Forget baptism by fire. Craig Snyder likes to be thrown into the flames.
“I prefer working that way,” he says. “Maybe that’s why I fit in here at Lyte.”
Craig is Lyte’s new Director of Sales. He’s sharing the Lyte platform with more venues, festivals, and other potential partners who oversee the country’s coolest live events, including comic cons, beer festivals, and sporting events.
“I really want to educate a lot of folks in the industry about Lyte so they understand how valuable Lyte is to their customers and their business,” Craig says. “The more ticketing opportunities that unfold, the more Lyte and our partners can replace the secondary market as a safe, legitimate place to find sold out tickets.”
Craig comes to us from ReverbNation, where he was Director of Industry Relations. He lives in New York City. Here, Craig talks about working in the music industry, solving complex problems, and what happens once you’ve earned Little Steven Van Zant’s trust. Read on.
Maggie: You’re in your second month at Lyte. How are things going?
Craig: It’s been great. I’m working closely with LP (Lawrence Peryer, Lyte’s Head of Business Development) and Ant (Taylor, Lyte’s Founder and CEO) to bring more partners on board. We want to increase the number of festivals we power and the venues we partner with to really conquer the live event space in 2020.
I’m also working closely with our teams who oversee our relationships with our primary ticketing partners. I’m really excited to continue getting to know our primary ticketing partners, and dive into how we all can further collaborate together to educate fans at live events about Lyte and how the platform can help and protect them. Ultimately, there is money to be made for our primary ticketing partners if events sell tickets through Lyte.
Maggie: Your 2020 has been busy already.
Craig: We’re planning to really do a big push at some huge conferences and festivals, like Pollstar Live (Feb. 4–6) and SXSW (March 13–22). I’m planning to talk to everyone in the industry I can about Lyte, and how it can help them gather data so they can leverage their events from year to year. Lyte can really be an educational tool for the industry, too.
Maggie: Why this industry? How did you get started?
Craig: I’ve worked in the music industry for years. My first role was working with Little Steven Van Zandt, who plays guitar for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and played Silvio on the Sopranos. They had started a radio show called Little Steven’s Underground Garage. I started as a radio producer, but it became a lot of other things. I worked on multiple tours, tried to save CBGBs, and created a series of garage rock shows that culminated into festivals. We created multiple SiriusXM channels, a record label, and a foundation aimed to create a rock n’ roll history curriculum in schools, among many other related events. I had the chance to work with a bunch of rock n’ roll innovators including Joan Jett and the original manager/producer of the Rolling Stones, Andrew Loog Oldham. It was an experience!
If Stevie trusts you, he’ll assign projects to you. One time he asked me to build an analog recording studio in our office space. I had to learn quickly about Neve mixing boards, Studer tape machines, noise isolation, and more. How do you get an analog mixing board up to the sixth floor of a New York office? Like the Johnny Cash song says, “One piece at a time.” If Stevie trusts you as he did me, it can lead to a lot of really cool things.
Maggie: What did you do at ReverbNation, and before that, Verve Life?
Craig: I facilitated ReverbNation’s artist development program, which impacted more than five million artists on our platform. We found performance slots for artists before they broke at places like Bonnaroo, Summer Fest, and Firefly. We were one of the sites where artists like the Alabama Shakes, Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, and others first got their shot. Normally, if you’re an emerging artist you have zero shot at playing a festival like that.
At VL, we handled integrations with ticketing companies, including Live Nation and Ticketmaster. We powered tours for Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Dave Matthews Band, and more. The job allowed me to work with ticketing companies and realize they are crazy people I loved.
Maggie: What brought you to Lyte?
Craig: One of my best friends is Drew Frankel, who runs Levon Helm Studios — which is a Lyte venue partner. Whenever I am upstate I’m always at Levon. Anyway, Drew told me about Lyte and I noticed they were hiring. He shared high praise for Lyte and I was blown away by the simplicity of the reservation process and its ability to solve a larger, more complex problem. I’m someone who loves solving problems in the music industry, especially the complex ones. It made sense that Lyte was the next move in my career.
Maggie: Favorite live event experience?
Craig: I saw Leonard Cohen on his final tour in 2013. I saw him from the second row at a venue in Connecticut. Weirdly, the first row was empty. If only they had Lyte! It was a magical experience watching this 70-something-year-old man putting on the performance of his life. He showed such humble grace on the stage for his band. It was beautiful. He died a few years later. I’ll never forget it. I doubt any fan there will forget it.
About Lyte
Lyte’s mission is to fill every seat and make ticketing delightful, making it easier for fans to attend more events. 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. Lyte has delivered well over $10 million in fan savings since inception. One hundred percent of the tickets bought and sold through Lyte are issued through ticketing partners and delivered directly to fans with no chance of being fraudulent. Visit lyte.com.