Merle Haggard in the Hospital with Pneumonia

Doctors found the 74-year-old had several other ailments while he was recovering in a Macon, Ga., hospital. Spokeswoman Tresa Redburn says they diagnosed him with three stomach ulcers, eight polyps in his colon and diverticulitis of the esophagus.

“Thanks to all the wonderful people all over the world that prayed their special prayers. I’m a new man,” Haggard said in a statement issued through Redburn. “Another special thanks to the folks of Macon, Ga., for their kindness, intelligence and probably saving my life.”

Haggard checked into a hospital and postponed his January tour dates last Tuesday after contracting pneumonia.

He checked himself out Friday and tried to make the ride home to Redding, Calif., on his tour bus. Haggard quickly realized he wasn’t up to the trip and returned to Macon, Redburn said.

Haggard is now undergoing a more aggressive antibiotic treatment for pneumonia.

The “Okie from Muskogee” singer had part of a lung removed a few years ago while fighting cancer. It’s unclear at this point how Haggard’s tour schedule to support his latest album, “Walking in Tennessee,” will be affected. His website shows his next date is Feb. 28 in Tuscon, Ariz.

Wishing you well!

Front Gate Tickets Concerts Now on Spotify

Guest post by Brendan Moore - Product Manager at Front Gate Tickets


During their press conference today, Spotify announced the launch of the App Gallery and an open Javascript API for HTML5 developers to create apps to be used within Spotify.

So what does this mean for live music? Discovery.

Through the applications in the App Gallery, specifically the Songkick app, Spotify will list tour dates for the artists you are currently listening to, with a link to buy tickets to the show.

Through Front Gate Tickets' integration with Songkick, all of our client's concerts will now be automatically listed on Spotify with a link to buy tickets, seamlessly putting your shows in front of 10 million active Spotify users.

What else can these apps offer? The possibility is really up to the creativity of the developers.  We are sure to see a number of innovations, but immediately there are taste-maker apps (like Rolling Stone, Pitchfork), song and album charts (Billboard, We Are Hunted), lyric databases (TuneWiki), and music discovery (Last.fm), to name a few.

Some fun iterations are already being released as well, such as Moodagent: tell them what kind of mood you are in, and they will dynamically created a playlist to match your mood.

We're excited to see what creative ideas are in the works. Check out all of the apps available now over at spotify.com/apps.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-8oHqnAChc

Coachella 2012 On Sale

Last Friday, Front Gate Tickets went on sale with layaway tickets for 2012 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. The demand was incredibly high and some fans waited for a long time to buy tickets. To prepare for the event, we created a waiting room designed to keep fans as informed of their progress as possible. Historically, waiting rooms for high demand events provide concise information so that fans know where they are and why they are in wait.  But this year, Front Gate took steps to improve that user interface (better aesthetics) and messaging ("plenty of tickets are still available"), and even providing fans a game of Pong to play to help pass the time.  Front Gate will use feedback we received from fans to improve its waiting room experience for the many high demand events we ticket including Coachella, Lollapalooza, Foo Fighters and Yo Gabba Gabba fan club tickets, and Austin City Limits Music Festival. Hopefully everyone who wanted to buy tickets on Friday did so. If not, there are still tickets available for both weekends. Visit Coachella's website for links to buy.

Also, check out the recent feature in the LA Times that mentions Front Gate, shows a screen shot of our recent waiting room (with Pong) and talks about opportunities for artists and fans resulting from a second weekend of Coachella.

Payback Could Be a Lollapalooza for Concert Promoters

Article about Front Gate's technology in RFID Journal:

Front Gate Tickets, a provider of promoting, ticketing and managing services for live events, has developed a radio frequency identification system to help concert producers track the flow of ticket holders entering their events, as well as offer a variety of additional services, such as VIP access, social networking for ticket holders, and demographic information regarding ticket buyers. The solution features tickets in the form of RFID-enabled wristbands that can be read at entrance gates, with the capability of being read by fixed or handheld interrogators throughout a park.

The company is based in Austin, Texas, and the first customer for its RFID solution was events-management firm C3 Presents, for use during the Austin City Limits Music Festival, held in October 2010. Passive high-frequency (HF) 13.56 MHz inlays, compliant with theISO 15693 standard, were embedded in Laminex wristbands worn by the festival's approximately 25,000 attendees. Front Gate Tickets indicates it selected HF inlays (in this case, those made with chips provided by Texas Instruments) rather than ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) inlays because the HF versions are considerably less expensive.

