Press
Please find below a list of some recent Press articles involving CrowdSurge
Excerpt from Music Week on June 7 2012
Artists and venues team up with (RED) for AIDS fundraising and awareness campaign
...Founded in 2006 by Bono and Bobby Shriver to engage businesses and consumers in the fight against AIDS, (RED) partners with brands who contribute up to 50% of profits from (RED) branded goods and services to the Global Fund.
As part of the campaign (RED) is working with CrowdSurge which will allow music fans to buy (RED) tickets at venues and artists are auctioning premium seats and exclusive packages to help fight AIDS through the (RED)ROWS initiative.
Coldplay are the first to sign up to the programme and have made available seats in the first three rows for seven of their North American shows along with a signed programme and entrance to their VIP party. The Black Keys are also offering the best seats in the house and a signed version of the night's set list.
"(RED)Music to Engage Music Fans in the Push for an AIDS Free Generation by 2015" - June 1st 2012
(RED)ROWS
Artists are auctioning premium seats and exclusive packages to help fight AIDS through the (RED)ROWS initiative. (RED) has partnered with white-label ticketing provider CrowdSurge for (RED)ROWS, a unique technology solution that enables artists to turn their shows (RED) by auctioning concert tickets. From June 1-10, fans will be able to visit joinred.com to bid on exclusive seat and package opportunities to see their favorite artists perform live. Each artist's auction will also be featured on their own website. Participating artists include: Bryan Adams, The Black Keys, Leonard Cohen, Coldplay, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Charlotte Gainsbourg, The Killers, K'naan, Diana Krall, Maxwell, Tim McGraw, Metric, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Phish, Pink Martini, Punch Brothers, Swedish House Mafia, Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Tragically Hip, Rufus Wainwright and The xx.
Through (RED)ROWS, artists are providing fans a way to get the best seats in the house and unique concert experiences while saving lives at the same time. Coldplay has made available seats in the first three rows for seven of their North American shows along with a signed program and entrance to their VIP party. The Black Keys are offering the best seats in the house and a signed (RED) version of the night's set list. Phish is offering a signed print. Leonard Cohen is offering a limited edition signed lithograph based upon his original artwork. Metric is offering tickets to an exclusive album unveiling performance at the Toronto Opera House and a signed copy of their new album.
"We are thrilled to be offering some of the most influential voices of our time the ability to turn their ticket sales (RED)," said Martyn Noble, Group Chairman & CEO of CrowdSurge. "Expanding upon our existing direct-to-consumer ticketing platform, we have developed an innovative technology that provides artists and fans an exciting way to join with (RED) to deliver an AIDS-free generation by 2015. It is truly rewarding to be a part of the (RED)RUSH global effort."
Excerpt from evolver.fm article on May 16 2012 and syndicated across Wired, Gizmodo and others
5 Powerful Music Apps That Should Make Middlemen Nervous
Ticketing: CrowdSurge
Let’s start here, because people love to hate on Ticketmaster. The kneejerk haters are somewhat justified in their revulsion by a company that appears to charge music fans for doing extra work by replacing cashiers. But the haters are at least partially wrong because they tend not to acknowledge that “convenience fees” are typically shared between Ticketmaster, the promoter, the venue, management, the bands themselves, and possibly other parties. Yes, many of the bands you love as you hate Ticketmaster are snatching up some of those fees.
That’s one reason Ticketmaster isn’t going anywhere — especially now that it has merged with Live Nation. It’s just too entrenched, and pretty much everyone except music fans loves those fees. However, there’s a crack in Ticketmaster’s armor: the allotment of tickets given to bands themselves. As noted by the New York Times’ account of the jam band String Cheese Incident’s Ticketmaster fee circumvention, Ticketmaster’s standard practice is to give bands 8 percent of the tickets to a show, with which they can do whatever they want — sell them, give them to friends, family, and super-fans, sprinkle them on homeless people, or whatever.
Bands are monopolies. There’s only one of them. That gives them some negotiating power to ask for more than that 8 percent of the door. They can sell that, or 10 percent, 20, or even 30 percent of tickets, assuming they can pressure Ticketmaster and venues for more tickets, as one industry insider who wishes to remain nameless told Evolver.fm they will. Among the contenders for helping them offload that inventory, Crowdsurge holds particular promise. It’s a white-label service that charges nothing at a basic level — a thin middleman that lets bands (and venues and promoters) essentially run their own mini-Ticketmaster.
Excerpt from Gizmodo article on April 13 2012
Branded Artist Apps Could Be a Gold Mine for Musicians and Fans Alike
...Because the artist would "own" the app, they could use it to sell their allotment of direct-sale tickets via something like Crowdsurge, rather than hooking into Ticketmaster or another middleman. This would let them keep more of that money, and it would be possible, because their app would become a main point of interaction with their fans, incorporating everything they're doing elsewhere.
