Category: Spotlights

We want to grow Multipass organically, largely through referrals from people that believe in the way we do business. We have low fees, fast support, and an emphasis on keeping as much humanity in the ticketing experience as possible.

Social friends, this means that we want you, and we want to reward you for the networks you have built in your event-life. Already know you want in? Sign up here!

A Connected Country

The world is getting smaller, we’re more and more connected. Multipass is based out of Denver, Colorado, but our friends and events are everywhere.

Through festivals, concerts, and more, friendships are now extremely geographically-diverse. You know people who throw events in Seattle, or Vermont, or Miami. Moreover, you know people in these places that, in turn, know a lot more people in those places.

Most of these places are using Eventbrite or HoldMyTicket, and most of them have some level of frustration with these platforms. Multipass was built to deal with those frustrations and to add additional value over and above what our competitors offer. These include 100% payouts, promoter networks/payout tools, electronic waivers, and rock bottom service fees.

Help your friends have a better event experience, and save your other friends money as they attend! In the meantime, let us throw you a bone…

The Opportunity

Our Agents program is designed to help you make introductions on our behalf, and get paid for doing so.

The short of it is:

• Send your agent link/scan a QR to someone who needs a ticket platform for their event. You are now their referral agent, and any time we collect a service fee, you get a cut.
• Send your link/QR to someone who knows a lot of people, maybe in another city where you have less reach and they have a lot. They get paid for business they bring in, and you get paid for recruiting them!

These programs currently pay out commissions for life, subject to a very low “new business per year” threshold. We pay when we collect service fees, and we payout daily; you see immediate results. Our programs are subject to change, but you lock in the terms we offer when you join, so get in on our best offer, early!

Types of Events

If you introduce a small event to Multipass, it’s easy, automatic, and we appreciate it! You get paid and we get paid too. Agent payouts are based on service fees, and our service fees are low. This means that we’re tempting you with the power of passive, automatic income.

Your referral is linked to the account that referred. If they do more events, you’re along for the ride. If they own a venue with regular shows, or do large monthly or quarterly events, then those numbers can add up for you quickly.

Large, singular events like festivals also leverage the power of numbers. One referral can turn into hundreds of dollars, or perhaps thousands, and as long as they’re still with us, you’re building an income stream!

Get Started

Are you well-connected as a DJ, a performer, a venue-host, or just an avid event-attendee? Call us at 720-761-8113, sign up here, or email dan@multipass.com and we can go over some more of details and potential upsides.

There are several ways that people can interact with Multipass; this article breaks some of those down. We’ll talk about event producers, promoters, shoppers/ticket holders, managers, door staff, and agents.

Event Producer

When you create an event on the Multipass platform we call you a producer. It’s your event, you’re producing it, coordinating the talent, marketing, and otherwise.

Most of the time you’ll be the one updating the event information on Multipass, but you might recruit a manager for this as well.

If you run multiple events then you likely also have a group on our platform, to keep information about your various endeavors in one place.

Manager

There are two types of managers in Multipass: event managers and group managers.

Event managers have been designated by an event producer to have administrative control over parts, or all, of an event.

Group managers have been designated by a group’s founder to have control over aspects of a group. By extension, this also includes events that have been created by a group. If you are running an organization and want a certain account to easily have access to all the events you are running, you can make them a group manager.

Promoter

Individuals and groups can sign up to be promoters on Multipass. Promoters help to drive traffic to event pages, and increase ticket sales, and are usually rewarded by sharing in a cut of the ticket sales.

Iin Multipass, promoters can be linked to a specific event but beyond that they may also represent any event in the Multipass system, provided the event opens itself up to being promoted. This is an interesting angle that lets people have a symbiotic financial arrangement, without having met, and with no paperwork between them!

Typically, promoters get paid by an event producer, sometime after the event has taken place. Their payout may be determined by the number of times a given promo code was used, or an inbound link with an affiliate code. Payouts are usually calculated by hand, and a human then has to initiate a payout.

Promoters have to trust that producers will pay them promptly and fairly. Usually this is the case, but sometimes producers mismanage money and getting promoters paid becomes a source of stress or contention.

