Happy Holidays from Front Gate Tickets!

Enjoy the holiday music play list -- all great songs by great Texas artists!

Happy Holidays from Austin

Front Gate Tickets announces ticketing deals with Belly Up Tavern and Viejas Entertainment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Austin, TX – December 10, 2009 – Front Gate Tickets, a leading provider of ticketing solutions for music festivals, venues, artists, and the Performing Arts, today announced its continued expansion into the San Diego market through its exclusive ticketing deals with Belly Up Tavern and Viejas Entertainment.

“Belly Up is very excited to partner with Front Gate Tickets,” said Steve Goldberg owner of the Belly Up Tavern.  “The move to Front Gate is a win for us and the customer and better reflective of our vibe as the non-corporate approach to entertainment.”

The Austin-based Front Gate Tickets first established a presence in San Diego in 2004 when it became the exclusive ticketing provider for the Casbah. Since, then, the independently owned and operated Front Gate Tickets has provided ticketing services for Street Scene, CityBeat Festival of Beers, North Park Music Thang, Epicentre, Jumping Turtle, Independence Jam, and Hard Rock Hotel among others.

 “We are excited about our relationship with the Belly Up Tavern and Viejas Entertainment,” says Jeff Kreinik, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Front Gate Tickets. “These are two of the premiere venues in the San Diego area and two of the more forward thinking organizations around.”

Tickets for Belly Up Tavern can be purchased at http://bellyupsolanabeach.frontgatesolutions.com. Upcoming shows there include Average White Band (12/13), The Greyboy Allstars (12/23), and Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven (12/29).  Tickets for Viejas Entertainment are available at http://viejas.frontgatetickets.com. Upcoming shows at Viejas include Tower of Power (12/12), Zapp (1/16), and David Sanborn (2/19).


About Front Gate Tickets
-------------------------------
Front Gate Tickets provides web-based ticketing solutions and event-management services to entertainment organizations in the United States. The company, based in Austin, TX, is one of the largest independently owned ticketing agencies with clients including C3 Presents (Austin, TX), San Diego Street Scene (San Diego, CA), Belly Up Aspen (Aspen, CO), The Long Center for the Performing Arts (Austin, TX), Warehouse Live (Houston, TX), 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.


######

Contact:

pr@frontgatetickets.com
512.674.9342

Front Gate Tickets announces ticketing deal with Greenbelt Events

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Austin, TX – December 2, 2009 – Austin, TX-based Front Gate Tickets today announced an exclusive ticketing deal with Greenbelt Events, the leading mid-size event producer, concert promotion and talent buying firm in the greater Harrisburg, PA area. The company, a joint venture between independent music promoter and blogger, Mike Van Jura, and Sarah Staub is an offshoot of their last promotion company, Roundtable Presents. Roundtable produced more than 2,500 concerts and events over the last five years including Cracker, The Hold Steady, Mike Doughty, Lotus, and Hot Buttered Rum.

"We're really excited to be working with Front Gate as we push forward in producing concerts in the coming years,” offers Van Jura. “In our experience, fans want lower service fees and a simple solution to purchasing tickets. And as a promoter, we were looking for the support and professionalism that we found were lacking with previous ticketing providers.”

With this partnership, Front Gate Tickets continues its expansion in the Northeast. The independent ticketing company already features clients in the area such as Higher Ground (S. Burlington, VT), The Westcott Theater (Syracuse, NY), Mountain Jam (Hunter, NY) and Barre Opera House (Barre, VT). Tickets for Greenbelt Events’ New Year’s Eve show and beyond are available at http://greenbeltevents.frontgatetickets.com.


About Front Gate Tickets
Front Gate Tickets provides online ticketing solutions and event management services to the live entertainment industry. The company, based in Austin, TX, is one of the largest independently owned ticketing companies with clients including C3 Presents (Austin, TX), Wanderlust Festival (Lake Tahoe, NV), Belly Up Aspen (Aspen, CO), The Long Center for the Performing Arts (Austin, TX), Warehouse Live (Houston, TX), 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.

