Hello,
We are looking at different ways to sell digital live stream content this season, and since TNEW's gated digital content feature has been moved to release in late August, I am wondering if any Tessitura users out there can share what they are doing now to sell gated content, particularly if you are using Tessitura/ TNEW for the sales path, and connecting to a third party stream from there somehow? What I am currently envisioning is selling on Tessitura/ TNEW, and then emailing a link to ticket buyers close to the time of a performance. Of course there are easy ways to break through the gate with this method, for example if we use VIMEO, where the password or direct link could be shared with non-buyers. While I'm not incredibly concerned about the dishonesty of our ticket holders forwarding their direct links along to other people, I'd love to know others' experiences and approaches have been with this. Or, maybe there is something simple that I am missing which would allow me to make the streaming more secure.
For Tessitura staff - We are looking to begin selling gated content before the TNEW release, but the actual performances may take place after the release, and so in addition to any third party workarounds that Tessitura users can provide, would we be able to take a performance sold before the release and convert it to a gated digital performance?
I have been searching the community forums and have not found a recent discussion on how people are selling gated content currently, and so if there is already one in progress that I missed, I'd love to be linked to it.
Thanks for your help, and I hope everyone is staying healthy out there!
Andrew
Hi Andrew -
There have been many members who have been successfully selling digital content via Tessitura & TNEW - and pretty much in the manner in which you describe above. While other members of the community will have more hands-on suggestions, we have created some great resources that might be helpful to you to get you started:
https://www.tessituranetwork.com/Help_System/Content/Performance%20Setup/Digital%20Content.htm
https://www.tessituranetwork.com/Items/Videos/Webinars/2020/PopUpSkill_TNEW_Donations_Digital
Regarding your question about selling performances before the release and then converting them to a gated digital content once that feature is available - yes - this will be very easy to do especially if you associate the performances you are selling as digital content with a specific perf type. Once we release the digital content functionality, you will be able to easily configure those performances at the product type level in TNEW to be accessible as digital content by enabling the digital content functionality and then configuring some simple rules around when a customer can access the content (all the time, X days after purchase, X days before the performance, etc.).
If you have further questions on how to best prepare for the conversion, let us know.
Thanks for reaching out and hope you are doing well!
Nara
Thanks very much, Nara, for your direct reply. I'll take a look at the resources you had provided, and I look forward to any advice from the Tessitura community on different third party streaming platforms that might work as a temporary solution.