CrowdSurge Facebook app featured on 'Music on Facebook' page in July 2011
Excerpt from HR Media press release in July 2011
International ticket agent praises SYITC language service
An international independent ticketing agency has praised the service it received from South Yorkshire International Trade Centre (SYITC) for the translation of its website.
CrowdSurge, which works with artists’ record labels to sell tickets on their behalf, contacted the team at SYITC when they needed their website translating after winning an international contract with Warner Music Group.
Via DNA Limited, a Sheffield Chamber of Commerce member, they were able to access SYITC’s language services, which include website translation.
Ashley Dexter, Finance and Commercial Director at Crowd Surge, which has worked for artists including Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Bruno Mars, said: “We needed to ensure that important areas of the website, including terms and conditions and privacy policy, were translated so our international customers were able to access this important information in their own language.
“We needed a turnaround of less than 48 hours and SYITC were able to achieve this and understood the time constraints we were under.
“The team provided us with a seamless service at an incredibly competitive price. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to others.”
As well as the translation of documents and applications, SYITC’s language service also includes typesetting, language tuition, proofreading, interpreting and multilingual brochure design.
Eleanor Bagust, international trade coordinator at SYITC, said: “Our language services are designed to assist with all of a company or organisations language requirements. We cater for all languages and our translators, interpreters and tutors meet stringent quality procedures and are members of a professional body.
“We are delighted with the positive feedback we have received from CrowdSurge and we hope to further develop our relationship with them in the future.”
Excerpt from Music Week Article on May 26th 2011
CrowdSurge uses social media
Online ticketing specialist CrowdSurge is tapping into social media to drive ambitious growth plans by launching a new sales application directly through artists' Facebook pages.
The new service, which CrowdSurge claim is a first, will allow acts to use their Facebook profiles to directly sell tickets and merch to their fans, as well as gathering data for future marketing campaigns.
Despite only being three years old, the company already has operations in London, New York and Los Angeles and is looking to set up offices in central Europe and Australasia in the next couple of years as sales increase.
"Last year we sold about 250,000 tickets and had turnover of £11 million and this year we're targeting more than one million tickets and turnover of about £25m," said CrowdSurge co-founder Matt Jones.
The company trades tickets directly through artist websites and to date has signed up such acts as Paul McCartney, Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters, My Chemical Romance, Biffy Clyro, Vampire Weekend, Arctic Monkeys and The XX. Typically CrowdSurge will take an allocation of between 10-30% of ticket inventory for a tour allowing artist management to compile databases of ticket buyers, while also offering fans tickets with lower service charges.
"The whole idea behind CrowdSurge is to bring artists closer to the fans and by tapping into Facebook we really believe we're doing that," commented CrowdSurge chairman Martyn Noble.
"About 20% of all the time people spend on the internet is on social media sites, so our application is bringing commerce to that phenomenon whereby a fan can buy a ticket and then immediately interact with other fans and tell all their friends without having to leave the Facebook site."
Jones added, "We've been working on this for about a year to get it right, so the application also lets fans hold tickets for friends, or allows fans to check out where their friends are sitting at a concert so that they can get tickets nearby."
Although the system has been in beta testing for a number of weeks, the Facebook application went live last week for shows by The Kooks, Kaiser Chiefs and Miles Kane.
To compliment the Facebook ticketing transactions, CrowdSurge has also introduced a new E-ticket solution, compatible with iPhone, Blackberry and Android handsets.
Additionally, the company has developed a toolbox to allow clients to follow worldwide ticketing and monitor campaigns with full analytics as well as social media tracking so they can immediately keep up to date with whether tickets have sold faster in Bristol or Brazil.
Excerpt from LA Times Article on August 23rd 2010
Ticketmaster's new blog: "We get it -- you don't like service fees"
Last week, for instance, I purchased a pair of tickets to the Arcade Fire's upcoming concert at the Shrine. I used the band's presale, which directed me to CrowdSurge. My $49.50 tickets came with a $5.22 service fee. I was pleased that the service fees seemed relatively reasonable, and I was curious to compare it to those from Ticketmaster.
Ticketmaster had a higher service fee, coming in at $10.50. Ticketmaster also added pricing tiers, and with some Arcade Fire tickets offered for $45, the cost with fees was said to be $55 from Ticketmaster's pull-down menu. That would be in line with what I had paid -- seemingly.
My ticket, prefees, was $49.50, and let's look at the total cost of Ticketmaster's $49.50 face value ticket. Once order processing and shipping fees were tabulated, such an Arcade Fire ticket from Ticketmaster tallied $68 -- a full $13 more than my presale cost from CrowdSurge. With Ticketmaster still infusing additional fees into the final state of the purchase, what Azoff trumpeted as "full disclosure" might be a bit of a stretch.