Two independent music festivals, Chicago’s North Coast Music Festival and Ohio’s Lost Lands Festival, aimed to raise approximately $70,000 through the now-defunct ticketing platform Lyte by reselling VIP tickets. However, they are now confronting financial losses exceeding $300,000 each, as reported in court filings. These festivals are entangled in two separate legal cases—one in New York involving North Coast and another in Los Angeles related to Lost Lands. The lawsuits shed light on Lyte’s unexpected closure earlier this month.
Lyte’s abrupt termination caught its numerous clients off guard. CEO Ant Taylor, a Princeton alumnus and ex-media executive, had pivoted Lyte’s focus towards large-scale ticket reselling. While marketed as a peer-to-peer ticket exchange, court documents reveal a business model heavily reliant on partnering with promoters to sell substantial quantities of VIP tickets at marked-up prices, sharing profits with event organizers.
According to court filings, only 89 of the 3,064 tickets listed for the North Coast Music Festival (August 30 to September 1) were sold by fans. Lyte utilized these listings to draw attention to an additional 2,975 tickets offered by the festival’s promoters, valued at approximately $287,750.
Lyte subsequently resold these tickets on its platform, generating $426,912—a 48% markup translating to about $139,162 in additional revenue. This profit was expected to be shared evenly between Lyte and the festival’s promoters. North Coast Music Festival anticipated receiving $69,581, which would constitute a 24% increase over its expected ticket sales revenue. Unfortunately, no payments were made to North Coast Music Festival, which also missed out on the $287,750 owed from the ticket sales listed on Lyte.
In a similar situation, the organizers of Lost Lands Music Festival assert they are owed $330,000 for tickets sold via Lyte, in addition to missed revenue from price markups. Their legal action (filed under the name APEX Management) indicates that Lyte had provided APEX with a $100,000 advance for using the platform, which APEX repaid by early September.
Although a significant portion of the Lost Lands lawsuit is redacted, it reveals details about Lyte’s downfall. A court filing indicates that APEX’s consultant, concert promoter AEG Presents, became aware that Taylor resigned as Lyte’s CEO on September 12, following which the company ceased nearly all operations and laid off most employees, as stated by attorney Eric Levinrad in the filings.
Stay tuned for further updates!
[H/T] Billboard
