LIVE ENTERTAINMENT IN the city can be expensive. Whether it’s seeing a band perform at Zaphods or watching the latest play at the Great Canadian Theatre Company, hitting the town can take a toll on your finances. That’s where Ottawa native Mike Matheson comes into the mix. The local entrepreneur recently started the website iPricedit.com, which aims at getting people to bid on any type of entertainment for the price they want.
“Essentially you go to the site, pick a show, enter how much you want to pay for tickets in the areas you want, and if we are able to accept your offer, you get in for the price you named. If we can’t accept the offer, it doesn’t cost you a penny,” says Matheson in an email interview with the Fulcrum.
Matheson’s new buisness venture can be seen as a fusion between eBay and Ticketmaster because it allows users to bid on their tickets, offering Ottawans a different way to enjoy live performances.
“I [had] … been chatting with friends and said, ‘I would have gone to that show, but not for that price,’” says Matheson on how he came up with the idea for the website. “We’ve also all been to a show where there were a bunch of empty seats. [This] was a problem that I wanted to solve, and one day while I was in class I just came up with a way to bring the two together—just like that iPricedit.com was born.”
According to Matheson, iPricedit is perfect for budget-conscious students.
“The website is open to anyone —but particularly valuable for students … You go to iPricedit.com, pick the show that you are interested in, and enter the price you would like to pay for the areas you are interested in.”
Any wary would-be participants need not be afraid of bidding on a show. There are no additional fees and you only pay what you offer. Participants will also be notified whether their offer was successful within 24 hours of the bid closing.
iPricedit is currently an Ottawa-only venture, but Matheson hopes to expand and include other cities in the future.
“Ottawa has been a great starting point for us, but I’d like to see iPricedit.com bringing fans across North America great deals on live entertainment.”
There are also interesting promotions that run in conjunction with the bidding.
“[We had] a pre-sale for participant experience tickets to the Ottawa Shakespeare Company’s Julius Caesar,” says Matheson. “It [was] an interesting event where … [we allowed] the ticket holder to become part of the performance.”
Matheson advises anyone interested to sign up for email alerts to get the lowdown on any special events that iPricedit is running.
—Sofia Hashi
