Hi everyone,

I am extremely excited to share some big news: We're lowering the price of Tixato. A lot.

Tixato is our fast, friendly ticketing service for the performing arts. It offers online ticket sales for your patrons, a box office interface for your staff, advanced reporting tools, seating charts, ticket printing, donations, subscriptions, coupons, and an integrated patron database.

As of today, we've dropped our Tixato fees from "99 cents per ticket plus 1.9 percent" to a flat 25 cents per ticket or donation. Just sign up to process your sales with a Stripe account, and you'll get this new great pricing. And as always, free events are free and cash sales carry no fees.

Celebrating 10 Years of Empowering Artists

Ten years ago this month I was writing the first code that would become QLab. When I shared it with a mailing list for sound designers, it wasn't for sale. When people said I should sell it, I made it inexpensive, because I wasn't convinced many folks would actually buy it.

I didn't know it at the time, but by making QLab accessible to everyone, I was accidentally jostling the industry. Young people suddenly had access to a professional tool, and independent professionals could approach their work with a new calculus and new possibilities.

I sold QLab for less money, but more people could buy it. When I finally understood QLab was not just a hobby but the foundation for a company, I didn't want to leave that spirit behind. As it matured, we've always been careful to keep it accessible to a wide range of budgets.

Which brings us to today

A few weeks ago the current team (now 12 strong) traveled from all corners of the United States to spend a week imagining where we go from here.

When it was time to talk about Tixato, I knew I wanted to bring up the idea of dramatically slashing our fees. Our Tixato fees never felt quite like "us", but I didn't know how the rest of the team would feel about it.

Would the the team stomach, say, a flat 75 cents a ticket? Could I talk them down to 50?

I needn't have worried: It turned into one of the fastest decisions we've ever made. I don't think I even initiated the idea, it was just in the air. We seemed to instantly agree we wanted to do something big. Before I knew it, someone had tossed out the idea of a quarter a ticket, and it stuck.

We checked the numbers to see what this change would mean for our venues. It would mean hundreds or often even thousands of dollars saved on fees. The difference between hiring a choreographer, or paying the actors more, or investing in higher production quality. It felt right. It felt like us.

How is this possible?

When we launched Tixato a few years ago, we didn't know what to expect. How much would it cost to support? How much would it cost to run?

We took a look at the other products out there and decided that, to be safe, we should start with fees about the same as theirs.

We've now processed hundreds of thousands of tickets in Tixato, and we've learned a lot. One of the things we learned is that, as far as we can tell, high quality ticketing just doesn't have to cost so much.

We created Tixato because we wanted to fix ticketing. We wanted artists and organizations to sell tickets and accept donations more easily, with a better box office interface, better reporting tools, and amazing support. We wanted patrons to have happy, hassle-free experiences from the very beginning—well before they step foot inside your theater on the day of the show.

But fixing ticketing isn't just about the technology. Fixing ticketing also means fixing the cost of ticketing.

We pride ourselves on being a different kind of company. We're in this to make a difference, not to make a killing. We don't have to answer to venture capitalists or stock holders, we only have to answer to you. We aspire to overturn the status quo, making better tools that are accessible and empowering for artists everywhere.

Still the same great service

It's still the same great Tixato. It's still the friendliest ticket buying experience for your patrons. It's still the best-in-class box office interface for your staff. It still has all the same advanced reporting tools, customizable seating charts, ticket printer integration, iOS ticket collection app, and daily deposits direct to your bank account.

It just costs less.

A special request to you

We don't spend a lot of money on marketing. We like to think of it as putting our marketing budget into your bank account.

But we also think this new pricing could be a big help for a lot of artists and organizations. Please help us spread the word.

Thanks for listening, and as always, please drop us a line if you have any questions!