Technology / 08.24.22

Seated Co-Founder David McKay Talks Data, Artist Empowerment via Ticketing

Access Staff

Pollstar (08/17/22) Borba, Ryan

Seated CEO and co-founder David McKay sees his platform giving artists more control over ticketing-associated data. "Since we started, we've sent over 20 million text messages to help artists drive more sales," he notes. "We know that text messages are the most powerful way to get those time-sensitive alerts out to fans because 98% of people open a text message, 90% see that within the first three minutes of us sending it and through the deals that we have with affiliate partners." McKay says Seated captures data like "hundreds of thousands of new emails and phone numbers" during the presale window, which he describes as "the most powerful part of our platform." He adds, "We drive fans to a waitlist instead of driving fans to Ticketmaster where they would just see a sold-out message. So our whole thesis has just been if a fan's going to hit a dead end anyway, capture their data and empower the artist to own that. Then we will offer the service of automating those alerts about new tickets, getting new shows that have been released, and reminders when the tickets go on sale." Artists can also log into an insights tab to view the number of people signing up for tickets or joining the waitlist, and Seated manages primary ticketing for 290 artists as well. "We are taking 10% allocations for their presales, bundling them with merchandise and other offers to the top fans," McKay explains.

Read the full story on Pollstar. 

Tags: Technology