Question 1

How do venues split money with artists?

Accepted Answer

You set the shares once and bindro cuts the show's net by them. Shares are basis points that must total exactly 100%, set as a house default or against one show, where the show's own set replaces the default wholesale — a different headliner every night is the normal case. They are frozen onto the payout when it is scheduled, so editing them next week never moves money that has already settled, and the leftover cents go to the largest fractional claim rather than each share being rounded on its own, which is what makes the parts add up to the whole. What bindro does not do is send the artist their share: it holds no bank details for anyone but you, so a split show stops before anybody is paid and names the parties it could not reach. You get the arithmetic and the record; you still make the payment.

Question 2

What ticketing works for a 200 capacity venue?

Accepted Answer

One that costs nothing until a ticket sells, works the door without signal, and does not need a contract. Bindro is 2.5% + $0.99 per paid ticket with no monthly fee, no setup fee and no minimum volume, so a Tuesday that sells thirty tickets costs thirty tickets' worth of fees. The room is a capacity pool: you set the number, the pool refuses to sell past it in the database rather than in the page, and advance and walk-up sales draw down the same number. You get a hosted listing page you can also embed in your own site, tiered pricing with real selling windows, an offline door that scans with no coverage, and per-show reporting you can export.

Question 3

How do I stop ticket resale scams at my venue?

Accepted Answer

By making the handover named, so the ticket that was sold on stops working. When the original buyer passes a seat to somebody, bindro rewrites the credential in the same transaction: the old QR code stops admitting on both the online scan and the offline door list, the new holder is emailed the code that now works, the previous holder is told it has moved and is not sent the new one, and an append-only record says who it came from. Nothing about the money changes — no inventory moves, and the order and its refund right stay with the person who paid, so "transfer it to me" can never be a way to take somebody else's refund. Be clear about the limit, though: this stops a screenshot being resold twice, not somebody selling a ticket privately at four times face value. There is no resale marketplace and no price cap here.

Question 4

When do I get paid after a show?

Accepted Answer

Two days after the last set of that show has finished. Bindro schedules one payout per show and only once every session of it has ended — money for a night that has not happened yet is not yours, and that rule is the same for every venue on the platform and cannot be turned off. The practical consequence is worth planning for: if you list a whole month's programme as one show with twenty dates, you are paid once, two days after the last of them. One show per night is what you want. The release goes to the payout destination you connect in the console, and if it is missing or a transfer cannot be made the payout waits and tells you why rather than claiming money moved.

Question 5

Why is part of the money held back as a reserve?

Accepted Answer

Music venues sit in the medium risk tier, so 9% of the net is withheld when the payout releases and returned 90 days later. The figure comes from the expected cancellation rate for this vertical rather than from anything about your room, and it exists because the platform carries the refund and chargeback risk on a show that is pulled after the money has gone out. On the worked night below that is $253.37 held from $2,815.20, with $2,561.83 released on the day and the rest arriving a quarter later. It is a delay, not a fee.

Question 6

Can I sell tickets at the door on the night?

Accepted Answer

Yes, by card on your own device. The walk-up till takes a real hold and runs the sale down the same checkout every advance ticket uses, so the price is derived on the server, the pool is decremented under a lock, the punter gets a scannable credential and the night's numbers stay in one place. Cash is the exception, and deliberately so: bindro does not record a cash ticket sale, because crediting you for money the platform never held would pay you for it a second time at payout. Cash on the door stays entirely outside bindro, which means it is also outside the artist split — work that out separately or take cards.

Question 7

Can I run advance, early-bird and door price tiers?

Accepted Answer

Yes — each one is its own tier with its own price, its own selling window and its own inventory. A ladder is successive rungs, not a price column that mutates: when the early-bird pool is gone or its window closes, that rung shuts and the next opens. Two things follow that matter later. The price somebody paid stays readable on their order after the ladder has moved on, so a refund six weeks out is for what they actually paid; and the number of early-bird tickets is a real cap enforced by the database rather than a promise you have to watch. Holding against a closed rung from a stale page is refused on the money path, not merely hidden in the page.