Read more

Front Gate Tickets launches RFID and payment plan technology for top U.S. music festivals

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Austin, TX – January 13, 2011 – Front Gate Tickets today announced that it has started offering RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) wristbanding and scanning to the U.S. music festival market in order to improve fraud detection measures. RFID technology is common at festivals in Europe but until now hasn’t been widely available in the states. Front Gate will soon launch new marketing and operations initiatives built around the technology to improve the fan and promoter’s festival experience. The Austin-based ticketing and technology company first used RFID technology at the 9th annual Austin City Limits Music Festival held this past October 8-10. There the company, which will sell tickets for more than a dozen of the top U.S. music festivals in 2011, deployed RFID readers at the gates to authenticate and validate artist and guest credentials. While RFID technology is a bit more expensive than typical barcode scanning, promoters see the value and applications of the technology.

“Concertgoers will always try to circumvent the systems in place for festival ingress when in such high demand,” says Maura Gibson, Director of Ticketing for C3 Presents, which produces Austin City Limits Music Festival, Lollaplaooza, and Wanderlust Festival. “RFID makes it nearly impossible for this activity to continue.”

In addition to launching its RFID technology, Front Gate has recently built a layaway feature into its ticketing system. Layaway tickets, or payment plans, have become an important tool in helping festivals maintain or even increase their attendance in the current economic climate. To date, the company has seen roughly 10% of all participating festival tickets sold this way. Ticket buyers can spread out payments over time rather than take one big hit on their credit card. Front Gate ticketed festivals including High Sierra Music Festival, Wakarusa Festival, Mountain Jam, Jazzfest West, and Delfest have successfully offered payment plans to its customers in the past. Front Gate is currently on sale with 2011 layaway tickets for Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach Festival among others.


About Front Gate Tickets
Front Gate Tickets provides integrated ticketing, website, marketing, and talent buying software solutions to the live entertainment industry. The Austin-based company is one of the largest independently owned companies of its kind with clients including Meatcamp Productions/Camp Bisco, C3 Presents (Austin, TX), Port City Music Hall (Portland, ME), The Snow Ball (Vail, CO), Belly Up (Aspen CO and Solana Beach, CA), Higher Ground (Burlington, VT), Warehouse Live (Houston), and Boulder Theatre (Boulder, CO). Front Gate Tickets is owned by Front Gate Solutions, a software development company, whose mission is to build the most innovative and efficient solution for promoting, ticketing and managing live events.

Front Gate Tickets processes its ten millionth customer order

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Austin, TX – December 13, 2010 – Front Gate Tickets today announced that, over the weekend, the Austin-based company processed its ten millionth customer order. The company, founded in 2003, sells tickets for venues, festivals, artists, and promoters including C3 Presents, Higher Ground (Burlington, VT), Lollapalooza, Pipeline Productions (Lawrence, KS), The Palladium (Dallas), Further, Wilco, Belly Up (Aspen, CO and Solana Beach, CA) and Port City Music Hall (Portland, ME).

“We’re humbled by this accomplishment,” says Jeff Kreinik, Director of Sales and Marketing at Front Gate Tickets. “All credit is due to the promoters who have been with us and stayed loyal to us over the years.”

Front Gate Tickets has seen an increase in sales in each year since its inception due, in part, to its commitment to creating the most innovative and efficient solutions for promoting, ticketing and managing live events. The company continues to innovate by integrating with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, leveraging analytics tools like Google Analytics, building custom websites based on open sourced code such as WordPress, and providing its own offer management/talent buying software that helps improve a promoter’s ability to make smarter and more profitable deals.


About Front Gate Tickets 
Front Gate Tickets provides integrated ticketing, website, marketing, and talent buying software solutions to the live entertainment industry. The Austin-based company is one of the largest independently owned companies of its kind with clients including C3 Presents (Austin, TX), Belly Up (Aspen CO and Solana Beach, CA), Higher Ground (Burlington, VT), Warehouse Live (Houston), and Boulder Theatre (Boulder, CO). Front Gate Tickets is owned by Front Gate Solutions, a software development company, whose mission is to make entertainment organizations more efficient.

Everyone Hates Ticketmaster — But No One Can Take It Down

No, this is not a title I created.  It is, however, the title of an article in the current issue of Wired Magazine that mentions Front Gate Tickets and the state of the ticketing industry.  Interesting read.