Multipass eliminates the stress. While event producers get paid in full, up front, for their ticket sales, promoters also get paid on a daily basis. Multipass holds back the predetermined payout amount and takes care of all of the cash flow. Producers don’t accidentally spend promoter money elsewhere; promoters get paid.

Door Staff

Door staff refers to someone working the door at an event. They will need to log into the Multipass app with an account that has either producer or manager access.

They can scan QR codes, or Multipass cards, look up names on the ticket list, or sell tickets at the door (using integrated or offline payment).

Shoppers/Ticket Holder

An individual who is shopping for tickets, or has purchased one or more tickets. They will receive a QR code on their receipt page, an email with a PDF version of their ticket(s), and have the ability to retrieve their tickets through the Multipass mobile app or website.

Agent

We grow our system through referrals, and do this through our Agent program. As an agent you can help us open doors to new venues and new event opportunities.

As a thank you, you get paid.

Agents are usually well-connected individuals, perhaps even event performers or staff, themselves. They know people. They also know people who know people.

Agents can also recruit other agents. As a thank you for that… you get paid.

This is an opportunity to build residual income, mostly by knowing people and taking a little initiative. Get started here!

Get Involved!

If you throw events we’d love to welcome you as a producer. If you like to spread the word, sign up as a promoter. If you want to help us grow Multipass and build your own income stream, sign up as an agent.

If you have questions about any of the above, contact us and we’d be happy to get you some answers!

The two most important aspects of ticketing are 1) a good ticket-buying experience and 2) a smooth check-in process.

Multipass has several ways to scan tickets or look up buyers, and we’re pleased to add a new efficiency tool to this mix: digital signing of waivers at the time of ticket-scanning.

How it Works

If you mark your event to use digital signing, enter some content into either or both of the fields marked “Terms and Conditions” and “Liability Waiver”.

When you scan a ticket on the mobile app it will present a screen with the content you entered, and give the ticketholder an opportunity to sign their agreement with their finger on your mobile device.

We capture the signature, show it back to you, and store it for easy retrieval. It’s still on you to validate that the person is who they say they are, probably via ID, but we have streamlined this part of the flow and have given you the ability to easily retrieve the signed waiver that’s linked to any ticket!

Keep the line flowing and make sure you capture all the signatures you need!

Use Cases

We initially built this to be used by a party bus company. They need people to sign off on some things prior to getting onto the bus experience. It’s important that nobody sneak onboard, and tying the waiver to the ticket scanning flow ensures that this can all happen at one time.

Other use cases include festivals (internet connection currently required), membership events or meetups, and even events where a certain code of conduct must be agreed to for any reason at all.

The Full Package

Multipass is proud to roll out this digital signature feature, maybe the first of its kind. It joins our recent updates that include full payout at the time of ticket sales, a comprehensive platform for managing and automatically paying people who promote your event, our agent referral program, and our membership features. We also have all of the regular features you expect from a ticket platform.

Curious? Check out what we can do for you!

We just made our quarterly donation to the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. There is a humility in making donations in secret, but there is also a strength in broadcasting about organizations that we believe in, and that are trying to do good in this world.

The BBRF funds research into schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and more. It was an organization chosen by someone dear to us during her own struggles with mental health. In her memory, we are proud to support the BBRF as they fund research into the working of the human brain, and work to provide relief and solutions to so many of our loved ones who are dealing with this invisible burden.

We have a commitment to donating 5% of all service fees. We chose this route because making donations from company profits is ambiguous and there are ways to mask profits. Our commitment isn’t based on profit, this is happening simply because there are transactions.

Experience Humanity

We want to be humans in a world that’s increasingly digital. We want to help you experience events that are organized, run, and coordinated by humans. We want to provide you with customer service, and for you to leave knowing that we care about your experience. We want to do this with fair service fees, leaving you feeling good about your purchase.

We want to help people experience the humanity around them, through the creation of experiences or art, classes, talks, and more. We also want to do our part to help the health of humanity.