Question 8

Can I sell merch and drinks through bindro?

Accepted Answer

Both, but they settle in opposite ways and the difference matters. Merchandise pre-ordered with a ticket at checkout — a shirt, a record, a bundle — is sold per variant with its own stock, charged in the same basket, and is platform money: it lands in the ledger, is credited to you and is inside the artist's split. The on-site till, for the bar and the merch table, is a record rather than a rail: the sale, its price and who sold it are stored so the night's numbers are complete, but the money is yours already and never enters the platform ledger, a payout, or a split. So a headliner on a percentage gets a cut of the pre-ordered shirts and none of the ones sold at the table, unless you agree that separately.

Question 9

Does bindro do reserved seating for a seated show?

Accepted Answer

No. Seat maps are configured as optional for music venues and are not resolved, which means the capability is refused rather than half-present: there are no seat numbers, no seating plan and no seat picker anywhere in the product. A seated show sells from a capacity pool exactly like a standing one, and you seat people at the door. If your programme depends on selling row F seat 12 — a listening room, an all-seated venue, a theatre space — bindro is the wrong tool today and you should use something that draws a plan. Everything else here works for a seated room; the allocation does not.

Question 10

What happens when a show sells out?

Accepted Answer

It goes off sale, and that is the end of it — there is no waitlist for this vertical, so the sold-out page carries no join form and nobody is queued for a returned ticket. The workaround venues use is to hold a small number of tickets back as their own tier with a selling window that opens later, which is a real inventory pool rather than a list of hopeful emails, and to release it when you know the guest list has settled. If somebody hands their ticket on, the seat moves to the new holder rather than returning to the pool, so a transfer never puts a ticket back on sale.

Question 11

How does the door work if the venue has no phone signal?

Accepted Answer

The door does not need any. Before the show a device downloads a signed manifest of the credentials valid for that session and validates scans entirely on the device, with no network call in the scanning path at all — a basement room with no bars scans exactly as fast as one with fibre. Each device keeps its own numbered log and uploads it when it reconnects; a replayed log applies once and re-uploads are counted as duplicates. If two devices admitted the same code, that is a conflict raised for review in the console rather than a silently doubled headcount. Malformed or truncated uploads are refused at the edge instead of being defaulted into your numbers.

Question 12

How does bindro handle an 18+ show and ID on the door?

Accepted Answer

In two places, and neither of them is an ID scanner. At checkout the booker gives their own date of birth and it is checked against the age limit on the money path inside the confirming transaction — an underage or unparseable date is refused with no order and no payment behind it, rather than being waved through and dealt with later. Note the scope: the rule is checked against the person buying, not each guest in a group of four, and they also tick a confirmation that everyone attending is 18 or over. On the night, when your staff check somebody in, the console makes them confirm explicitly that they saw ID and records that against the scan and the operator. Nothing reads a document and nothing calls a verification service — on a licensed night that distinction is your licence, so treat this as a record of a check your staff did, not the check itself.

Question 13

Can I sell a pass for a residency or a run of shows?

Accepted Answer

Yes, as a pass tier on one show that covers every date of it. It is sold through the ordinary checkout at the ordinary price you set, and the single credential it issues admits at any date the show covers, once at each — a second scan on the same night is the duplicate it always was, and it works on the offline door list as well as online, so a pass holder is admitted at a door with no signal. Two things to plan for. The run has to be one show with several dates, which is also what determines when you are paid; and a pass consumes no capacity at each date it covers, so if the room has a hard limit you have to size the general tiers with the pass holders in mind.

Question 14

What does it cost to sell a ticket?

Accepted Answer

2.5% + $0.99 per paid ticket and nothing else — no monthly fee, no setup fee, no contract, and free shows cost nothing at all. Card processing is charged by the payment provider at their own rate and is not marked up here. You choose whether to absorb the platform fee, add it to the ticket price, or split it between you and the punter; the fee itself does not change with that choice, only which side of the sale it comes out of. On the worked night below — 170 tickets at $18.00 in a 200-capacity room — that is $244.80 of platform fees on $3,060.00 of sales. When you compare platforms, compare platform fee plus processing: a headline rate quoted without processing is not a number you can plan a show with.

