Inside Etix: 100M+ Tickets, Integrated Resale Ticketing, and What’s Next for Ticketing in 2026

Ticketing has never been simple, but it’s getting more complex by the year: new pricing expectations, rising costs, a volatile secondary market, and a shifting buyer experience driven by AI. Ticketing platforms for venues may hold the key.

In a recent episode of The Live Music Industry Podcast, Prism CEO Matt Ford sat down with Michael Reklis (Director of Sales, Music Venues at Etix) and Chris Battaglino (Head of Product at Etix) to unpack what they’re seeing across the industry, from scaling a global ticketing platform to building integrated resale ticketing and preparing for agent-based ticket buying.

Below are the biggest takeaways, plus what they mean for independent venues, promoters, and performing arts organizations navigating 2026.

Etix at a glance: 100M+ tickets and thousands of clients

Etix is operating at a scale most people don’t realize, especially outside the “headline” conversations dominated by the largest incumbents.

According to Reklis, Etix sold over 100 million tickets in 2025, supporting events across 30 countries. Their footprint spans everything from 100-cap clubs to arenas, performing arts centers, and major destination events like fairs and festivals. Reklis also cited ~4,000 individual clients, including roughly 600 music clubs and an estimated 100–150 performing arts centers.

One theme came through clearly: when you serve that many event types, the operational challenges are more similar than most people realize.

“There’s no slow season anymore”: Why modern ticketing is always-on

Battaglino described a shift that many operators feel in their bones: ticketing used to be seasonal, but now it’s constant.

Where the business once had a predictable “busy season” (fairs ramping through summer and fall), Etix now supports activity across verticals year-round: clubs, PACs, festivals, attractions, sports, and more. The result is an always-on product challenge:

• Different event types, different operational needs
• Different levels of staffing and sophistication
• Different expectations around reporting, access control, and customer experience

For product teams focused on ticketing platforms, that creates a daily balancing act: build scalable features that serve everyone, without drowning in one-off requests.

One surprising truth: features built for one vertical often work everywhere

Both Reklis and Battaglino highlighted how often “niche” features become broadly valuable.

A great example: ticketing kiosks.

Originally built for casinos (which didn’t want a 24/7 box office), kiosks ended up becoming highly relevant for music venues and performing arts centers too. That pattern—build for a specific use case, then watch demand spread—is a core strategy for serving diverse venue types without fragmenting the product.

For operators, it’s a useful lens: the best tech investments are often the ones that improve your workflow regardless of event type.

Etix’s “marketing agency” model: Rockhouse Partners

Etix also has something unusual in ticketing: an in-house marketing agency-like arm called Rockhouse Partners.

Reklis described it as a team that supports Etix clients with digital marketing and paid media (Meta, Google, TikTok, and more), not just for concert venues, but also fairs, festivals, and attractions.

The bigger point: even when the events differ, the distribution channels don’t. Whether it’s a kids museum event or an EDM festival, most campaigns live on the same platforms—so the execution playbook can translate.

Why Etix is expanding beyond ticketing

If Etix has focused on venue ticketing platforms for decades, why expand into adjacent tools now?

Battaglino explained it simply: customers asked for it. Once enough venues rely on a platform for their core ticketing operations, they start pushing for fewer vendors and fewer contracts, especially for revenue-adjacent systems.

That pressure is what drove Etix into:

1) Octave (Point of Sale)

Etix launched Octave, a point-of-sale product for venues and festivals, and began beta testing in summer 2024. They’ve since moved into regular usage with double-digit clients, supporting sales for food & beverage, merch, and other on-site items.

A key advantage Etix has here: a strong base of customers willing to pilot new tools and internal “friendly” test environments (like events connected to Etix leadership) that help reduce rollout risk while the product matures.

2) Seat Relay (Integrated secondary resale ticketing)

The secondary ticket market is messy for everyone: venues, fans, artists, and ticketing providers. Etix’s response is Seat Relay, a native resale ticketing product that keeps the venue in control.

Integrated resale ticketing: Why venues want a chain of ownership

Battaglino outlined the core pain points venues face when resale happens elsewhere:

• Lost revenue from secondary transactions
• No access to buyer emails/fan relationship data
• The worst-case scenario: bad tickets at the door and no recourse

Etix’s integrated resale ticketing approach centers on the chain of ownership. When a ticket is resold through Seat Relay, Etix can invalidate the original ticket and issue a new barcode to the buyer. That reduces fraud risk and improves fan experience at entry.

