TicketsNow is among the largest ticket marketplaces in the world. Adding TicketsNow as a ticket search partner means FanSnap now displays the latest ticket-level detail results for 16+ million sports, theater, and concert tickets. FanSnap’s ultimate objective is to work with every ticket provider in the U.S. to provide fans unparalleled choice and the best value for their entertainment dollar.

We are pleased to welcome TicketsNow, a leader and pioneer in the industry, to what is rapidly becoming the most extensive accurate view of the available live event tickets on the market. The timing couldn’t be better.  We’re approaching one of the hottest times of the live event calendar, when fans are buying MLB tickets, NBA tickets, NHL tickets, NCAA Tournament tickets, and gearing up for the big concert ticket season.

We look forward to making it fast and easy for fans to see the wide selection of high quality tickets available on TicketsNow.com.

Many, many thanks to the FanSnap and TicketsNow teams that made this possible!

“Sold out” is a term concert ticket buyers hear all the time. Sold out used to mean there are no more tickets available to the hottest live events. Not anymore. Today, there is a thriving ticket market - much like the stock market - where fans and professionals buy and sell tickets right up to the start of the event. (check concert tickets on FanSnap)

“Sold out” is now a term that refers to tickets sold on the “primary market,” which means from the box office. Most fans know that scoring tickets to the hottest events through the box office can be a bit like winning the lottery. Dedicated fans might join fan clubs or sign up for credit cards that have pre-sales in the hopes of getting tickets to their favorite band prior to when the tickets go on sale to the general public. When the tickets do go on sale to the general public, there just aren’t that many left so they can sell fast.

It’s usually at this point that fans turn to the ticket market. There’s no shortage of websites where fans can find tickets. The better question for fans isn’t where to find tickets, but rather, where can fans find tickets at the best value.

FanSnap is a ticket search engine that was designed to make it fast and easy for fans to find exactly the tickets they want - at the best value. FanSnap searches dozens of ticket sites representing hundreds of thousands of ticket sellers. This ensures fans are getting a comprehensive look at the market.

FanSnap then plots the tickets on a map of the venue — by row — so fans can see all the available tickets at once as well as see the price of each ticket. Some ticket sellers are highly motivated and offer great values compared to other available tickets. Other ticket sellers fully plan on attending the event but list their tickets for sale just to see if someone will offer top dollar.

For most events, within any given section, there are 25% to 50% and even 100% differences in prices. FanSnap makes these huge variations in asking prices obvious via our color-coded FanSnap Maps. This way fans can easily see where the best values are - just by looking at the map. We then take finding best values a step further by calculating the price variations of every ticket in the venue. This lets us show the tickets that are prices lowest compared to the surrounding tickets. We designate those tickets with blue stars on our FanSnap Maps to make it even easier for fans to buy best values.

Next time you’re looking for concert tickets, check out FanSnap first.

Christian

Recession, what recession?  The year 2009 was a great year for concert goers, as acts new and old hit the circuit and provided concert fans some amazing entertainment!

The year 2009 was also the year many music lovers used the FanSnap ticket search engine for the first time - early in the year when we were still in test mode, and of course all year long since our mid-March official launch.  It is gratifying to see music fans who are unable to find the concert tickets they desire from the box office increasingly turning to FanSnap to give them fast and easy visibility to the dozens of ticket providers whose tickets we search and display.

So who were the most popular acts?  The performing artists and groups whose fans would not take ’sold out’ for an answer?  The most searched for concert tickets on FanSnap in 2009?  You asked, you got ‘em:

1.  Taylor Swift tickets

2.  Miley Cyrus tickets

3.  Bruce Springsteen tickets

4.  Jonas Brothers tickets

5.  Dave Matthews tickets

6.  Phish tickets

7.  American Idol tickets

8.  Kenny Chesney tickets

9.  U2 tickets

10.  Britney Spears tickets

11.  Rascal Flatts tickets

12.  Lady Gaga tickets

13.  Elton John tickets

14.  Keith Urban tickets

15.  Blink 182 tickets

16.  Aerosmith/ZZ Top tickets

17.  Metallica tickets

18.  Jay-Z tickets

19.  Jimmy Buffett tickets

20.  No Doubt tickets

21.  Kid Rock/Lynyrd Skynyrd tickets

22.  Kiss tickets

23.  Beyonce tickets

24.  Coldplay tickets

25.  Nickelback tickets

At FanSnap we can not wait for 2010 to unfold as many of these tours continue, and as new concert tours announcements begin.  Soundgarden, anyone?

Yo, Miley don’t tweet, but she raps!

Fans of Miley Cyrus were the second most active searchers on FanSnap in September.  Despite the controversy around the use of non-transferable paperless tickets on her tour, there are tickets available for essentially every show on the Miley Cyrus Tour on the ticket market.  Check out some of the bigger shows:

What is Billy Ray’s little girl, the busiest teenager since the Olsen twins (and there were two of them) doing in between concerts?  Is she practicing, schooling, working on what she hopes is her fifth number one album, or just doing “girl stuff?”  Miley’s fans glimpse into her day just disappeared, since she just shut down her popular Twitter account.

How could she do such a thing?  Do you even care?  Well if you do, she just released a rap video on YouTube to ’splain herself.  No really.  Enjoy!

On FanSnap, searching fans rarely select a single sports, concert, or theatre ticket.  They pick two, four, …or more tickets.

Of course this makes sense - the best thing about going to events is sharing the experience with your family, friends, or colleagues.

Equally obvious, when several fans go to an event together, they don’t each buy a ticket.  One buys them all.  The “organizer.”  The most trusted member of the group (maybe the designated-driver as well?)  Often this person checks out the options and gains approval from the group before buying.

One day, if a track record of outstanding seat recommendations has been built up, this paragon of fandom is given the proxy for the group.  Yes - they are authorized to buy on behalf of the group.  Post-purchase, they let the group know where they will be sitting.  Now that’s trust.  (For family purchases, it goes without saying that mom usually handles everything.)

Which are you?  The organizer.  The “empowered” organizer?  Mom?  Or are you the lucky beneficiary of the efforts of one of these wonderful people?  It doesn’t matter.  FanSnap has a great feature to make life easy for you all.

Sharing!

Just by clicking on the icons, you can share a single ticket set, your “short list” of tickets, or all the tickets for an event.  And on FanSnap you have lots of ways to share - Facebook, Twitter, Email, MySpace, and Digg.

Need a group “thumbs up” for your selection?  You can click on any of the sharing icons at the top right of the ticket selection page to share all of the ticket choices you see for an event, or just your narrowed list of tickets.  You will also find sharing icons next to each individual ticket set, in case you would like to share a particularly high potential listing.

After you have found the perfect tickets on FanSnap, and purchased them from one of our dozens of ticket partners, we give you one final opportunity to share that information as well.

As one of the other fans in the group receiving this information, you can easily click on the link and see the ticket information!  No confusion.  No more asking “where are the tickets again?” or “did you get good ones?”

The FanSnap team is hard at work, making it as easy as possible for you (and your group) to find - and share - the perfect tickets. Let us know how we are doing, and what you want us to work on next!

Mike