We recently moved all our ticketing from Eventbrite to Ticket Tailor. Not because of some sponsorship deal or affiliate link — we just got tired of a platform that treats our audience as their marketing opportunity.

If you're an indie artist running your own shows, here's what we learned.

Your Audience is Not Their Mailing List

Here's something that should make you uncomfortable: every time someone buys a ticket to your show on Eventbrite, that platform emails them about other events. Not your events. Their competitors. Your mate's gig down the road. That DJ night that's the same weekend as your next show.

You worked to get that person interested. You paid for the ads. You built the relationship. And Eventbrite monetises it for someone else.

Ticket Tailor doesn't do this. They email your buyer once — to confirm their ticket — and never again. Your customer data stays yours. When we're ready to announce our next show, we email our list, not hope the algorithm shows it to people who already bought from us.

Free Tickets Should Be Free

Sounds obvious, right? Eventbrite charges you for free tickets. Want to comp the photographer who's shooting your show for free? That'll cost you. Press tickets? Pay up. Guest list for industry contacts who might book you for bigger things? Fee.

Ticket Tailor gives you 5,000 free tickets per year at no cost. Actual free. We run comps for photographers, press, industry contacts, competition winners — none of it costs us a penny, but we still capture their data for future shows.

For a small artist building relationships, this matters more than you'd think.

Cashflow is Survival

Let's be honest about the economics of being an unsigned artist: most shows lose money. Venue hire, band fees, sound engineer, support acts, parking, food — it adds up fast. A 100-cap room at £7 a ticket doesn't cover costs. We're investing in building something bigger.

So when ticket money sits in Eventbrite's account for weeks before they release it, that's weeks we're covering costs out of pocket. Ticket Tailor pays out directly to your Stripe or PayPal — money hits your account when tickets sell, not when the platform decides you can have it.

When you're operating tight, cashflow isn't a spreadsheet term. It's whether you can afford to book the next venue.

Keep Them on Your Site

Ticket Tailor lets you embed the full checkout on your own website. Buyer sees your show, clicks buy, completes purchase — never leaves your site. No redirect to a platform page covered in other events. No 'you might also like' suggestions for your competition.

This sounds like a small thing until you realise every redirect is a chance for someone to get distracted, close the tab, forget to come back. Keep them in your world.

Apple Wallet Passes

This one surprised us. Ticket Tailor lets you create custom Apple Wallet passes with your own branding — your logo, your colours, your event artwork. Buyer purchases a ticket, taps 'Add to Apple Wallet', and suddenly your show is sitting in their phone next to their airline boarding passes and Ticketmaster tickets from arena tours.

It's a small thing that signals 'this isn't a hobby'. Every time they glance at their wallet in the week before your show, there you are. Professional. Legitimate. Real.

Automatic List Building

Ticket Tailor has native Mailchimp integration. Toggle it on, connect your account, and every ticket buyer automatically joins your mailing list. No manual exports. No forgetting to download CSVs after the show. No Zapier subscription to glue things together.

Someone buys a ticket at 2am? They're on your list by 2:01am. When you announce your next show, they hear about it. That's the entire point of owning your audience data — but only if you actually capture it. Automation removes the human error.

Retargeting Actually Works

Ticket Tailor supports Facebook Pixel properly. That means when someone views your event page but doesn't buy, you can retarget them with ads. 'Hey, tickets still available for Saturday' — shown specifically to people who already showed interest.

For small marketing budgets, this is everything. We're not spraying ads at everyone in Belfast and hoping. We're spending money on people who already raised their hand.

The Actual Costs

Ticket Tailor charges a flat fee per ticket — no percentage of your ticket price. That means as your ticket prices go up (because you're playing bigger rooms, building demand), you're not giving away more money.

If you want to remove their branding entirely, it's £7/month. Custom domain (tickets.yourname.com) is £38/month. Neither is essential to start — the free tier does everything you need.

What We Lost

Honestly? Eventbrite has better discovery. If someone's browsing 'gigs in Belfast this weekend', they might stumble on your show. Ticket Tailor doesn't have that — you're responsible for driving all your own traffic.

For us, that tradeoff makes sense. We'd rather own 100% of an audience we built than rent a slice of someone else's platform. Your situation might be different.

The Bigger Point

This isn't really about ticketing platforms. It's about thinking like a business, not just an artist. Every tool you use either builds your thing or builds someone else's. Every email address either goes in your database or theirs. Every pound either comes back to fund your next show or disappears into platform fees.

We're trying to get to Mandela Hall. That means every decision — even the boring ones like ticketing software — has to point in the same direction.

Ticket Tailor isn't paying us to say this. We just wish someone had told us sooner.

Miabella plays Radio in Chains at Union Bar Belfast on February 21, 2026. Tickets at miabella.uk

#IndieArtist #MusicBusiness #TicketTailor #Eventbrite #DIYMusician