930 club switching to TicketFly.com in 2010???

[xneverwherex]

Jag wouldnt even know I always go to the box office to buy a ticket for LPR. Prob $$ to go to Al Gore - or maybe goes back to the company to keep charges cheap. Upon realizing that the service charge is only $1 or so - I might just buy them online next time if Im not in the vicinty.

Does anyone know if ticketfly issues hard tickets anywhere or is it will-call only? I didnt pay enough attention to the other thread, but I really hate will-call only tix. It might be a venue thing and Littlefield is new.

What is a 'green ticket'? Are you actually getting something or is this some mind game which throws extra bucks Al Gore's way?

[vansmack]

Press on this:

http://www.ticketnews.com/IMP-nine-thirty-Club-select-Ticketfly-to-sell-tickets

PRESS RELEASE: "I.M.P. SELECTS NEW TICKET PROVIDER, TICKETFLY, FOR THE 9:30 CLUB"

WASHINGTON, D.C. (I.M.P.; Ticketfly) November 9, 2009 ? The 9:30 Club, which once again just won Billboard?s coveted national honor of Club of the Year Award, announced today that it will use a new online ticketing and marketing provider. I.M.P., one of the nation?s preeminent independent concert promoters has selected Ticketfly to sell tickets for 9:30 Club shows scheduled to take place after January 1, 2010.

Ticketfly is exclusively focused on live music promotion, and plans to create an online community where customers not only buy tickets efficiently, but also discover new artists and events and share event-related experiences. In addition to show information, Ticketfly?s Event page will feature artist images, bios, streaming audio and video links and artist website and social media links. The pages integrate with Facebook and Twitter, allowing consumers to seamlessly invite their friends to concerts through their social networks. Ticketfly is headed by former senior management of TicketWeb, the Internet?s first ticketing company.

?The guys at Ticketfly have proven to be innovators and they?re on to something here,? said Seth Hurwitz, chairman of I.M.P. and owner of the 9:30 Club. ?The bottom line is we think it will be more fun for our customers. For years it has just been more of the same in the ticketing space, but this is different. They are creating unique tools and a better experience for our ticket buyers,?

"Although they are obviously a newer company with less volume and they?re investing huge sums on technology, Ticketfly made the commitment to not raise charges,? said Hurwitz. ?But as usual customers have options. There are never any service fees when you buy at the door on show night, and only $1 per ticket when you buy in advance at the box office.?

Ticketfly is the brainchild of Andrew Dreskin and Dan Teree, respectively the co-founder/former CEO and former President of TicketWeb, the first company to sell event tickets via the Internet. ?We?ve worked with Andrew over many years and he?s clearly a visionary and a businessperson who shares our standards of integrity,? said Hurwitz. In addition to the 9:30 Club, Ticketfly is now serving popular venues in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and other US markets, and is expanding quickly across the country.

?It?s remarkable how little online ticketing has changed in the past decade, ? said Dreskin. ?Our integrated ticketing, website and marketing platform streamlines daily life for concert promoters. We address their repetitive and time-consuming daily tasks so that they are now able to focus their energies on more important initiatives.? Teree went on to say, ?Ticketfly aims to give promoters and fans relevant technologies that will enhance the already social aspect of seeing a live show. We?re really listening to our clients and the fans to determine how best to use the latest web and mobile goodies and to have a lot more fun.?

[sweetcell]

?Our integrated ticketing, website and marketing platform streamlines daily life for concert promoters. We address their repetitive and time-consuming daily tasks so that they are now able to focus their energies on more important initiatives.?

filling in a form every time you order tickets = repetitive and time-consuming for the customer.  you can make it as streamlined as you like for the promoter, but if the consumer is burdened instead...

this emphasis on facebook has me thinking that ordering might somehow be linked to your FB account.  order tickets, sign in to FB through the TFly site, and your info is populated?  would require the user to have all this info in the FB account (i don't have my address in my FB account).  would also require the user to have a FB account.  not everyone is interested in social networks.

We?re really listening to our clients and the fans to determine how best to use the latest web and mobile goodies and to have a lot more fun.?

hey, if you're listening: we'd like two of the latest web technologies, called "shopping cart" and "accounts" (sometimes referred to as "profiles").  party like it's 1999!

[vansmack]

I did invite the Ticketfly people to this forum to discuss, but not surprisingly they didn't take me up on it (yet).  Of course, why would they come here and be diluged with the questions about the service fees...

Anyhow, since they created and ran ticketweb, and you guys are so damn hung up on the "account" and "shopping cart" features, we know they know how to do both and have intentionally decided not to add those features.  It's now up to this group to decide why they aren't doing it - I've given you my theory.

The fees are too high, too many scalpers get the best tickets, not enough tickets for real fans - I'm not sure I would put this lots interests first either.

And sweetcell, you can't be burndened to type it in everytime (even if it helped cut down on scalping?) yet if the requirement was to type it once in facebook (which I don't think is their plan) you wouldn't do it?  Somehow I doubt this.

