Want cheap concert tickets? Join the Rukkus.
Given that there aren’t many concerts going on in Central Maine, I have to choose carefully when I’m going to trek down to Boston to get my live music fix. At first, this meant that I would check multiple ticket sites to find what bands are playing and then find which site would give me the best deal—nothing new, right? This app I just learned about just made life so much easier.
Rukkus, a New York-based startup, created a smartphone app that searches all ticket sites to find the cheapest prices available—for concerts, as well as sports and theatre. You can do everything from your phone, from browsing to actually buying, and you also have a better idea of what you’re paying for, thanks to interactive seating maps. The app remembers you and what music you like, creating a personalized event feed that better adjusts to you the more you use the app. And it has the easiest way of paying I’ve ever seen—you don’t even have to type anything.
So how exactly does Rukkus get you the best prices?
It searches the entire web for all available tickets and then applies “proprietary algorithms” (yeah, I don’t know what that means either) to find the best deals for any budget. Basically, Rukkus takes care of all the annoying and time-consuming price comparisons, meaning you don’t have to sit at your computer with slowly churning tabs for Live Nation, Ticketmaster and StubHub all open at once.
The more you use the app, the better it works for you.
Say hello to a personalized feed of all concerts you might be interested in. The first filter is location—Rukkus looks at all concerts happening nearby. Either set it to your current location or search any U.S. city. This means that your music preferences will travel with you wherever you go and Rukkus will automatically adjust to your new location and apply them there. To start teaching Rukkus what you like, “heart” what you like and swipe left for what you don’t want. This way, Rukkus will get better and better at suggesting things for you, regardless of whether you end up buying or not.
But won’t it take forever to teach it what I like?
Trust me, I hate moving my “music DNA” anywhere (like when I started using Spotify) because I feel like I have to start over again. As I said, Rukkus personalizes your event feed based on your “hearts” and the app’s suggestions, which, yes, involves you telling it what you want. BUT, at the same time, it also creates your feed by figuring out the music you already listen to—it scans your iTunes library to get your favorites list started AND can link to your Facebook, which will link it to your Spotify. (This was HUGE for me.)
Find a concert you like? Rukkus simplifies the rest.
After you find an event you want to go to, explore your seat options through interactive maps—which also show you a photo of what the view looks like from the section you’ve chosen (!!). When you pick your tickets and go to pay, all you have to do is hold your credit card out in front of your phone, and the app will take a photo of it. No typing needed! And no captchas! (Those stupid things where you have to type in the wavy letters that you can’t decipher even though you are indeed a human, not a robot.)
Rukkus takes care of the payment process and then emails the tickets to you. You can even call Rukkus concierge 24/7 if you need help—though it’s so easy you probably won’t. And there you go! You’re on your way! The process is so streamlined that you can even find a concert the day of and then find yourself in the audience that night.
Rukkus has both a smartphone app and a website, but I highly recommend the app over the website because only the app can create a personalized feed for you and adjust to your likes. It’s really well done—beautiful display, sleek navigation and very responsive. My only complaint is that it keeps trying to move the search back to Waterville (yeah right), so I have to reselect Boston a couple times to guide it back to where I actually want to look.
Hey, but that’s like one con relative to all the pros that are pretty much unbeatable. I also really appreciate the character of the startup. I was reading their blog and basically, Rukkus was started by a group of people with all sorts of skills, but what they share is a love for live music and a desire to simplify the ticket search process.
As Rukkus brand ambassador Kim Endara told me in an email, “We’re made up of a small core of musicians, painters, architects, athletes, etc., which we feel separates us from some of the more corporate ticket sites.”
In fact, the founder, Manick Bhan, was inspired to start Rukkus after getting increasingly frustrated with the online concert ticketing process and the options for discovering bands performing nearby. He left his former job as a Goldman Sachs banker, combining his entrepreneurial experience with his love of music to create a product that he believes will streamline the way fans find and purchase tickets.
“Our ultimate goal is to help likeminded people see the things they love in person,” Endara said of Bhan’s vision. Because finding concerts near you doesn’t have to be complicated—or expensive—and Rukkus is the first to say so.