Jukely’s $25-a-month plan for unlimited concerts launches in L.A.
$25 a month for a ticket to up to one concert a day. That’s the offer from Jukely, a technology start-up that’s bundling concert tickets at a bargain price with the aim of exposing music fans to new acts while extracting at least some revenue out of tickets that would otherwise go unsold.
Subscribers probably won’t get regular access to Taylor Swift or One Direction concerts. But they’ll get a chance to try out an Adrian Lux or a Waka Flocka Flame. The company began offering admission to concerts in Los Angeles this week.
“People end up going to more shows because it’s a low-cost way to go see artists they normally wouldn’t,” said Bora Celik, the Jukely co-founder who has spent time as both a software engineer and a concert promoter.
The Jukely Unlimited subscription service was tested among 500 users in New York City last fall. About 150 people attended a concert through Jukely each night, with the average user going to about two concerts a month. As the service expanded in New York, the figure rose to three concerts a month, with nearly 1,000 performers appearing through the service. The acts span genres such as electronic, indie, punk rock, blues and folk.
About 30% of users have upgraded to a $45-a-month package to receive a second ticket to shows, Celik said.
Tickets become available on Jukely’s website on a first-come, first-served basis two days before an event. On Thursday at 11 a.m., subscribers could see listings for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. The subscription works in any Jukely Unlimited city, which will soon include San Francisco and Austin, Texas. The plan is to reach 400 more cities across the world within the next couple of years.
Jukely began in 2012 as an online tool for people to find concerts based on their musical tastes. But Celik soon saw two trends. Desperate promoters, venues and artists were giving Jukely batches of tickets to hand out for free. Consumers, meanwhile, didn’t crave discovery as much as much as access.
“People are delighted by discovering new artists, but it’s not a problem they think they have,” Celik said during a recent interview in Los Angeles. “What people really want is just to get into things and a heads-up on cool things. Unlimited addresses that.”
Jukely pays an advance to get its hands on tickets, and then shares an additional portion of subscription revenue with the ticket sellers depending on how many people actually attend. The payouts have been increasing 50% each month, Celik said.
“It moves the needle for promoters and venues because it’s really in comparison” to zero dollars, he said. “The people we send them weren’t going to go in the first place, but they end up with additional revenue,” including from in-venue liquor sales.
No promoter has rejected Jukely’s pitch, which Celik sees as evidence that the results are strong.
The New York City start-up is backed by more than $3 million in venture capital. Investors include a cohort that made early bets on online music services Spotify, Pandora and SoundCloud, according to Jukely.
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