The odd thing about Brown Paper Tickets’ About Us page is that nowhere do they mention that the company was created by TicketMaster. Now, one reason is that’s not literally true, but honestly, how many TicketMaster fees does it take before someone decides that there’s a better way?
A friend remembers TicketMaster fees amounting to $25 per ticket to one show. He remembers that vividly because the show in question was canceled, and TicketMaster kept the handling fees, despite no tickets actually being mailed out.
So Brown Paper Tickets, the little guy, the “fair-trade ticketing company,” was born in 2000 to do battle with the power of monopoly. They don’t charge producers for ticket sales, and even ticket buyers would hardly notice the freight: “The per-ticket service charge that ticket buyers pay is just $0.99 plus 2.5% of the ticket price, which is the lowest in the industry.”
That’s why brownpapertickets.com is the place to go for local shows, at any place from the Northwest Film Forum to Annex Theatre. They’ve goosed up their website, beginning with a home page that surfaces local events for you, and lets you browse categories like “Family-Friendly” and “Free.” When you click to an event page, you get ticket buying, contact, and Twitter and Facebook info, along with Google maps, and even video if it’s provided.
But wait. Here’s where your mind is going get blown: a new Transfer-to-a-Friend feature lets you send tickets to friends via your smart phone. The fascinating people I meet while standing on a curb will miss me, of course, and I’ll miss them. But I will use this.
Event producers can also add customizable profile pages (Exhibit A: Nectar Lounge), automate last-minute ticket discounts, and post events to Facebook. But it’s not all digital: BPT also has 24/7 call centers (“staffed by real people”).
I’m just happy with the events browsing functionality. The main thing is that the site lets me search over the specific date range I want, and somehow they have avoided the calendar spam that has taken over other events calendar options. It’s actually a quick, useful way to see what’s going on in Seattle, and has quickly become my go-to source.
I did some website development for a city of Seattle agency that was using the BPT. I’d never heard of them before, but was pretty impressed with the whole operations. The ‘customizable pages’ part is a little rough, but the price is right.
Hats off the the Brown Paper!