Stephen Glicken is the founder of Project Admission, a new ticketing technology that allows users to have their identity associate with their ticket. Originally, having a background as a producer and finding his way into the ticketing realm of live events, Stephen has worked with everyone from Adele to Paul McCartney.

Seeing a need for additional security and revenue in the ticket industry, Stephen has found a way to prevent fraud and ensure that tickets that are bought actually get used (currently almost 40% of seats go unfilled across live events).

Millennial Magazine sat down with Stephen to discuss his background and his new technology that will change the way we see a concert or show.

What originally inspired you to start Project Admission? What was the need for it?

Millennial Magazine- Stephen Glicken

Stephen Glicken

During my nearly decade long tenure at CrowdSurge/Songkick, I worked with artists to help them sell tickets directly to their fans. In reshaping how tickets were sold in order to more super serve fans, the inefficiencies and disconnected experience of the ticketing industry came into sharp focus. While there were, on occasion, technological hurdles, the biggest ones often came from the realities of how and where ticketing companies allowed their contracted venues’ tickets to be sold outside of their respective websites.

We’re not looking to disrupt the ticketing industry. Quite the opposite, actually. What we’re focused on is addressing the problem around understanding who the end-user is and the journey the ticket took to arrive there. The current reality is that we have no good way to know who is buying, selling and reselling tickets let alone who is attending all these events. We are working to connect the ticket from purchase to event by giving rights holders a far greater degree of control and participation than they do now.

Can Project Admission be used for any type of event?

Yes. Our platform can be “white-labeled” and helps to empower the ticket sellers and rights holders across any type of event whether it’s a concert, Broadway show or game.

How does having a personalized ticket translate to more sales?

As an industry, we currently know around 10-15% of who is attending an event. By knowing who is in the room you have a better chance of engaging those same people to attend another event in the future. (Nevermind the understanding this brings to brands from sponsorship perspective.) 

What tips do you have for an entrepreneur looking to get into the live event industry?

It’s a tricky space with a lot of stakeholders. Only now, after being in the music business for close to 20 years, do I feel like I have a good handle on it. Pick a part of the industry you are passionate about that you believe can have real impact on, put your head down and work your ass off.

What do you believe to be the future of the ticketing industry? Any trend forecasts?

Rather than trying to somehow eliminate the secondary market, I would rather hold hands with it and help leverage the power of its audience and platforms. Everyone in the primary market is trying to capture the secondary market, and everyone in the secondary market is trying to secure validation with a direct connection to the primary. I’d like to help facilitate the connection. 

What that will look like is a connected, distributed network that allows rights holders—artists, teams, promoters, media companies and institutions—to control the lifecycle of the ticket.