Mental health concerns are on the rise. The BBRF is working to advance research into the collective well-being of the hearts and minds on this planet. Please check out their site and consider them if you are looking to make a donation to a worthy cause.

No matter what other cool or innovative features a ticketing platform releases, the most important question on the mind of every event producer regarding their ticket platform is “When do we get paid out?”.

This, truly, is a critical question. Events cost money to produce. Talent needs to get paid. Ticketing companies have sometimes historically run into situations that gum the up the cash flow. Not knowing the status of your event money can be stressful, and we’re happy to tell you that this time is over.

Multipass now features 100% full ticket payouts at the time of ticket sales.

How it Works

Working with a forward-thinking payment platform we have been able to set up a system where coordinate your ticket sales and the money goes straight into your account.

You get your ticket value, anything you charged for shipping, tax, or venue fees, and any additional credit card surcharge. We keep the service fee, which is automatically deducted by Stripe. You pay Stripe’s credit card fee (already rolled into our published rates), and with Stripe’s default setting you’ll you will see payouts for your ticket sales trickle into your bank account.

It’s easy… sell tickets, get paid.

Refunds and Disputes

With great money power comes great responsibility. What we mean by that is that since you now control all of your event’s cash flow, your Stripe account will also be responsible for any refunds or disputes that arise.

We have tools built into Multipass to help you manage refunds, so this process is still easy. You can grant full or partial refunds, if you choose.

Disputes are infrequent but are now also your responsibility to pay. Where the money goes, so goes the accountability. Keep enough money in your Stripe account, or your linked bank account, to cover a ticket or two, and your flow will be smooth.

Refunds and disputes account for less than one half of one percent of Multipass ticket purchases, so this won’t frequently come up, but it’s your money and it’s important you know how it flows.

Cash Flow Simplification

Your accounting just got easier, and so did ours. We used to be able to pay out some of your event income in advance but as a platform we also had to be responsible, making sure that the event happened, and we had to hold a buffer for uncertainties regarding returns. These new tools simplify everything.

Instead of paying some of your balance in advance, most of the rest shortly after your event, and the balance a little while after the event, we have eliminated the cash flow mystery. You never wonder how much is coming, or when it’s coming. Since you get paid immediately we will never be holding on to any of your money at all!!

Promoter Program

The other amount that Multipass may hold back occurs when you take part in our promoter program. This programs lets you set up affiliates for your events, or to let other Multipass groups share your event, with a profit share.

If you are paying out a 10% commission on your event then your immediate payout would be the entire amount paid by the buyer with the Multipass service fee removed, and a 10% promoter payout removed. You will still receive 100% of the net amount due to you for the ticket sale, after your promoter gets paid. In the meantime, our program makes daily payouts to promoters. This trickle effect is good for morale and getting your tickets sold.

Note: if you cancel your event and refund tickets you will likely end up refunding your buyer the full purchase amount. Promoter fees are not reversible and you would be responsible for making up the difference. You can take this up with your promoters directly if the need arises, but the promoters will have done their work and will get paid. Most event producers choose to assume this risk as most events don’t get canceled and the potential upside is so much greater. That said, if this doesn’t work for you then you shouldn’t put your events into our promoter program.

Three Unique Killer Features

We were thrilled to recently announce our promoter platform. We see eyes light up when we tell event promoters about it. They love the way this streamlines and automates their flow.

We are extra-thrilled to add full, advance payouts to this mix. Your promoter cash flow is covered, and your event and talent pool is now in your hands. We have eliminated that worry, letting you focus on your actual event.

Our third killer feature is coming very soon: letting people e-sign waivers and terms of service at the time of ticket scanning. If you’re running a festival, or a members-only event, or simply need to cover your legal self for some reason, this helps you do that. Have your door person match a name to an id to a scanned ticket, get a finger scribble, and welcome them into your event.

We want to help you improve your event flow, and these are a few of the tools we’re giving you to make ticketing better!

Multipass is happy to announce a new feature that’s easy to deploy for your Multipass events: Promotion.

We’ve made it easy to let you set your event up for cross-promotion, and for others to list and advertise it. Additionally, you can selectively choose individuals or specific groups/businesses/venues that can co-promote your event.

