How to set up early-bird & tiered ticket pricing
Early-bird pricing rewards the people who commit first and builds momentum toward your event — but flipping prices by hand at midnight is a chore that's easy to forget. On Scene a ticket type can climb through price levels on its own, advancing by a date or by how many have sold. Here's how to set it up.
How auto-advancing tiers work
A single ticket type carries an ordered price schedule — for example Early bird → Regular → Final release. Scene shows and charges the level that's live at the moment each buyer checks out, then moves to the next level on its own when the current one ends. No one has to switch anything at the door or at midnight.
Each level (except the last) has an advance rule: a cutoff date, a number of tickets, or both. Whichever condition is met first ends that level and promotes the next. The final level has no rule — it's simply the price once every earlier level has ended.
Turn on tiers for a ticket type
Open your event's “Manage tickets & sales” dashboard and create or edit a ticket type. Under the price, switch on “Auto-advancing price tiers.” You start with two levels — an early one and a Final release — and can add more in between with “+ Add a level.”
Leave the toggle off for a single flat price; nothing changes for events that don't need tiers.
Set each level's price and advance rule
Give each level a clear name (Early bird, Members, Final release) and its price. For every level except the last, set when it should advance: pick a date, enter a ticket count (“after this many tickets”), or set both — the first one to happen ends the level.
Order matters: list levels from cheapest/earliest to the final release. A quick sanity check — earlier levels should generally cost less and end sooner — keeps the schedule intuitive for buyers.
What buyers see
The ticket box shows the live level's name and price, plus a gentle nudge when the price is about to rise — “Early bird — price goes up after 50 tickets” or “on Friday.” That urgency is exactly what makes early-bird pricing work.
Because Scene resolves the current level on its own side from the clock and the number sold, the amount charged always matches what the buyer sees — the price can't be gamed from the browser.
Tips
Pair a tier with a presale code to run a members-only early level that the public never sees until it opens. Combine tiers with add-ons and promo codes freely — they all stack on the same order.
Selling out a level early is fine: when a level's ticket count is reached, Scene advances to the next price rather than stopping sales, so momentum keeps building right up to final release.