Early Access lets you sell tickets to a select audience before your event officially goes on sale.
It’s the perfect way to reward loyal fans, partners, or community members with exclusive pre-sale access while keeping your event in pre-registration for the general public 👉 Learn more about event pre-registration.
In this article
Set up early access tickets for your event
Step 1: Create your event
Follow our step-by-step guide to set up your event.
Step 2: Add a hidden ticket with access code
💡 In addition to your regular tickets that will go live later. Follow our step-by-step guide to set up your tickets.
From your Event overview, click Add ticket.
Fill in the ticket details (name, price, quantity, etc.)
Go to Advanced settings > Sales > Visibility restriction > Toggle the option to set the ticket as Hidden
Define an Access code
💡 Access codes let buyers unlock hidden tickets directly from your event page. Only people with the code can buy these tickets.
💡 You can create several codes for different groups (e.g. Spotify artist superfans, sponsors, or partners).
Step 3: Set your event to Pre-registration
💡 Pre-registration lets you publish your event on Shotgun before tickets go on sale. Fans can sign up to be notified as soon as ticket sales open helping you gauge interest and build hype before launch.
From your Event settings, click Set up publication.
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Configure your event publication parameters
Select Publish without tickets first in Publication Strategy
Schedule your public ticket release date
⚠️ You can’t enable early access if you click “i don’t know yet”
Step 4: Update your hidden ticket release date
Two options : “Now” or “On a specific date”
⚠️ If you schedule a specific release date, make sure to select a date that’s earlier than your public ticket release.
Step 5: Double-check your timeline, and you’re ready to Publish!
⚠️ To use ticket early access, your event must be publish in Pre-registration (not in draft mode)
Share your access code
Once your early access ticket is live, share its private code with your core audience. Our tips:
To identify who should get early access, use the Marketing > Segments tab to target loyal fans, top spenders, or newsletter subscribers. Learn more about segments.
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To share the code, use your preferred channel:
Newsletter. Learn more about newsletter.
Private link via social media or messages
💡 Pro tip: Combine early Aaccess with segments to ensure only selected fans can buy even if someone shares the code.
What fans see
When fans open your event page:
They’ll see the “Access code” field.
Once they enter the code, the hidden Early Access ticket appears.
They can purchase it instantly before the general public sale.
💡 When you share the private ticket URL, the access code field automatically appears making the experience seamless for fans - no need to scroll down.
