BuyPlayTix Blog: Archive

Infrastructure Release

Quickly on the heels of 4.4 is release 4.5. This one is mostly filled with uninteresting things that make the back end hum better and fix bugs. Donation Emails You can now customize the email sent to donors under Settings-Global Settings. Then click on the Donation tab. Tunes to Add Production The add production wizard was not as robust as it needed to be. Now you can no longer delete shows...

Dec 3rd

New Release!

Version 4.4 of BuyPlayTix was released Monday night. It brings with it a few cool new features and many bug fixes: Default Ticket Prices Currently ticket prices are sorted from highest to lowest, with the most expensive option selected. Now in the Add/Edit Production wizard you can choose a default price that will be selected instead of the most expensive price. QR Codes By default a QR Code...

Nov 30th

Discount Codes

In the latest release of BuyPlayTix I added discount codes! You can find them under the Productions menu. So what can you do with discount codes? Generate simple discounts (Buy 0 tickets get up to 100 for $3.00 using code CHEAPTIX). Generate complex discounts (Buy 3 tickets for the Sunday Matinee and get 2 free using code BRING_A_FRIEND)! Generate a unique code to send out to cast members for...

Aug 24th

A Question of Contact

Current Contact Screen I’m currently reworking a lot of the user interface behind BuyPlayTix. Much of how it was designed was based on just copying “that’s how it’s done”. I’m currently working on making the site accessible through Facebook and from mobile devices and so I’m trying to think about what people need rather than what most web applications...

Aug 4th

Taking the Work out of Art

So, one of the promises of BuyPlayTix is taking the work out of art. I’ve added two new features this week that hopefully do a little more of that. Email Raplet Rapportive is a cool browser extension for Gmail. You can download it here: http://rapportive.com/ Once you’ve got it installed you can click on the ‘Rapportive’ at the top middle of your screen in Gmail and...

Jul 31st

Invite Friends!

When you buy tickets on BuyPlayTix you’ll now see a link on your receipt page to “Invite Friends!” This will share the fact that you bought tickets on Facebook and let your friends buy them too. It should ensure your patrons don’t have to sit alone and that you take more tickets. There’s also a new Link Share Report that reports on how many times each link has been...

Apr 9th

Calendar

So today I’m introducing one of my favorite new features. It’s a calendar for BuyPlayTix. This is a feature that just works. And requires no extra work on your part. Each producer gets their own calendar. You can check out Hyde Park Theatre’s calendar for Frontera Fest at: http://hpt.buyplaytix.com/calendar.html?start=2010-01-10&end=2010-02-13 That calendar rolls up to the...

Dec 22nd

Watch

My first attempt at a screencast. One of the great features about BuyPlayTix is that you can tag contacts. Want to keep track of your laughers? Your actors? Your whales? Just tag them. Then when you’re ready to create a mailing (whether email or postal), you can follow this video to generate a custom mailing list. BuyPlayTix lets you create lists by tags. By the production or show date a...

Dec 16th

Beta could be betta!

In the latest version of BuyPlayTix you’ll notice that we’ve added a icon to some of the features. While on the one hand this signifies features that are new, less used, and less tested. On the other hand they represent opportunity. They are the germs of a good idea. For example right now the Survey functionality is currently in . Mainly because it’s a feature in search of more...

Dec 16th

YourMailingListProvider integration

YourMailingListProvider.com is a great low cost mailing list provider. They are now integrated into BuyPlayTix. Simply go to plugin settings: Click on the YourMailingListProvider tab: Click on the YourMailingListProvider link to open the website in a new window and login or create and account. Once logged in click on API in the left hand column: Then click “Enable API Access”...

Dec 9th

BuyPlayTix version 3.8 released

A pretty exciting new release. I’ll go into detail in the future on this blog, but here are the highlights: Event Calendar showing all your shows in an easy to use (and configurable) calendar format. Export email addresses automatically to YourMailingListProvider Send surveys using SurveyGizmo so they’re waiting in your patron’s Inbox when they get home after seeing a show ...

Dec 8th

Mobile Technology and the Arts

I’ve been seeing a lot of announcements lately about arts organizations getting iPhone applications. This seems like a great idea in the short run. You get to really connect with your audience with something that’s hip and cool. And frankly if you have a volunteer building it for you and covering all the costs there really is no downside. But as an Arts Organization I’d warn...

Nov 17th

Ticketing and Twitter

Just saw a patron request a ticket reservation over twitter. Anyone think that would be a cool feature to have? Let me know in the comments.

Oct 8th

Finding the Production Link

Generally you’ll simply point buyers at your main ticketing site and they’ll be greeted with the ticketing page for your current production. But occasionally you’ll want to sell tickets to more than one show at a time. You can get a nice link for each show, by first going to your show list: Then click on the “view production” icon. It will open a new window...

Oct 1st

Status Updates

Status Updates are now in the application. You can find them under Contacts->Status Update. Facebook Status Updates are posted as coming from your Page. As long as the user you use to setup your facebook account is an admin on that Page, it should work seamlessly. There are some great new features revolving around tracking sales that come from facebook and twitter coming soon. And if you have...

Aug 9th

Facebook Status Updates

Facebook has improved their API to allow status updates for pages. This is great news and support for it will be in the next version of BuyPlayTix. You’ll be able to update your Twitter account and Facebook status from the same page in BuyPlayTix. There’s even more exciting new stuff coming in the next release too. Stay tuned…

Aug 7th

The Day You Hope Won't Come

My theater company had to cancel a performance tonight. Of course with cancelling a performance comes notifying ticket holders. BuyPlayTix has a great feature for handling this, which took my stress level from a 9 to an 8.95. Better than nothing, I guess. To create a notification list based upon people reserved for a given night go to Contacts->Manage Lists. Enter a name for your mailing...

Jun 17th

Extension Simplicity

One of the goals of BuyPlayTix is to be a great starting point for small theater companies, and to provide the features they need to grow. There are a lot of features that are not used by the majority of users, so starting with release 3.5, they’re going to be hidden. If you go to Productions->Global Settings, and click on the ‘Extensions’ tab you’ll see the...

Apr 16th

Barcodes

Just got my cuecat barcode scanner in the mail. You can get one of these barcode scanners for less than $15 including shipping off of ebay. Just plug them in and you can scan barcodes. Ok, there is a bit of a learning curve to scanning with them, but the price can’t be beat. BuyPlayTix is adding season and festival passes in the next release. I’ve implemented them with a barcodes...

Mar 18th

Welcome

Welcome to the BuyPlayTix blog! BuyPlayTix exists to help take the business out of creating art. To that end we’re constantly adding new features that not only help you take tickets, but also market to your existing patrons and keep track of your budgets. This blog will be a starting point to introduce new features, explain existing ones, and start a discussion about how BuyPlayTix can...

Mar 11th