By: Ty Garfield

Ty Garfield — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 19:37:44 +0000

Hello Josh,
I work for Brown Paper Tickets, so while I can comment on #4, the remainder of your questions will have to wait for another response from Damon from Ticketfly.
The only difference between ticketing and retailing online is the product. This is obvious but ticketing only represents the authority to participate or view an event. You can’t eat a ticket (well, not in a literal sense) or play games on it. It’s costs of production are relatively low and handling is pretty simple. A ticketing provider is contracted to distribute and handle the ticketing transactions of a promoter, producer or venue. So, we don’t pay the talent, rent the facility, take out the trash or sell concessions. We sell the tickets.
And in my experience the fees and convenience charges you were charged are a means to maximize profits at the expense of the producers and consumers of events. Let’s face it exorbitant or “downright absurd” fees literally represent a barrier to entry. That is changing.
As far as alternatives go, we are a better choice of primary ticketing. We have a mission at Brown Paper Tickets, to fix the industry. We’re doing this by empowering the producers of events and facilitating the purchase process. What does THAT mean? Ninety-nine percent of our services are free for producers to use. If you need bulk tickets or to rent ticket scanners, we do need to charge for those but it’s much more affordable than our competitors. So anyone can ticket any event. To list an event and start selling tickets costs the producer nothing. This motivates them to do more events.
To the ticket buyer we offer the lowest fees in the industry: Ninety-nine cents for tickets under $9.99 or less, or $1.99 if the ticket price is $10 and up. That’s it. That’s all we charge, 99 cents or $1.99. Not getting gouged for tickets makes it easier to buy more tickets to more of the events producers can ticket for free. See how sinister we are?
We have been at this for 10 years and have gotten really good at ticketing events. And while the margins are small in event ticketing, shouldn’t they be?
We provide better service (including 24/7 phone support and free mailing – USPS in the United States) at a very reasonable cost. In fact we LOWERED our service from from 99 cents + 2.5% of the purchase price last fall. Okay this posting is kind of marketing-y. But honestly, $8.75 for a $20 ticket? C’mon. I’m loathe to say it – but that’s just not fair and the industry needs to catch up.

Comments on: More on Ticketfly’s service charges

By: Ty Garfield