By Alfred Branch, Jr.
A recently launched website is allowing promoters, venues and musicians to list their shows and sell tickets.
Showclix.com, based in Pittsburgh, PA, lets registered users list shows from around the country for free. To sell tickets, a Showclix.com staffer will contact the promoter, venue or musician who wants to sell the tickets to verify that the show exists. The sellers are then charged a fee per ticket sold, and once the show is over, Showclix.com will pay the show organizer within one business day. Fees start at 50 cents per ticket sold for tickets that cost less than $6 and go up to $3.50 for a ticket from $22 to $26. Tickets that cost more than $26 are subject to a fee equivalent to 15 percent of the price of the ticket. Tickets cannot be sold for less than $5.
The website handles the credit card transaction and charges $2 to the buyer, if the buyer purchases less than 10 tickets. That fee is only charged once, so fans purchasing one ticket or any number up to nine tickets will be charged a total of $2 for the entire transaction. Once the show is done, the organizer will be paid within one business day.
Buyers will not receive an actual ticket but can print one out after the transaction is complete, though the printouts are not required to gain entry into the show. The buyer is also given a confirmation number that they can take to the venue. The organizer of the show will receive a guest list of all the paid customers. Camuso said they are also investigating mobile with cell phones where the buyer will receive a text message with the confirmation number.
Showclix is the second site to debut in a month that caters to venues, promoters and musicians. Ticketmuncher.com offers buyers and sellers a similar experience and charges a flat fee of $2 per ticket and an additional 1.9 percent of the value of each ticket.
Lynsie Camuso, a partner in the venture with Joshua Dziabiak, said initially the site will concentrate on live music shows, but they plan to add plays, comedy performances and other events in the future.
“Our focus is on smaller venues and local and regional acts that are often ignored by large promoters,” Camuso said. Since its launch in late February, the site has 200 registered users and more than 6,000 show listings.
Camuso said that transactions have yet to take off, but they will once more people become familiar with the site. “Right now, we’re trying to push the free listings portion of the site,” she said.
