I’ve been involved in the music scene in one way or another for over 35 years — from playing in a local band that went nowhere quick, to promoting concerts and festivals, to touring with national acts, to being on one of the most famous stages in the world to support friends performing there. I’ve worked with close to a thousand bands and artists and a few thousand concerts and festivals. I’ve traveled across the country over a dozen times. I also dabbled in music merchandising for over 30 years, launching Anchor Merchandising in 2019 and currently serving over 500 bands and solo artists. All this to say the music scene has been my life’s work.
When I launched Anchor Merchandising in July 2019, I did little to promote the service. I had a concept I believed would work, to provide quality merchandise at a fair price with profits actually paid to the artist. Instead of promoting non-stop, I knew that what I needed to do is what I always had done, show bands the integrity I’ve always strived for in everything I’ve done, and to let artists tell other artists what I did for them. Within weeks, bands were asking me how to be included on our site. By the end of 2019, we already had over 80 bands, and my idea of bands sharing what we did with other bands worked even better than expected. In seven years, we have helped over 600 bands, artists and other clients with their merchandising needs, and that number continues to grow.
Anchor Events grew out of that same background: years of watching the concert business up close — the bands, the venues, the promoters, the fans who drive hours for a show — and noticing dwindling concert attendance while ticket prices, and service fees continue to increase. There wasn’t a straightforward service to list events and sell tickets without the inflated fees, one that truly existed to serve the music scene instead of the “industry.’
So I built one.
Why Anchor Events is Different
Anchor Events isn’t backed by investors, so we don’t require high profit for minimal effort. That’s not a small detail — it’s the whole reason the model can look different:
- Free event listings for anyone putting on an event, ticketed or not. We can’t honestly say we’re here to support the scene if we don’t prove it by providing more to the scene than we take from it.
- Low ticket service fees, most of which goes to cover our operational cost.
- Free ticket servicing for events, promoters, and venues. Our clients are paid 100% of ticket sales; we will never keep a cent of your ticket sales!
- No special apps or software required! Our platform will provide a QR code that takes you to our ticket scanner page, turning any mobile phone or tablet into a fully functional ticket scanner. No login required!
- No pressure to squeeze every dollar out of every transaction. We don’t have a board asking why margins aren’t higher this quarter. That means we can build a platform that actually works for the people using it, instead of one optimized for extracting the most revenue possible.
Who We’re For
Anchor Events isn’t limited to concerts. If it’s a ticketed event, we’re built for it:
- Concerts, festivals, and live music of any genre — where this all started, and still a big part of what we do.
- Sporting events, from local leagues to bigger showcases.
- Community events of all kinds.
- Fundraisers, whether that’s a big charity gala or a church spaghetti dinner raising money for a mission trip. If people need tickets, we can handle it.
Whoever you are — a band, a venue, a promoter, a school, a nonprofit, a church, a recreational league — you get the same deal: free listings, free ticketing with low front end fees, and a platform that isn’t trying to squeeze you.
Have an event to list? Submit an event or contact us for more information!