With Collective Concerts inking a deal with Ticketfly the newly arrived American online ticketing giant, two key Toronto venues, Lee’s Palace and The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, both run by Collective Concerts, will be saying g’bye to the dated Ticketmaster sales system.
What’s Ticketfly you might ask? Well, it’s basically an online ticket sales platform that empowers event promoters with social media services, sales outlets, analytics, microsites and a bunch of other handy features.
Apparently Jeff Cohen of Collective Concerts has been eager to move since he met the Ticketfly crew at SXSW almost two years ago.
“Jeff learned that a bunch of his contemporaries in the US were using the platform,” CEO Andrew Dreskin told me from their annual FlyCon in San Francisco “and it was seen as the most progressive and forward thinking one. He fell in love with the technology and said to us, ‘You know what? You’re not in Canada yet, but I don’t care, I like you. We’re going to make a deal.’ And that’s literally how it went down.”
Since the boom in EDM (yes, I hate the term as much as the rest of you, so don’t get me started) festivals, Ticketfly has seen some very interesting stats in neon-slathered show goers. Apparently they tyically buy single tickets, rather than in pairs, and they are three times more likely to buy via Facebook mobile than other genres. No surprise there as fits perfectly with the “digital” nature of the beats. With all the social media bells and whistles in Ticketfly, Facebook will let you know what shows all the “cool kids” in your friends list are going to.
Also on board are Inertia Entertainment, Ontario’s largest heavy metal promoters and Union Events, (who in recent years have acquired Toronto’s REMG) and rank #48 worldwide as event promoters according to Pollstar.
Dreskin is no stranger to the live concert experiences. Along with creating Ticketweb, one of the very first online ticket sales services back in 1995, he’s also responsible for bringing VirginFest to North America which is still going strong, unlike the dearly departed Toronto edition.
Along with a high level of social media and digital integration, Ticketfly claims to have lower service charge fees, making enjoying shows easier on our wallets too. But listen up, Ticketfly is expanding, so if you’re a show promoter or booker, you might want to take a click and see what all the buzz is about.
For more on Ticketfly’s arrival in Canada, check out this video.