What Does This Look Like?

When you mark your event as promotable you can specify a percentage payout anywhere from zero to 100 percent. If someone else lists your event, or uses an inbound referral link with their promoter id, and tickets are sold then they will earn that percentage of your ticket value.

When the event is paid out, the amounts that you owe to your promoters will automatically be deducted from your payout. Once a month we payout promoters and they will receive their funds. This takes all of the heavy lifting off your shoulders and helps automate and streamline your promotion team!

Two Ways To Choose Who Can Promote

When you run an event there are two ways you can promote your event.

The first way is to simply let anyone who has a qualified promoter account on Multipass promote it. This puts your event into a list of promotable events and anyone who wants to promote it can do so. It will still be credited as your event, you will still get the ticket payout, but your exposure will increase. If you offered a commission we will take care of paying your promoters for any sales they generate.

If the promoter has their own group/business/venue page on Multipass then it will show up on that page. If the promoter doesn’t have their own page on Multipass they can still link to your main event page with their own unique promoter link and the sales will be tracked in the same way. This is a great way for a venue to promote a producer’s event, for multiple producers to team up, or for a single producer to reward their event talent or street team for driving sales.

The second way to promote your event is to explicitly invite people to promote it, without opening it up to the entire Multipass promoter population. You can invite people specifically by email address, or easily invite anyone who has previously promoted an event for you. As per above, promoted events can show up on their page, or have traffic driven via promoter-specific event links.

Once you have promoter relationships established you can also choose to increase a payout percentage for strategic partners or promoters. This might let you offer 5% to the public, but 25% to your performers. You have control over these numbers.

How to be a Promoter on Multipass

There are three things that have to take place for you to promote events on Multipass.

The first is that we need a way to pay you. We’ll do this by setting up a payout relationship via Stripe. This is initiated via our site and we step you through it.

The second step is that you have to choose events to promote. Some events might be available to all promoters on Multipass and you can pick any or all of them. For other events you can coordinate with the event producer so that you can be invited to promote their event.

The third step is the one that will make you money. Do the work to get people to your promoter page on Multipass, or get your promoter link in front of people online. When people click your link or buy tickets through your promoter page you’ll get credit! When the event gets paid out you’ll see a credit due for you, and we pay out our promoters on a monthly basis.

It’s Easy, Really Easy

As an event producer, letting your event be promoted by others is a great way to extend your reach and fill your seats. We handle the money side of things including payouts, and Stripe issues 1099s to anyone that receives money.

As a promoter, pick the events you want to promote, then be your own social self. Tell others, get some tickets sold, and watch money show up in your Stripe account, and a day or two later in your bank account.

It’s easy to promote with Multipass and we look forward to working with you!

Part of how are we trying to humanize the event ticketing progress is our effort to build our event and membership base organically, using real human connections.

We have created a referral program that rewards people as they introduce their friends and business contacts to the Multipass platform. If you’re part of this program, you’re referred to as a Multipass agent, and it’s a great way to start generating some residual income.

Refer People Who Run Events

If you’re reading this you might be a performer, a networker, or someone who simply attends a lot of events. You know people who run events that we will never directly meet, ourselves. Maybe you run a blog for a particular subculture in your city and you know all of the people in your area who throw events that have to do with that scene. You’re a perfect candidate to be an agent.

Apply to be a Multipass agent and, when approved, we’ll give you a link and a QR code that have your referral code built in, and then that URL is passed through our URL shortener. When you meet people who throw events or have membership needs, share that link or QR code and have them make a free account. You’ll be forever linked to their account and you’ll get paid as they throw events using Multipass.

Events keep their own ticketing funds, credit card fees are paid, and you take home 10% of all Multipass service fees that are generated from events you helped bring in. This applies to all events created by the person you refer as well as any membership service fees. Make the right introduction even just one time and that single introduction might turn into thousands of dollars per year for you.