Waitlists now, peer-to-peer next

Seat Relay already supports waitlists for sold-out events. Etix also plans to roll out peer-to-peer resale (seller sets price within venue rules), with venues able to set parameters and caps.

Reklis emphasized Etix’s philosophy here: give venues control of their own destiny. Some venues want resale ticketing off entirely; others want it on—with guardrails.

Dynamic pricing: Rules-based pricing tied to sales velocity

Etix also supports dynamic pricing ticketing, but not as “AI decides the price.”

Reklis described it as a rules-based system where venues can define triggers tied to sales velocity. Example: Should a $50 ticket rise toward $75 because 100 tickets were sold in a week, or because 100 tickets were sold in 15 minutes?

Venues can set floors and ceilings, allowing prices to rise (or fall) without “giving it away” or overshooting demand.

Battaglino pointed to a likely middle ground for AI: not full control of pricing, but recommendations, identifying which shows are best suited for dynamic pricing and suggesting guardrails.

All-in pricing: Does it hurt sales?

The conversation also touched on all-in ticket pricing (showing the full cost up front).

Reklis shared historical context that’s easy to forget: Ticketmaster previously experimented with all-in pricing broadly and rolled it back after sales dropped (he cited the early 2010s timeframe). Both he and Battaglino emphasized the importance of a level playing field: all-in pricing works best when everyone is required to do it, so consumers can compare apples to apples.

Reklis also shared a real-world operator insight: many venues think sales are down after all-in pricing, but when Etix compared periods (month-over-month and year-over-year), most were flat or slightly up, suggesting macro conditions may be a bigger driver than pricing presentation alone.

The bigger issue: The “Wild West” secondary market

One of the strongest points in the episode: all-in pricing debates are hard to isolate when secondary market pricing is still chaotic.

Reklis described scenarios where a venue sells a $25 ticket, but fans call furious because they paid $250 on a resale site while primary tickets were still available. That confusion erodes trust and highlights why many venues want tools that keep pricing, access, and ownership closer to the primary system.

He also encouraged venues to get involved in industry advocacy around ticketing regulation and consumer protection.

2026 outlook: Consumer confidence and “mental” price thresholds

Neither guest claimed a crystal ball, but both pointed to a few practical signals:

• Consumer confidence will likely remain the key indicator of discretionary spend.
• Many venues feel squeezed by costs even when grosses are up.
• There may be a “mental threshold” for pricing. Reklis suggested that getting ticket prices under $30 (or the equivalent in your market) can meaningfully change buyer behavior.

AI and the future of ticket buying: Conversational, agent-based, and fast

AI came up as a when, not an if.

Battaglino said Etix is actively discussing visibility in AI-driven search and discovery (often framed as AEO—Answer Engine Optimization). The future buyer experience could look less like searching a website and more like:

• “What shows should I go to in the next two months based on my Spotify?”
• “Buy three tickets. Here’s the all-in price. Confirm?”

But both guests emphasized the tradeoffs: the same “agent” convenience that helps fans could also help scalpers and fraudsters. If ticketing becomes more automated, platforms need stronger controls to ensure only good actors “get the keys.”

Battaglino summed up Etix’s role in that future: remain the source of truth, issuing barcodes, tracking ownership, and controlling who can transact securely.

Where Prism fits: Staying focused so venues can go wide

A key Prism takeaway in the episode: Prism has intentionally stayed focused on the operational backbone—offers, settlements, workflows, and integrations—instead of becoming a ticketing company.

That focus is what enabled Prism to build products like Insights, giving partners network-wide benchmarks and deal context that can change decisions before a show is confirmed.

And as Matt shared at the end of the episode, venues can now access Insights even without using Prism Core, as long as they’re on an integration partner like Etix, opening the door for more of the industry to benefit from shared data.

Final takeaway: The future is integrated, but control matters

If there’s one throughline from the conversation, it’s this:

Venues are moving toward integrated stacks (ticketing + resale + POS + data), but they want control over pricing, policies, relationships, and outcomes.

Whether you’re running a club, PAC, or multi-venue organization, the operators who win in 2026 will be the ones who:

• Tighten their workflows and reduce tool sprawl
• Protect fan experience with clean ownership and entry
• Use data to make better decisions earlier
• Stay adaptable as AI changes discovery and buying behavior

Book a Prism demo to see how Prism Insights can impact live event ticketing.