty simple actually – website owners, bloggers, and publishers link to our events from their website or blog, and we pay them commissions on referred ticket sales.
How did we do it?
First, we took our massively cool legion of clients and their ever-expanding multitude of awesome events.
Next, we built an easy, intuitive way for web publishers, bloggers, and site owners to tap into those events.
And finally,we topped it off with a generous commission structure. One that even pays commissions for presale tickets or ticket purchases made within 24 hours of when tickets first go on sale to the public (unlike that other, less awesome ticket affiliate program).
Where can I learn more?
Check out our affiliate program page to learn more, sign up now, or email affiliate (at) ticketbiscuit.com.