Refer Other Agents

The odds are good that you also know a lot of performers and social butterflies… people like you. These are also people who know a lot of people who throw events. Some might be in your city, some might be elsewhere in our service areas of the USA and Canada. Keep your eyes peeled and soon we’ll have opportunities in Europe as well.

Once you’re an agent, we provide a second QR code for you that links to our agent information page, with your id baked in, and if you recruit other agents we share the wealth of their sales with you too. (Note: both links we give you attach you to someone’s new account. The difference between the two links is which page you really want them to see first, based on which type of person you’re recruiting).

The same applies as per above: events keep their ticketing fees, we pay your agent friend 10%, and we pay you an additional 5% for introducing us to your friend. Plant seeds of this kind in a few cities and watch Multipass, and your passive income, grow!

Get Paid

At the end of every month, we pay out commissions for all events that are marked as complete and paid out. There is a short period after an event is over where they are not yet marked as complete. We use this period to handle any returns or disputes, but once that is complete… everyone gets paid.

Agents will use the Multipass site to set up a connection to a Stripe account, and we will use this to send your payouts. We never get your bank information or credit cards; we have chosen to leave that in the hands of one of the industry leaders.

We’ve got reports. See what you’ve earned in your lifetime. See how much has closed that you’ll get in the next pay period. See how much is outstanding for events that haven’t closed yet. See who you’ve brought in as event hosts or additional agents. Our aim is to be transparent with our process and have everyone involved feel like they are winning.

Sign Up

We’d love to have you join our team. Visit our Agent page, learn a little more about our offering, and let us know you’re interested!

Last week’s article talked about ticketing features, this one will dive into some of the things we offer that service groups and membership.

Groups

Within Multipass, you can set up a “group” for your organization or venue. This is your area where you can set up events and also manage and run your membership.

Within your group, you can set up various documents for your members such as terms and condition, disclaimers, rules, refund policy, and a waiver. If you also run events you can require people to agree to all of your terms both during the checkout process and during ticket scans.

Most groups are not run by a single person. It’s easy to set upmultiple people with varying levels of access for administering your group or events within our system.

Follow and Membership

There are three ways someone can participate in your group. The first is to simply attend a group event that has no membership requirement. If you make an event that has no membership requirements, this can just happen.

The second is for someone to “follow” your group within Multipass, and for many groups this will be enough. While there is no cost to be a follower, you might choose to screen at this level. Within your group you can set up questions that any potential follower has to answer. You can review their answers and choose to accept them into your group, or not. When you create new events you can notify your followers. You can also create special offers for followers for ticket promos.

The third option is paid recurring membership. Your entire business model might revolve around membership (such as the Guitar Mamas in Calgary, Alberta), or you might have a private club where paying members have different standing in the face of local laws. We can facilitate people signing up for your group with payment terms of monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, annually, or lifetime. Additionally, you can have multiple levels of membership (basic, VIP, founding member, etc) and each can have its own pricing model.

Events and Tickets

Groups can use the concept of “followers” and “paid members” in their events as well. An event can be marked so as to not even be visible to anyone who isn’t at least a follower, or its existence can be public with key details withheld for only your followers or members.

Specific ticket levels for your event can be marked as “follower-only” or “paid member-only”. If that’s the only type of ticket you offer then you can effectively restrict your events as you see fit. Additionally, you can offer different tiers of tickets, where followers or members can purchase cheaper or better tickets, and a different type of ticket is available to the general public.

It’s easy with Multipass to create promotion codes for specific member types. You might allow members to bring a friend, and have a single-use code that limits a purchase to a maximum of two tickets.

On a related/unrelated note, groups can have affiliates where each affiliate can have their own inbound links for events, with reporting for how many tickets each was responsible for. Event success is driven by marketing and affiliate marketing is a huge piece of this.

At The Door

Our mobile app will let you scan tickets for your events, and as part of the scanning process, we notify you if the ticket belongs to a paid member or not. This is useful if you have an event with a single type of ticket, but members are entitled to a grab bag or some kind of perk at the door.

We also offer the ability to scan to simply validate someone’s membership. This would be useful for free events that have membership restrictions. Both of these types of scanning can also display an image of the member, if your group requires this. If you need to verify that people are indeed the members they claim to be, this is a useful tool.

