Ticketing Company Lyte Abruptly Shuts Down, Thousands of Tickets in Limbo
Lyte, the San Francisco-headquartered ticketing company, has abruptly shut down and seemingly gone out of business, which has left promoters unpaid and thousands of tickets in limbo.
The company’s website has been down for days, reading “Be Back Soon!” with a note that the website “is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance.”
According to the music festival news source Festive Owl, both big and small event organizers have reached out saying they have hundreds, if not thousands, of tickets currently stuck in Lyte’s system. If this is a showcase of Lyte’s bankruptcy in real time, festivalgoers will be out of tickets and organizers will be out hundreds of thousands in funds. As for small event organizers, this could result in losing all of the event’s revenue.
Antony Taylor, Lyte’s founder and chief executive, confirmed to Billboard his resignation from the company, and there is reportedly an effort underway to identify a potential buyer to repay fans and promoters affected by the shutdown. Insiders told The Ticketing Business that Lyte’s workforce was notified the company was ceasing activities and product development during a meeting last week, and access property was restricted for most employees on Friday.
Lyte first launched in 2014, and Taylor raised around $53 million in four major funding rounds — including rounds of $15 million in 2019 and $33 million in 2020. The ticketing site billed itself as a fan-to-fan exchange, allowing fans to resell their tickets, though Lyte’s clients told Billboard the company had allowed promoters to scalp their high-end tickets and VIP festival tickets on the site as well. Additionally, Lyte acted as a primary ticketing platform for many smaller events.
While there has been no word regarding Taylor’s decision to resign, there could be many reasons for the company’s downfall at play; insiders told The Ticketing Business Lyte’s demise is due to mismanagement, as well as the acquisition of Festicket. One person familiar with the transaction said it was “the stupidest deal ever done” and things “went downhill pretty much” after the deal.
Lyte’s clients included the Baja Beach Festival in Mexico, Ohio’s Lost Lands Festival, Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, and Rhode Island’s Newport Folk Festival, though it is unclear how much money Lyte owes each of the events.
One particular group of affected individuals include Lost Land ticketholders. Festival attendees who bought or sold tickets through Lyte for this weekend’s sold out Lost Lands festival are still unable to access their tickets or funds, even though the campground is already open.
@lost_lands I sold my ticket through lyte and needed that money for vet bills. Some sort of statement would be amazing so I know if I need to start panciking or not😭🫠
— -glōm- (@T8t3rTh0t) September 18, 2024
Lyte shutting down has me worried. Sold my tickets through lyte because it was the official reseller for Lost Lands. Wasn’t expecting a payment until the day after the festival. But the sudden shut down has me worried.
— SouleTrain (@SaiyanSoule) September 18, 2024
Please address the LYTE ticketing issue. Are we going to recieve our refunds?
None of my crew who purchased through lyte received their packages. What is going on with ur 3rd party reseller
— This is malarkey (@Cut_da_malarky) September 17, 2024
heeeeyyyy bestie whats the deal with the lyte tickets @lost_lands
— angle (@AIngelbg) September 17, 2024
I bought 4 tickets from Lyte using @lost_lands website, so what now? I also emailed them last week and they said it should be okay but that was before the website went down??
— Alan (@AlanLu1227) September 16, 2024
Other promoters and event organizers affected by the Lyte shutdown took to X to explain their situation, including the Big Fam Music & Arts Festival:
We had multiple sold out shows that were being resold on Lyte as it was our go to for @ThirdStringEnt and now we (and the fans) will likely never see that money. We had 5 sold out shows over the last 10 days, all on Lyte, and who knows what happened to the tickets / fan $$
— MIKE ZIEMER (@MikeZiemer) September 18, 2024
The show must go on 🫶 See you all soon pic.twitter.com/NwWsYmAL3y
— Big Fam Music & Arts Festival (@BigFamFest) September 18, 2024
While it’s unclear where Lyte’s status stands at this moment, the company could have gone out of business without paying any of its clients — leading to small events crumbling without revenue. If this is the case and Lyte has to file for insolvency protection, a bankruptcy trustee would have to sort through these details. In the meantime, attorneys representing a number of Lyte’s clients are reportedly hoping to pull their money from the platform as soon as possible.
This is a developing story.