Billboard Touring Conference Wrap Up

Last week, Shawn Nelson and I attended the Billboard Touring Conference in NYC. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect going into it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of panel discussions. Most conferences are little more than industry folks touting their businesses -- but that was not a common theme here. On one panel, managers for Coldplay, Beyonce, Dave Matthews Band, Buckcherry, Patty Griffin, and My Morning Jacket debated topics such as fan club ticketing and record label issues and practices. Some of these managers believed in fan club ticketing, while others thought it was a waste of time. On another panel, folks from AEG walked the industry crowd through the process of convincing Michael Jackson to play 50 shows at O2 Arena in London and the aftermath of the tragedy. Apparently, Jackson originally agreed to 31 shows in an effort to trump Prince's run of 21 dates at O2 Arena by 10 shows. If there is any good news to come out of the tragedy, fans are coming out in droves to see "This Is It" -- the film, which documents rehearsal footage and interviews from the months leading up to the King of Pop's death. And, Jackson is selling CDs!

But, perhaps the most interesting discussion for me was a debate on ways promoters are targeting consumers through online marketing. Charles Attal of C3 Presents talked about how this year C3 dedicated 90% of its marketing efforts for its Lollapalooza Festival and Austin City Limits Music Festival to digital promotions . Front Gate Tickets sells tickets for both of these events, so we are intimately familiar with C3 's efforts. As a result, we work closely with that organization and others like Warehouse Live and Belly Up Aspen to better understand their marketing processes and tactics. This is helping us develop tools within our ticketing system that automates repetitive promotional tasks like publishing events to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other social networks. Our ticketing system is moving more towards a full featured event management and marketing platform from simply a ticketing system. The market is demanding this, and we are having fun developing it.

In short, the 2009 Billboard Touring Conference was a great experience.  I had a chance to hit my hometown of NY for a week while meeting some industry legends and many forward thinkers who are reshaping the music industry into a viable and sustainable business. There is a light at the end of the tunnel -- maybe not for record companies as they operate today, but certainly for the live music industry.

25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concert Review

This past week was the 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concert at New York's Madison Square Garden. Performers included U2, Bruce Srpingsteen, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Metallica, Jeff Beck (replacing an ailing Eric Clapton) and Aretha Franklin, Sting, Lou Reed, Ozzy Osbourne, Ray Davies of the Kinks, Buddy Guy, Jerry Lee Lewis and others. For those of you (including me) who missed the show, on 11/29, HBO will show selections from the event -- accessible from the comfort of your own couch.  I know I will tune in!  Check out the concert review on The New York Times' website

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Austin, TX – October 20, 2009 – Front Gate Tickets, a leading provider of ticketing services for music festivals, venues, artists, and the Performing Arts, today announced it has become the ticketing provider for legendary Dallas rock club, Trees. The venue, which reopened in the summer of 2009 by scene veteran, Clint Barlow, will help bring great music back the Deep Ellum section of Dallas. Upcoming shows at Tree’s include Powerman 5000 (11/11), Hinder (11/28) and The Toadies (12/31). Tickets for these and other great shows are available at http://treesdallas.frontgatetickets.com/.

About Front Gate Tickets
Front Gate Tickets provides web-based ticketing systems and event-management services to entertainment organizations in the United States. The company, based in Austin, TX, is one of the largest independently owned ticketing agencies with clients including C3 Presents (Austin, TX), San Diego Street Scene (San Diego, CA), Belly Up Aspen (Aspen, CO), The Long Center for the Performing Arts (Austin, TX), Warehouse Live (Houston, TX), 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.

iPhone Sales increase; mobile ticketing to follow

It has just been reported that Apple's profits and sales beat Wall Street's forecasts this quarter.  This was due, in part, to the continued demand for the iPhone. It seems like everywhere we look, someone is on his or her iPhone talking, listening to music, or using some type of app.  As usage of smart phones like the iPhone increase, so will the demand for mobile ticketing.  Front Gate Tickets is set to launch its mobile ticketing platform next month. We are already seeing ticket buyers purchasing thousands of tickets with their iPhones; shopping on our current online ticketing website.  Once we launch our mobile optimized ticketing website and as Apple/AT&T competitors release new smart phones to compete (i.e. HTC/Sprint/Android), the market for mobile ticketing should skyrocket.  Front Gate Tickets is committed to being front and center as this explosion develops. And we expect our ticketing system to provide greater value to the live entertainment industry and ticket buyers as a result.