Members can show printed or digital tickets at the door, or show a personalized access code from within the Multipass app, to validate as members. Additionally, Multipass offers the ability to have physical co-branded cards that you can provide to your members. Each card can be paired to someone’s account (with both QR and NFC) and they feel special when they show up at the door and whip out their membership card for access.

Communication

Finally, we offer tools to communicate with your members. From email integration with MailChimp, to text messaging either on a group or event basis, we give you the means to stay in touch.

Recap

Multipass can run your event ticketing, and also serve as your platform for membership management. The seamless union of these two features eliminates copy/pasting between multiple independent solutions, reducing headaches and increasing efficiencies.

Let us know if you’d like to schedule a call to discuss your needs. Contact us here!

Multipass is a few things: a ticketing platform, a membership platform, and an attempt to bring humanity to a soulless process. This article is going to be about the ticketing aspect, and some of the ways we have tried to both learn from those that came before us, and to improve on pain points.

The Multipass Motivation

The existing ticketing options left us a bit wanting. Over the years the ticket-buying flow wasn’t that bad, but after experiencing a combination of outrageous service fees with a few missing-or-desired features within the span of a week, we decided we could build something comparable, or better, and more reasonably priced.

Initially we had another much more boring name for the project, but with the proper digging and investment we were able to secure the multipass.com domain, giving us the ability to christen the only ticketing platform on the planet where people smile when they say our name.

Ticketing

You can create events on Multipass and sell tickets to these events. This ability is likely why you’re even interested in our offering. These events can be physical events, or virtual events.

You can sell one ticket type, or multiple types of tickets with different pricing, or you can have free events. We have multiple ways to facilitate entry and validate tickets, but more on that later.

These features are the foundation of our offering, and steer our website and our mobile applications. We also give you a lot more features and options…

Groups

Businesses, organizations, and venues will likely want to create more than a single event. To that end we have created “groups” within our platform.

Groups can be followed (let your audience know about new events!), can have descriptions, terms, waivers, and more. They can also list all of your events, both past and future.

Some businesses have specific needs to comply with legal obligations, and we introduced the option of paid membership to these groups. We’ll dive into that more below, as well as in the next article, but this feature caters to private organizations, after-hours clubs, and any type of collective that wants to both approve and/or charge participants for membership.

Transfers and Shared Tickets

Some events won’t sell out, but many will. People will buy tickets for themselves and for friends. Both of these scenarios invite the need for ticket transfers. Some of these needs can be addressed by assigning a name to a given ticket, but sometimes you’ll want or need more.

We have built three different ways to share tickets. The first one is the one we just mentioned; add a name to a ticket and someone at the door can look it up via a search.

The most common solution would be our second way, to transfer a ticket to someone else. This does not involve any monetary exchange on our side, you simply choose your recipient and the transfer can happen. To transfer a ticket you will need a recipient’s email address.

We realize that we’re in an age where some people use email but many people really don’t, so we’ve added another way as well. In a feature that is unique to Multipass, you can generate a secure one-time claim code and send it to them via text or some kind of instant messenger. Your recipient can click a link you send them, or enter the claim code on our site, and tickets can be transferred without the need for an email address.

We have introduced another unique feature along these lines as well. This is the ability to assign a ticket to someone else without fully transferring it to them. This lets you retain ownership of the tickets but lets someone else pull them up in their own account for door access.

This feature lets you share tickets with friends, but doesn’t give them the ability to transfer or resell them. It also lets you dish out tickets to your friends, including that friend who may or may not show up, and you can retrieve your tickets if they tell you last minute that they can’t make it. After that, assign them again, or transfer or sell them.

We then geared our dashboard towards helping people find what they need the most frequently, or with the greatest urgency. We have been the platform for festivals and there is almost always a rush right before the event where a lot of tickets get transferred. Pending transfers are in your face on the dashboard, giving you full assurance that what you want to have happen is, in fact, happening.

