A self-proclaimed “concert junkie” named Alex Lepp founded her startup Bid the Beat, which connects fans with artists and venues.
Bid the Beat is a Holly Springs-based concert bidding platform. Concert-goers will compete for artists to come to their city by pledging to buy tickets. If your city is chosen, you will be charged for your ticket and have the chance to see your chosen artist perform.
Lepp’s goal is to make tickets cheaper for fans, and for concerts to be more profitable for concert venues and artists. She hopes her platform will provide venues with more sold-out performances and believes everyone, regardless of where they live, should be able to see a show.
“I just want concerts to be accessible to everybody,” she said, “regardless of where you live or your socioeconomic status.”
Her company was chosen for a spot in the current cohort of the RIoT Accelerator Program (RAP). [We previously profiled another startup in this summer’s cohort, OpenPlains.] Lepp is excited about the opportunities that RAP will bring.
“Being in a program with other individuals who are on the same wavelength, pursuing startups and all the outside perspectives that you get from being in a group like that, I think it’ll be super beneficial,” she said.
Lepp said Bid the Beat will make shows less likely to be canceled and increase the number of concerts in locations where they are most wanted, which is good for the artists and venues as well as fans. She is starting her platform in the Triangle but hoping to expand into other areas in the future.
Sometimes promoters do not sell all of the available seats to fans, Lepp said. This happens if the promoter wants to announce the concert was sold-out. Lepp added that fans pay more for their tickets when promoters do this.
“I just want people to have access to concerts and access to all the available tickets,” Lepp said.
Users will be able to scroll through different options on the website and search by geographic location or artist. To “bid” for a show, you would reserve a ticket through a standard online checkout process. If the artist chooses to perform in your area, you would be charged for the ticket.
Bid the Beat will get a commission from each ticket sale it helps facilitate. Artists will still be able to choose which cities they perform in when touring, but can see where concert-goers most want to see their shows.
“I hope (Bid the Beat) gives artists an opportunity to play to their fan bases, regardless of where they are,” Lepp said, “and I hope it gives concert-goers some control over their entertainment.”
In 2013, a pop artist was scheduled to sing in Cleveland, Ohio. Lepp bought a ticket, but the singer changed the show’s location to another city in the state just a few weeks before it was scheduled to occur. Lepp said she was left wondering why this last-minute change happened, leading to her interest in the concert industry and years of research.
Her experience working as a market analyst gave her the knowledge to create Bid the Beat. Lepp said she applied her previous experience with large amounts of data to the concert industry, looking at different trends and patterns.
“I’m an avid concert-goer and I have been for as long as I was old enough to attend,” Lepp said.
Lepp said her website was up and running in the beginning of 2020, but when Covid started, concerts became “irrelevant.” Lepp added she is working on making the platform available to users within the next year.
“I think the concert going experience is one of the most fun experiences you can have,” she said.
Lepp is currently bootstrapping to fund her platform and looking to take on another person to work with who is knowledgeable about the concert industry.
