5 ways to sell tickets through your music website

Whether you’re playing for a crowd once a month or once a year, it’s sure to be an event your fans won’t want to miss. While there are tons of ways for musicians to make money, live streams, outdoor gigs, and indoor concerts are some of the best ways to showcase your music to friends and industry scouts. 

The effort you’ve put into crafting and practicing your music can feel misspent if your crowd is limited to the sound tech and the bartender. A guest list full of presale ticket purchasers can help give you the motivation to give it your all on stage and continue doing what you love - making music! 

With a return to live events, music fans are starting to buy tickets for their favorite acts ahead of time. To get in on the excitement, start selling tickets before your big show. Here are some great ways to stoke the crowd and sell event tickets from your music website. 

Give your calendar a makeover

With a dedicated music website you can create a page to highlight your upcoming events and sell tickets. Event pages usually have a straightforward setup —with a list of dates, details for the venues, and the event names— but you can give your calendar a boost with imagery, links to bands you’re playing with, and other cool momentos. 

Artist: Emma’s Revolution

Including a gig poster in your event description adds visual interest to your calendar, but if you don’t have access to a gig poster file, pop in some images of your band playing live or use stock imagery as a placeholder. 

Artist: Mike Thomas

Another awesome way to attract fans is to add video of you playing live, or a gallery of images featuring stage antics, backstage fun, and meet-and-greets. 

Once you’ve given your events page a makeover, sell tickets directly from your calendar so you can arrive at the gig prepared with a great guestlist. 

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Offer a limited number of tickets for a special event

Beyond being safe in our current climate, offering a limited number of tickets encourages fans to get in on the ground floor. You can highlight that attendance at your event is limited by calling attention to that aspect in your event title or description. 

Above your calendar, add a standalone text and image feature with a professional shot of you on stage and some text about why space is limited. This will help boost the transaction and let your fans know what they’ll get to enjoy if they take advantage of the online sale.

You can also create a Landing page specifically to drive ticket sales for a special event.

Sell a ticket with merch

Another way to incentivize your fans to get their ticket early is to offer a unique gift with their ticket. In your website’s Store feature, create a product that contains both the event ticket and a special item, like a signed gig poster, an exclusive meet-and-greet, a tour t-shirt, or a booklet with the set list and lyrics to the songs they’ll hear at the show. You can send these items before or after the show, as souvenirs for fans in the crowd.. 

Sell tickets at a discount to your fan subscribers

Fans appreciate special attention from their favourite artists. With a fan subscription setup, you can feature a special event calendar on your subscriber pages to hype up your next event. Offer a VIP-style ticket, with a backstage meet-and-greet. 

If you’re testing out the waters with a new music style or new songs, it may be beneficial for you to try out VIP treatment with your top supporters. Set up tickets for an exclusive live stream and engage them in an intimate performance of your new work. You can also add a virtual tip jar to your page so fans can give you extra kudos during the live stream. 

Artist: Show of Hands

Make a secret event page

Adding a Mailing List Signup Form to your website is a great way to ramp up your marketing potential. Once you have a nice list of contacts, you can send newsletters directly to a fans  inbox to keep them up to date with your latest news and offerings. 

With your mailing list established, consider setting up a secret password-protected page on your website. You can add a separate event calendar to that page and send a mailout to your fans and let them know how to access the exclusive page. Your mailing list members will have special  access to this calendar page, and will be able to purchase tickets securely in advance of regular ticket sales. This is a nice reward for your dedicated fans!

Getting back to performing outdoors, playing local venues, and refining your live stream performances is a major part of the musical experience. With these unique ways to sell tickets through your website, we hope you can start playing to larger crowds of dedicated fans and new friends in the near future!