Flexibility

Most events have public ticket sales, but some events will have a more curated list of attendees. Multipass can let you collect contact information from interested parties, letting you easily send unique-code-based invitations to the individuals of your choice. These invites can be time-limited if you want to instill a sense of excitement or urgency.

You can also control your pricing and ticket flow in a number of ways. While it’s not required, you can assign start and end times to specific types of tickets; ie. tier 1 is available for some period of time, then tier 2, and so on.

The Multipass promo code system offers you a lot of additional flexibility. Set up hidden ticket tiers that can only be unlocked with a valid promo code, perhaps within a specific timeframe. Set limits on how many times a promo code can be used. Perhaps it’s a single-use code that you are sending to one specific individual, or giving away in a contest. Maybe it’s a special code that can be used up to ten times, with each purchase eligible to purchase either one or two tickets, but it cuts off when a total of twelve tickets are sold this way. Dream it up, we can help you get there.

You can easily generate a list of single-use codes to manually send to your contact list, or you can upload email addresses and have them sent out automatically. Additionally, send unique codes to all of your group members, or from any other group you manage on Multipass.

Nearly every event has comp tickets and we’ve built a simple way to let you issue these, requiring only an email address or by generating a claim code/link you can send via messenger.

Membership

We mentioned this above, but you can choose to run a group with membership on Multipass. We’ll write more about membership in our next article but here’s a high level view.

People can be asked questions of your choice prior to approval (in a following sense) and automatic managed recurring billing can take place for paid membership levels.

Offer members-only events and have the documentation you need to prove it. Or offer members-only tickets to an event that also has higher priced tickets for the public.

Payment

Our team has been involved in e-commerce for a long time and we believe in establishing and following best-practices for information and credit card security.

At this time we are using a hosted checkout system based on Stripe.com. This affords us, and you, amazing peace of mind. The payment page is hosted on Stripe’s servers and all we ever see are tokens that are linked to single transactions. We don’t ever touch card numbers.

This leaves the security of your payment information in the hands of a company whose entire business is to manage and protect it. We are PCI-compliant because we are working with one of the best PCI-compliant payment processors.

Physical cards and check-in

One of the worst feelings is having your tickets on your phone and waiting in line with 1% left on your phone battery, wondering if you’ll get through the scanner before your phone dies. One option is to print out your tickets at home, bringing that QR code with you. We have another option that is unique to our Multipass platform…

Individuals can get physical Multipass access cards that they can pair to their accounts. Scanning these cards (featuring unique QR codes as well as unique tappable NFC codes) at the door can unlock your tickets, battery-free! Our API lets ambitious developers leverage these cards for their own purposes as well, with the cards functioning as personal identifiers for those who choose to have them. Rig up your venue to let people change the light color, or background music, based on your integration.

Groups can get custom Multipass cards printed as well. While these cards will work for any Multipass-ticketed event, you can generate intangible loyalty and feel-goods by issuing your own co-branded cards. To access one of your events, people can pull out their phones, their printouts, or they can proudly whip out the access card that they got for being part of your group.

Finally, in the spirit of the way things have been done since forever, we have the ability to find people by name. While we have a way to give you a printout of names, we also have a more modern way to accomplish the same. On both our website (desktop and mobile) and our mobile app we have a look up feature. As you start to type someone’s name it searches the ticketholder as well as any assigned names, and filters the list down to possible matches. A few keystrokes and you’re looking through a list of five names instead of hundreds or thousands. This has been amazingly effective at streamlining or eliminating lines at the doors to events.

More to Come

This is a good glimpse at what we can offer on the ticketing side. Our next article will discuss how to use Multipass for your membership groups, whether or not you need ticketing.

On top of that, we have an exciting list of new things we’re planning to add. Some of these will be on the ticketing side, some on the membership side, and some will be relevant but as-off-yet-undisclosed new offerings.

Thanks for checking out what we can do, and if you have ways you’d like to see our system evolve we’d love to hear from you!

At Multipass we care about the state of ticketing. I mean, it’s what we do, but we also buy tickets to events that are on other platforms. Recently, one of the big players has been in the news.

