We have customers streaming, or planning to stream, performances using one of these methods:

  • YouTube Live (requires presenter to have YouTube channel and ticket purchaser to have YouTube account)
  • YouTube private video (requires presenter and ticket purchasers to have YouTube account)
  • Facebook Live (requires presenter and ticket purchasers to have Facebook account)
  • Zoom Webinar (requires presenter to have paid for Zoom Webinar; ticket purchasers will auto-download Zoom app)
  • Unlisted Zoom meeting (potentially requires presenter to have paid Zoom account for events lasting the required number of minutes; ticket pursers will auto-download Zoom app)
  • Unlisted video link (e.g., unlisted YouTube video)
  • Please let us know if you are planning on using some method we have not listed here.

If you are using Zoom Webinar, contact us for help in configuring your account to export the list of patron emails.

  1. In the Seating section, choose to use general admission seating. Pick a number of seats that is much larger than what you think is the maximum you might sell, or just choose 1500.
  2. For prices, our guess is that you want to have just a single price patrons pay to get the link to the virtual concert, and that patrons will just buy a single ticket. Email us to set the limit to one ticket per email address per event. But you could also have some higher prices as suggested donation levels, or just use the webstore landing page or the on sale message to ask people to add a donation to the order.
  3. Order pages now have links to the event page(s) for the event(s) in the order. Those links appear on the time and date of the event, and on the seat description (usually “General Admission”). The event page they get to via those linke has content you specify, with messages that show before the event, during the event, and after the event. The event page also includes the streaming link. See the section below this one for more information about the event page.
  4. At a date and time of your choosing, or multiple times. use the system to send out an email blast to all patrons reminding them to click on the event links on their orders just before the event begins streaming. This page has information on how to use the system to send those blasts.

Many of the ways you can stream an event depend on having accurate email addresses for your patrons. Unfortunately, it is common for shoppers to make typographical errors when checking out. You can now fix those errors in the system. See the Correcting typos in email addresses note for how to make those fixes.

All events have an event page, with information you set that is specific to just that event.

Patrons get to these pages by clicking on “Link to event page” on their order pages. (Patron order pages are what they see after a successful purchase and when they click on the link to their receipt in email confirmations.)

An event page includes one of three messages, depending on the time:

  • before the event
  • during the event
  • after the event

They also include a link to the stream, unless you have arranged to have those sent to the patrons outside your Seat Yourself account. When they do include that link, it is only visible and clickable for patrons during the time the event is being streamed.

There are six fields for you to configure for the event page. Here is how to do that:

  1. Find the dashboard’s line for the event.
  2. Click on the blue config button near the right end of that line.
  3. Open the Event page messages and optional virtual link section.
  4. Fill in the text you want for the Pre-show message, the Show-time message, and the Post-show message.
  5. If you are sending the streaming link to your patrons yourself, you can paste it into the field labeled Link to event stream. If not, leave that field blank.
  6. Set the number of minutes before the stream begins to stop showing the Pre-show message and start showing the Showtime message. That is also the time when the contents of the link field begin to be visible and clickable to your patrons.
  7. Set the duration of the stream.
  8. Submit the change.

If you are using an external method (e.g. Zoom Webinar) to send out the streaming links, security is handled by that method. If you are using the Seat Yourself event page as the mechanism to give the link to your patrons, there is no enforced security.

The upshot is that patrons can share a password as easily as they can share a link. If you send them the link (and password, if appropriate) to get to the streaming site shortly before the event, it will be less convenient for a patron to share that information widely. But your main safeguard for now will have to be the honor system.