Question 15

How do I refund a cancelled show, and what happens to the split?

Accepted Answer

You refund from the console, or the punter refunds themselves from the signed link in their confirmation email, and the split follows the money rather than being recalculated by hand. Refunds reverse in a fixed order — your proceeds first, then tax, then the platform fee — and where a show is split, every party's share is re-cut at the ratio that was frozen onto the payout, so a refunded ticket shrinks the headliner, the support and the house proportionally and never takes any of them below zero. If money has already been released for that show it is not clawed back out of an artist automatically; that is a conversation, which is why the reserve exists and why nothing is paid before the show has happened.

Question 16

Can I pass my ticket to a friend if I cannot go?

Accepted Answer

Yes, if the venue is selling through bindro: open the link in your confirmation email and hand a specific ticket on by name and email address. Your old QR code stops working the moment you do — at the door as well as online — and your friend is emailed the code that now works. You are told the ticket has moved and you are not sent the new code, because you no longer hold that ticket. The order stays yours, which means the refund right stays with you, the person who actually paid. A ticket that has already been scanned, or is for a show that has started, been cancelled or been refunded, cannot be handed on.

Question 17

What do I need to bring to get into the show?

Accepted Answer

The QR code in your confirmation email, and ID if the show has an age limit. The code is scanned at the door and admits you once; it works whether or not the venue has signal that night, because the door has your ticket on a list it downloaded in advance. A screenshot is fine. If you bought several tickets, each person needs their own code rather than one phone being scanned repeatedly — a second scan of the same code is reported as a duplicate, not a second admission.

Question 18

Is the show 18+, and what ID will they accept?

Accepted Answer

Age limits are set by the venue and shown on the ticket page, and where a show is age-restricted you give your date of birth when you book — an underage booking is refused at that point rather than at the door. You also confirm that everyone you are buying for meets the limit. Which documents count is the venue's decision under its own licence, not bindro's, so check the show page: staff check ID on arrival and anyone who cannot show it can be refused entry without a refund.

Question 19

Can I get a refund if I cannot make it?

Accepted Answer

That depends on the venue's policy and on the show. Your confirmation email carries a signed link to your own order where a refund is offered when it is available, and the window normally closes when the show starts — though a show the venue cancels outright stays refundable after that. If a refund is not offered, handing the ticket on to somebody who can go is usually the better route, and it takes a minute. The link in the email is the only thing you need; there is no account to log into.

Question 20

Can I get back in if I step outside during the show?

Accepted Answer

That is the venue's door policy, and bindro takes no part in it. A ticket admits you once per date: if your code is scanned a second time on the same night it is reported to the door as a duplicate rather than a fresh admission, so re-entry is something staff decide and manage themselves — a stamp, a pass-out, a guest list. Do not assume you can leave and return on the strength of the ticket; ask at the door before you go out.

Question 21

How do I tell the venue about access requirements?

Accepted Answer

There is a free-text access box on the booking form — step-free access, seating, an assistance animal, a quiet space — and what you write goes to the venue with your order. It is asked once for the whole booking rather than per person, so if you are booking for several people say so in the box. It is treated as sensitive information and is not shown on any public page. For anything that needs arranging in advance, contact the venue directly as well: bindro passes the note on but cannot promise the room can meet it.

Small independent music venues: questions, answered

What venues ask

What punters ask

What does bindro NOT do for a venue?

What else should I read?

Small independent music venues: the overview

bindro vs DICE

bindro vs Tixr

bindro vs Eventbrite

bindro vs See Tickets

Settling a show with the artist: what bindro works out, and what you still send

Working the door of a basement venue with no phone signal

On-sale day for a 200-capacity room: tiers, pools and holding tickets back

Named ticket transfer instead of resale: what it stops, and what it does not

Run your shows on bindro