Anyhow, I view FB and twitter as the marketing vehicles, not the sales vehicles.

[Jaguar]

Little hard to say too much at this stage without knowing all that much so probably lots of retractions will be required. I'll admit that upfront. Also, a bit limited in that I do not use Facebook and, at best, can only assume that it's somewhat similiar to MySpace.

Yes, I agree Smackie that it will probably be one of several marketing tools as opposed to the actual sales vehicle. At least, I sure hope so! Had thoughts about that with their mention of Wordpress but know even less about that so I'm still a little lost on that one. It did sound to me though that they were depending on some other site and server to do their cyber business but that just can't be right for a bigger company. Maybe I just misunderstood what I read. Wondered if it was a way to cut expenses or working out some deal with them to cut costs, etc.. Again, that all just doesn't seem right so I've got to have that aspect all wrong.

Regarding using Facebook, etc., and not wanting to include real life data (I am fully with you Sweetcell on that one!), you could always start another profile to use solely for ticket purchases. Not trusting major social networking sites like that, I sure wouldn't! Too big of a potential major hack attack target! No way would I ever allow my credit card numbers anywhere near something like that!!! But, I know others will, so I guess that's all good for them and the companies. Hopefully, it will all just link over to a specific site/server run by the ticket agency.

As one who does not live in DC, I would GREATLY appreciate being able to get my tickets elsewhere, even for a fee. A small fee; otherwise, I may as well stick to paying too much online... which, more often than not, I'll end up opting OUT of.

So far, based on what I've read, I'm not too impressed. That's 'so far'. Let them WOW us! Only time will tell.

[vansmack]

I did invite the Ticketfly people to this forum to discuss, but not surprisingly they didn't take me up on it (yet).  Of course, why would they come here and be diluged with the questions about the service fees...

So I stand corrected....

Damon , Nov 09 06:56 pm (PST):
Hi [Vansmack],

Thank you for writing in. The short answer is this, we are a new company and there are features still to come. I can definitely say Shopping Carts and Customer Accounts are on their way! We will see them in the next couple of months, among other additions to the site.

I would like to invite you and anyone else who has questions or suggestions for us to visit our Feedback forum, http://ticketfly.zendesk.com/forums/65055/entries.

Please do let us know if you have any other thoughts for questions for us.

Thank You
Damon @ Ticketfly

[eltee]

As one who does not live in DC, I would GREATLY appreciate being able to get my tickets elsewhere, even for a fee. A small fee; otherwise, I may as well stick to paying too much online... which, more often than not, I'll end up opting OUT of.

It's been so long I've almost forgotten what it's like to buy tickets at in person at an outlet. Seth, any comments on this? Or, to the forum if you know: one example is CD Cellar - they sell TM tickets - can they sell more than one ticket brand? Or, do they have a contract? I'd love it if there were a store (record, lifestyle) that sold tickets to 9:30. Or, maybe it's just too "1999"...

[MonkeyPants]

I can definitely say Shopping Carts and Customer Accounts are on their way! We will see them in the next couple of months, among other additions to the site.
[/quote]

Maybe by 2010?  What's so hard about adding these pretty basic features?

[sweetcell]

Maybe by 2010?  What's so hard about adding these pretty basic features?

don't confuse basic as in standard with basic as in simple.  adding these to a customer-facing website takes significant customization and testing (esp. with regards to security).  then there are the issues of prioritization and resource availability - they may want to do it, but be unable to do so right now.

personally, i find it surprising that a ticketing site would launch without these standard features, but apparently i complain too much.

[MonkeyPants]

personally, i find it surprising that a ticketing site would launch without these standard features, but apparently i complain too much.

This was basically my point.  Why launch without these standard features, and why sign up to work with a company before it has these standard features?

[nkotb]

Granted, in a perfect world, it would have them.  Can you still order tickets?  Yes.  Doesn't seem that surprising to my why they'd launch in phases.  Their basic business model (collect money for a ticket, provide that ticket to consumer) works...everything else just makes it easier for us.  This way, they can get live, get their business rolling, and implement phase two changes as they're ready and properly tested.  Doesn't seem that off to me.

personally, i find it surprising that a ticketing site would launch without these standard features, but apparently i complain too much.

This was basically my point.  Why launch without these standard features, and why sign up to work with a company before it has these standard features?

[Jaguar]

Would bet that it probably has something to do with contract dates. Why commit to another full year with Tickets.com when Seth knew he wanted to change over to Ticketfly without having to wait another full year? Again, just pure speculation on my part.

[vansmack]

but apparently i complain too much.

For the record, that was a collective and plural "you" based on an incredible sense of entitlement shared by many on the board.  It was in no way soley directed at you.

[Bombay Chutney]

As long as the servers hold-up during the extra-busy on-sale dates, everything else is gravy.

[MonkeyPants]

I just thought this poll was funny
http://consumerist.com/5407719/update-on-possible-comcastticketmasterlive-nation-abomination-with-poll