In this episode of The Live Music Industry Podcast, Matt Ford sits down with Alec Ellin, Co-Founder & CEO of Laylo, for a candid conversation about fan capture, “drops,” and the marketing flywheel powering modern ticket, merch, and content launches. From Laylo’s early pivots through Y Combinator to its breakout product-market fit during the pandemic, they unpack how artists, venues, and festivals are turning social hype into first-party audiences and what that enables next.

In this episode, they cover:

• Laylo 101 — a music-first CRM + messaging platform built to capture fans and drive them to tickets, merch, and content

• The origin story — from Dark Chart & Silo to YC, a painful pivot, and finding the winning “drops” model in 2021

• What a “drop” really does — productizing FOMO to convert attention into signups before the on-sale moment

• Scale by the numbers — 60M+ fans reached, 200K drops in a year, and tens of thousands of platform users

• Multi-channel messaging — SMS, email, Instagram, and WhatsApp, plus high-performing IG DM capture flows

• Why venues and festivals are adopting Laylo — high-conversion drop pages, list growth without requiring a ticket purchase, and demand-driving campaigns

• First-party data, done right — why Laylo won’t share PII, and how “collabs” let artists + promoters build lists compliantly

• Smarter segmentation — targeting likely ticket and merch buyers to improve cost, deliverability, and fan experience

• AI inside the product — multi-drop builders, “magic templates,” and the roadmap to put CRM workflows on autopilot

It’s a practical, founder-level look at how modern fan marketing is evolving and why capturing first-party demand before the on-sale moment is becoming a competitive advantage for artists and live event businesses alike.

As a listener of our show, you can get 50,000 free messaging credits through Laylo here when you use code LAYLO26.