A tiered release is priced by deciding how many tickets sit in each tier, what each tier costs, and what opens the next one. What the platform charges is normally a fee on every ticket plus a share of the face value, taken on each tier as it sells. Because one part of that charge is a percentage, the platform's cut rises every time the ladder does.
Festivals tier because the money has to arrive before the site does. An early allocation at a low price pays deposits on the line-up and on the field; the later rungs cover the build. The ladder is a funding plan first and a marketing device second.
The three decisions in a tier
Each rung is really three numbers and a rule. Write them down together before an on-sale rather than announcing them one at a time.
- The allocation: how many tickets that tier holds, and whether unsold ones roll into the next rung or disappear.
- The face value, and whether it is the same for every ticket type inside the rung.
- The trigger that opens the next tier: a sell-out, a date, or whichever comes first. A date is easier to advertise, a sell-out is easier to defend.
- Who the rung is open to. A pre-sale for last year's audience, a local allocation or a partner hold is a tier with a different door on it.
- The order limit per buyer, which decides how quickly a cheap rung is cleared by resellers.
What is charged on each rung
Ticketing is usually billed two ways at once. There is a fixed amount per ticket, which is the same whether the rung is cheap or dear, and a share of the face value, which is not. Raise a tier to cover an artist fee and the percentage rises with it, for work the platform did not do differently.
Then there is how the fee is shown. Either it is added at the checkout, so the buyer sees a price above the one you advertised, or you absorb it into the face value. Absorbing does not remove the fee. It moves it onto your margin, and the percentage part then applies to a face value you raised to cover it.
Card processing sits underneath all of that. That charge belongs to the processor, not the platform, and applies to any system that takes a card, including one you own.
Instalment plans change the arithmetic
Splitting a ticket across several payments sells rungs that would otherwise stall. The fee is commonly taken on the plan when it is set up rather than when it completes, so a buyer who stops paying can still have cost you one. Failed collections, expired cards and the chasing are your office's work either way.
Total the whole ladder, not the per-ticket fee
Before you publish a ladder, put each rung's allocation against its face value and the fee terms, and total what leaves in fees if every rung sells. That number is what you are agreeing to. Our software bill calculator is a free calculator that turns a fee per ticket and a share of face value into a yearly and a three-year total.
Do the same for the rungs that are never advertised: coach and camping bundles, payment-plan tickets, and any warm-up or second weekend. Those are frequently charged on the same terms and are the easiest part of the sum to leave out.
Owning the checkout changes none of what an artist costs or what the processor charges. What it changes is whose decision the fee is, because with no per-ticket charge sitting underneath, the price of a tier and the booking fee on top of it are yours to set. Our guide to renting versus owning business software covers when that is worth doing and when it plainly is not, and our page for music festivals sets out what is rented across an on-sale and which parts can be rebuilt.