TodayTix

History

TodayTix was founded in March 2013, by Broadway producers Merritt Baer (CEO) and Brian M. Fenty (Executive Chairman), and has its headquarters in New York City. As of 2013, fewer than 1% of tickets for Broadway shows were being bought via smartphone apps or otherwise using mobile devices, according to The Broadway League.

In July 2013, TodayTix received $582.5K in seed funding from Jeremy Zimmer and Link Ventures. A beta version of the app was released in September 2013 for customers with iPhones to test. Within three months the app had been used to buy tickets 50,000 times. The TodayTix app was officially launched in December 2013.

In May 2014, the company received $1 million in an additional seed funding round from Rubicon Venture Capital, Ryan Rockefeller, Nicolas Jammet, and Jessica Verrilli. In November 2014, TodayTix announced its $5 million Series A financing from investors including Rubicon Venture Capital (again), TYLT Lab, Scott Birnbaum and SF Capital Group.

As of mid-2015, TodayTix claimed to be "selling roughly 3 percent of all the tickets on Broadway".

In June 2015, TodayTix launched in London's West End, with the company viewing its UK operations as a base for future European expansion. Beginning in August 2015, TodayTix offered the first paperless tickets for shows in London's West End theatre district. As of September 2015, 650,000 people had used TodayTix.

Operations and products

Using the app, customers can select from a range of shows in Broadway, Off-Broadway, California, Chicago, Washington D.C., Connecticut, Boston, or West End, and purchase tickets up to a week in advance, or as close as the day of the show. For NYC tickets, TodayTix charges a $5 fee for Off-Broadway shows and $10 for more expensive Broadway shows. Depending on the production and city, customers can either meet a TodayTix agent outside the theater who will give them their tickets until 30 minutes before the show's start time for an extra $5, or collect their tickets at the theater's box office on the same day as the show.

TodayTix has partnership arrangements with a number of institutions of the New York theater scene, including Atlantic Theater Company, Blue Man Group, Lyric Theatre, MSG Entertainment, Roundabout Theatre Company, St. Ann's Warehouse, Stomp, and The Public Theater. In June 2015 TodayTix offered tickets to more than 40 different shows in New York City.

The company has begun to expand into California performance ticketing, arranging to vend tickets for locations including San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, Beach Blanket Babylon, and the San Francisco Opera; San Jose's San Jose Improv Comedy Club; and Mill Valley's Marin Theatre Company.

TodayTix also has partnership arrangements to sell tickets for more than 40 different shows at London venues including Ambassadors Theatre, Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, Nimax Theatres, Really Useful Group Theatres, Sadler's Wells Theatre, Shaftesbury Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and St Martin's Theatre.

TodayTix launched the first-ever mobile lotteries for theater tickets, both on Broadway and in the West End, selling discounted same-day tickets via lotteries conducted through its app. Entrants can win up to two tickets for popular shows. These have included Broadway's first mobile lottery, for On the Town; Central Park's Shakespeare in the Park program; and the first UK mobile lottery, for Kinky Boots.

Reception

Lauren Glassberg of New York City ABC affiliate WABC-TV stated in her review that although TodayTix "can save you money and time", the prices (including fees) offered by TodayTix are not always the lowest price available for tickets to the same show. Glasberg also pointed out that concierge ticket pickup is only available until half an hour before a show starts; concierge customers cannot pick up their tickets any later than that. A review by Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press said the app "promises a future of no long lines, shady websites and uncertainty", while warning that tickets purchased through the app can only be picked up at the theater's box office if that theater has agreed to a partnership with TodayTix — for other shows, customers must choose the concierge option with its higher fee. In her review for AM New York, Sara Karl opined that the app's appeal to younger audiences has driven its popularity, but cautioned readers that tickets cannot be purchased further in advance using TodayTix than one week before the performance, nor can customers choose precise seats; only a seating area can be selected, and customers will not know exactly where they will be sitting within that area until the day of the performance.

Diep Tran of American Theatre magazine gave TodayTix an overall positive review, acknowledging that App Store users had given the app an average rating of five stars, but also mentioning the drawback that tickets can only be purchased via the app, using a smartphone or other mobile device. Although TodayTix has a website accessible to desktop and laptop computer users, tickets cannot be purchased on that website. Forbes magazine's Lee Seymour remarked on the way "TodayTix is making Broadway history, moving unsold inventory to consumers a decade younger than the industry average, and [...] also paving the way for new business practices in the Off Broadway market"; he also reported that some theatre producers, speaking on condition of anonymity, had "expressed concern that TodayTix was training audiences to only buy day-of discount tickets". Another theatre-industry insider, speaking with Philip Boroff of The New York Observer, also suggested the company's focus on selling tickets at the lowest price available may actually hurt New York's theater industry.