Lyte’s new Director of Fan Experience Angela Drury is a mystery to musicologists
Musicologists estimate that for every hour someone listens to music, 54 minutes are spent listening to songs they’ve already heard. The theory is, most people throughout their lifetime stick to what they already know.
Angela Drury is not most people. Lyte’s new Director of Fan Experience is obsessed with music exploration. Last year, Angela listened to over 1,700 unique tracks by 700 artists on Spotify. In 2017, she listened to 833 artist and 859 unique tracks — it was a “slow year,” Angela jokes.
“I rarely listen to the same thing more than once unless it completely bowls me over,” she says. “I have my favorites of course, but I also love every type of genre you can imagine. I am so blown away by how much good music is out there and how digital listening makes it so much more accessible.”
Here, Angela talks about giving fans the VIP treatment, educating fans about Lyte, and Justin Timberlake. Read on.
Maggie: You are Lyte’s new Director of Fan Experience. It’s a new position, which is really cool. Tell us about what you will be doing.
Angela: There is so much to tell! First, I am overseeing and building the Fan Experience team. There are four people on the team now, and it’s growing.
Our mission is to provide a VIP experience for all fans. Because Lyte is growing so rapidly, we need to have fan support in all regions for all time zones. Fans who are using the Lyte exchange can have questions or need help all times of day and night. To do that, we must always be available in all time zones. I want to make sure that fans have the ability to get the help they need, because we are trying to provide a best-in-class customer journey
I am also looking at all of the fan touchpoints to make sure Lyte’s communication with fans is as streamlined as possible. We want to give fans information they might need throughout the process of exchanging tickets so it’s easy. And, if they do have an issue or more questions, they can find what they need on our website.
Fans can also write us through Facebook. It goes right into our support help center, so response times are fast. Our goal is meeting fans where they are — and where they communicate best. My focus is providing leadership to the Fan Experience team so they feel supported and empowered to provide a best-in-class fan experience.
If fans have questions about Lyte’s services, we are educating them about how Lyte works and that we are not the secondary market. We are way different from StubHub and other unofficial sellers. We are an official extension of the primary box office.
Maggie: How would you like fans to see the platform, from a consumer standpoint?
Angela: I think Lyte is still so new and innovative that many people don’t completely understand how the whole process works. As the Director of Fan Experience, I am reviewing all of our processes and looking for opportunities to educate customers about the platform and its benefits. How it makes your life easier when it comes to buying and selling sold out tickets. For example, we just launched a series of articles aimed at educating visitors on what Lyte is and what Lyte isn’t, including “How to Get Tickets to a Sold Out Event.” There is more planned where that came from, and we’re all excited about getting the word out better.
I’m also looking at all communications to fans to ensure it’s very clear and easy to understand. Fans are our biggest marketing asset, and the customer experience often shapes a person’s impression of a company. A great fan experience is important to build loyalty and increase customer engagement as we grow.
Maggie: Tell us about your background! Where were you before you came to us?
Angela: I was a Director of Communications at Stanford, and later the Director of Marketing and Communications at one of the museums on the Stanford campus. In these roles I had the opportunity to direct and produce 30-plus videos. One of the proudest achievements of my professional career sits in a museum today. It’s a documentary-style video about a prominent Bay Area collector family and their passion for collecting one of the world’s most outstanding assemblies of post-World War II American art. They donated the collection to Stanford, and for a summer, I filmed them as they moved original paintings by artists like Jackson Pollock, Rothko, and Richard Diebenkorn, from their home and into the museum. It was such a unique experience.
In addition to video, my team produced marketing materials for use in fundraising campaigns that aimed to raise $1 million to $20 million. The content had to be very specific and clear, and was often about very complex topics. That experience made me a real stickler for clear communication — and I am already drawing on that experience here at Lyte.
Maggie: You’ve been here for about a month. How are things going so far?
Angela: It’s been really great! There are so many layers to the ticketing business. It’s all so interesting. As a lifelong learner, I love being in the zone and gobbling up all the information and education I can. I worked on the help desk at Adobe Systems early in my career helping designers use their software. I feel like I have come full circle, helping customers learn about our great platform!
I believe in this product and I believe in this platform. Helping customers and helping fans — and providing a great experience — is something that I am really good at. I enjoy it.
Maggie: Last question. Favorite live events? And why?
Angela: I have attended some amazing live events! Here are some recent memorable experiences:
1. Seeing Boyfriend at One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans on New Years Eve. I love female rappers! I love how they are pushing the limits of rap and hip-hop. Boyfriend calls her shows “rap cabaret,” and it was more like rap and cabaret performance art.
2. Fever Ray at the Regency Ballroom. It was a fantastically immersive experience, with wild costumes and super intense lighting…and it was spectacular and WEIRD.
3. I recently discovered that I really love over-the-top, highly-produced pop concerts when I went to a Justin Timberlake concert. I didn’t know any of his songs, but a friend had VIP tickets. I went for the fun of it. I was totally blown away by his talent and the production value of the show. It was a huge live music experience. At one point, the stage broke apart and moved over the audience to the other side of the arena so the fans who didn’t have A-list seats got to have that up close experience. I was impressed with Justin for that — to care that much about his fans.
4. My favorite epic live event of all time is Burning Man. I’ve been to the playa seven times. I’m into really great electronic dance music, or EDM, and there are crazy good DJs on the playa. Mix that with amazing large-scale art, biking in the desert, and radical self-reliance…it really is a transformative experience. And a great place to shoot as a photographer, which is what I do most there.
Honestly, lately I don’t go to as many live events as I should. I have a feeling that will change, being here at Lyte. It makes you want to go to everything — to embrace the fan experience for yourself. I can’t wait.
About Lyte
Lyte makes it easier for fans to go to more live events. Founded in New York City and San Francisco by CEO Ant Taylor, our killer fan feature is returnability. In an industry where a “no refunds and no cancellations” policy is the standard, Lyte enables fans to return their event tickets, no questions asked, to the official point of purchase.
Lyte also provides a safe and official reservation booking system, offering fans who sign up a fair price for in-demand tickets. One hundred percent of the tickets bought and sold through Lyte are issued through our ticketing partners and delivered directly to fans. Lyte has delivered millions in fan savings — $1.8 million in 2018 alone. It’s only getting better from here, thanks to our growing partnerships with bands, venues, promoters, ticketers and festivals.
For the industry, we function as a full inventory management solution, including a private-label secondary market to optimize event yield for event producers. Visit lyte.com.