Ticketmaster has been the most familiar name in ticketing for a long time now. They service the biggest venues in North America and don’t have a lot of competition in that space. Big venues have dedicated ticketing scanning hardware (more than just a barcode scanner) and that’s an investment. They are locked into contracts that span years. Changing these sorts of things is not inexpensive, nor without effort and commitment.

Thirteen years ago (2009) Ticketmaster took another step and merged with LiveNation, one of the largest event promoters in the country. Having a lock on both the shows and the tickets gave them a one-stop monopoly. This has given them a way to charge exorbitant service fees and there’s nothing the consumer can do about it. If you want to see a specific show then you have to pony up both the ticket price and the fees.

Recently they made news when their infrastructure failed to keep up with the demand for Taylor Swift’s new tour. People were experiencing multiple charges with no tickets to show, losing tickets that were supposedly being held in their cart, or simply being unable to use the site at all. A month before that, Ticketmaster made waves with an experimental pricing feature that was inspired by surge pricing on Uber, where the price varies based on supply and demand. Blink 182 tickets when on sale and shoppers were staring down rates of over $600. Either of these would have been bad publicity, but both happening in rapid succession certainly has people talking, with a buzz building about breaking up their monopoly.

The only competitor in the big venue space is AXS. If a big venue is not on Ticketmaster, it’s likely on AXS. They also run and promote events, sometimes also owning the host venues. They control shows and fees, like Ticketmaster, and in both cases the fees are steep. For AXS and Ticketmaster shows, service fees seem to start at 25% and have been as high as 50%, and this is on top of the ticket price.

Ticket prices themselves vary. Some seem palatable, more so with AXS, but tickets to most Ticketmaster shows are themselves massively priced, and that’s only speaking to tickets sold directly from Ticketmaster to buyers. Once we get into the scalper market, prices double, triple, or more. There are various avenues for purchasing aftermarket tickets, but Ticketmaster does have one of its own and, you guessed it, big fees. It’s a vague and nebulous topic, but there are accounts of how Ticketmaster may be giving priority ticket access to buyers who intend to purchase the bulk of available tickets. Ticketmaster will make their fee on the original sale, then another fee on the resale.

The ticket-buying process isn’t bad, but it’s not great. You have to make a free account on Ticketmaster in order to do anything. If all you want is one ticket to one show, make an account. Generally, the flow is okay. You choose your seat, if applicable, then you buy your tickets. These days you also have to wade through a handful of additional offers, most of which you’ll never care about or use.

The current leader in the next tier of events is EventBrite. For mid-sized and small events they are the current most popular offering. They’re doing a lot of things right and haven’t alienated nearly as many people as Ticketmaster , but sometimes their fees are still high and there are many types of legal events that they opt not to ticket as part of their policy. There are other smaller platforms that have some level of traction at events I see here in Denver. There truly are a lot of events and there are a lot of ticketing opportunities.

There is also a home in the ticketing space for us here at Multipass. We listened to event producers and tried to address the pain points we heard. We have a streamlined checkout process, with accounts being completely optional. Our fees are extremely competitive, charging 80-90% less than Ticketmaster while also having our stated figure account for credit card charges.

Our tagline is “Experience Humanity”. This refers to the events that people are creating, and sharing their own passions with you, but also applies to the ticketing process itself. We want to help you get to know more about event producers via blog posts and short videos, and we want the ticketing process to feel personal. If you call us we want you to talk with a human. If you have questions, we can help you set up your events. Multipass donates 5% of all service fees collected (gross, not just from our profit) to worthy causes, starting with the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation which focuses on mental health research and treatment.

Could we have handled the Taylor Swift ticket drop? Since the biggest in the world couldn’t handle it, it would be foolish to say that we’d have done better. That said, there are other ways to handle events with huge drops (waiting rooms, lottery, ticket drop staggered by city), and advising on that strategy would have been part of our offering. We would have also scaled up our infrastructure, just like all quality sites do at times of pre-anticipated need. That said, we’re not going for those venues, nor are we servicing a world tour for one of the planet’s most popular musicians.

Quality experiences and personal service, join us as we try to put humanity back into event ticketing.