Industry Mobile ticketing Website dice.fm Founded 2012 | Founders Phil Hutcheon, ustwo Headquarters London Type of business Private | |
DICE is a live music discovery and mobile ticketing platform co-founded by Phil Hutcheon and digital product studio ustwo in London, United Kingdom in 2014. DICE allows users to search for, browse and buy tickets to a curated selection of music gigs, concerts and festivals with no booking fees. DICE is available to both iOS and Android users and is currently live across various cities in the United Kingdom and Ireland including London, Manchester, Bristol, Cardiff, Brighton, Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham, Glasgow and Dublin.
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DICE was named as one of the Guardian’s best apps of the year in 2014, and one of the App Store Apps of the Year in 2015.
In the 2016 Music Week Awards, DICE was awarded Best Ticketing Company.
Background
Phil Hutcheon and digital product studio ustwo co-founded DICE in 2014. Prior to DICE, Hutcheon spent over 10 years working in the music industry running Modular Recordings and latterly his own record label, management and events company Deadly People. ustwo is an independent digital product studio based in London, New York, Malmö and Sydney. ustwo works with global brands on a variety of projects ranging from apps to interfaces, and also builds its own products such as the escher-inspired Monument Valley game which won two BAFTAs, an Apple Design Award and Apple’s Best Game of 2014. ustwo was co-founded by John Sinclair (known as Sinx) and Matt Miller (known as Mills), both of whom have active roles within DICE.
Hutcheon had the original idea to create a ticketing platform that would put fans and artist first. After 10 months of research, Hutcheon, Mills and Sinx partnered equally on the venture, bringing together a team and funding the business themselves for the first version of the DICE app.
The company shares studio space with ustwo in their offices at the Tea Building in Shoreditch, London.
Services
Customers using the DICE app can search, browse and buy tickets for upcoming gigs, concerts and festivals which have been curated by an editorial team led by Vice alumni Russ Tannen and former BBC Radio 1 DJ Jen Long. Users pay no booking fees for tickets purchased on DICE. Spotify and Apple Music integration allows fans to listen to 30 second track previews within the app. DICE is available to both iOS and Android users and is currently live in London, Manchester, Bristol, Cardiff, Brighton, Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham, Glasgow and Dublin.
Tickets are purchased within the app and exist on the user’s smartphone as a QR code which also includes the date, time and location of the event. Customers can add themselves to a “Waiting List” for sold out shows. If users are no longer able to attend a show they can return their tickets to DICE; these tickets are then passed on those who have added themselves to the “Waiting List” on a first-come, first-served basis.
Each listing also displays a selection of recommended shows at the bottom of the event description. This shortlist is generated by a mix of algorithms and human-powered editorial.
All of the tickets sold on DICE are sourced directly from labels, promoters and venues; the company does not participate in secondary ticketing. Since launch, over 600 artists have sold their tickets on DICE including Taylor Swift, Disclosure, Rudimental, Jamie XX, George Ezra, Little Dragon, Jack White, Four Tet, Alabama Shakes, Years & Years and Rae Morris.
Recognition
DICE was named as one of the Guardian’s best apps of the year in 2014. In the 2016 Music Week Awards, DICE was awarded Best Ticketing Company.