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Jagged Little Pill first Broadway show to bundle albums with tickets

The Alanis Morissette (pictured) inspired musical, Jagged Little Pill, has become the first Broadway show to bundle its cast recording album with tickets to see the show live.

Fans can pay an additional $2 per ticket for a digital copy of the album when purchasing a ticket costing between $59 and $399 for the performance at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City. Album bundles could bring in an additional $10,000 at the 425-capacity theatre.

Atlantic Records A&R director Michael Parker, who spearheaded the bundling idea, said, according to Billboard: “Instead of us just selling an album and them just selling a show, us selling an album should help them sell the show and [vice versa].”

Touring artists have been bundling tickets and albums for years, but it has taken months to implement the same kind of system for Broadway, as the technology had to be built and tested within one of Broadway’s main ticketing company’s, Telecharge.

Vivek Tiwary, one of the show’s producers, added: “We didn’t simply snap our fingers and it happened,” noting that attorneys also had to negotiate terms between the ticketer, the label and producers to make the bundling a reality. “I suspect other producers would have given up, would have said, ‘This is taking a lot of time and effort and it’s just not worth it.’ But we put the time and effort into doing it.

“There are people who might not have bought the album right away who will, and people who wanted the record will have the added incentive to buy a ticket to the show. We’ll see increased revenue on both sides.”

The move was pushed forward by Atlantic after seeing Broadway hit Hamilton’s album success, which shifted more than six million copies.

Tiwary said album bundles will likely become standard for Broadway shows going forward, adding: “I would like to see a day where this is not a promotion, where this is just clockwork. Much like a Playbill, everyone who leaves the theatre walks out with a cast album.”

The rock musical Jagged Little Pill, inspired by the 1995 album of the same name, debuted on December 5.

Image: Justin Higuchi