About me
Stumbling into the music business from a job behind the singles counter at the local Oxford Our Price record store in 1986, Dave Newton's journey to self-proclaimed fan-experience ticketing evangelist has taken many left turns along the way. Launching a local music paper led to running a weekly live music club night at the Jericho Tavern which, in turn, led to managing various moderately successful indie bands throughout the 90s.
In 1995, Dave established a local music hub in Oxford out of which Shifty Disco Records was born in 1996. Set up to facilitate the sales of the label's CDs around the world, the OxfordMusic.net online store, in turn, spawned the first incarnation of WeGotTickets.com in April 2000 - the world's first digital-only, self-service ticketing platform.
The company’s 10% maximum ticket commission rate helped to lower fees across the sector, whilst its pioneering paperless ticketing system was a major factor in reducing the ticketing industry’s carbon footprint.
As the company grew steadily through the 00s, Dave consistently pushed for innovation, transparency and best practice across the ticketing industry; with many of the company’s ideas becoming standard industry practice. At its peak in 2012, it sold a million tickets in the UK.
Dave exited from WeGotTickets in 2018 and the renewed spring in his step since has precipitated strategic involvement in a number of innovative, forward-thinking projects in the ticketing sector (SeatFair, Piktical, Only With Trust, Ticketi), each of which are focused on the fan as the centre of the live music ecosystem.
These experiences have recently coalesced into the founding of the Developing Ticketing Innovation Group.
Projects
- Tick Talk [5]When: Tuesday 15th October 2024 - 5:30pm onwards Where: Upstairs @ The Red Lion, Kingly Street, London W1B 5PR What: An occasional, informal, open event for anyone interested in the ticketing and live events industry that wants to chat freely about the sector and how, importantly, we might be able to foster collaboration to deliver new ideas. But really?: A chance to chew the cud over a pint or two with like-minded souls.
Work history
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FounderDeveloping Ticketing Innovation Group
Oxford, United KingdomFull Time
Nurturing live event ticketing innovation.
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Development AdvisorTicketi
Oxford, United KingdomFreelance
Empowering artists to provide a ticketing service that puts their main asset (their fans!) at the centre of the process.
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Education
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Mathematics (BA Oxon)Oxford University
- Oxford, United Kingdom