The Live Music Industry Podcast #35 - Laylo’s “Drops” Playbook: Turning Social Hype into Ticket & Merch Sales
In this episode of The Live Music Industry Podcast, Matt Ford sits down with Alec Ellin, Co-Founder & CEO of Laylo, for a candid conversation about fan capture, “drops,” and the marketing flywheel powering modern ticket, merch, and content launches. From Laylo’s early pivots through Y Combinator to its breakout product-market fit during the pandemic, they unpack how artists, venues, and festivals are turning social hype into first-party audiences and what that enables next.
In this episode, they cover:
Laylo 101 — a music-first CRM + messaging platform built to capture fans and drive them to tickets, merch, and content
The origin story — from Dark Chart & Silo to YC, a painful pivot, and finding the winning “drops” model in 2021
What a “drop” really does — productizing FOMO to convert attention into signups before the on-sale moment
Scale by the numbers — 60M+ fans reached, 200K drops in a year, and tens of thousands of platform users
Multi-channel messaging — SMS, email, Instagram, and WhatsApp, plus high-performing IG DM capture flows
Why venues and festivals are adopting Laylo — high-conversion drop pages, list growth without requiring a ticket purchase, and demand-driving campaigns
First-party data, done right — why Laylo won’t share PII, and how “collabs” let artists + promoters build lists compliantly
Smarter segmentation — targeting likely ticket and merch buyers to improve cost, deliverability, and fan experience
AI inside the product — multi-drop builders, “magic templates,” and the roadmap to put CRM workflows on autopilot
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Episode Timestamps:
(0:00) — What Laylo Is & Who It’s For A CRM and messaging platform built around “drops” — announce something, collect fans, then message them when it goes live. Supports SMS, email, Instagram, and WhatsApp, with a free tier available.
(7:24) — How Alec & Saj Ended Up Building Laylo Alec came from music blogging and Epic Records, while Saj built a competing analytics app. They met, merged ideas, sold a fan analytics tool to The Orchard, went through Y Combinator, then pivoted when growth stalled.
(24:01) — The Birth of “Drops” COVID shut down touring. A simple “text me when this drops” experiment on Saj’s own music clicked instantly. Artists were already teasing releases — Laylo made capturing and re-engaging those fans automatic. Early wins with ODESZA and Dillon Francis validated the idea.
(40:03) — Adding Venues & Festivals Same product, new use case — venues collect signups before onsales and message fans when tickets go live. Laylo built “Collabs” for shared pages with explicit opt-in for both lists. The Midway sees ~55–60% conversion on ad traffic vs ~10% on typical pages.
(52:09) — Team, Fundraising & AI Inside Laylo 24-person distributed team. ~$8.5M raised, with the last round over three years ago. AI features include Multi-Drop Builder (paste tour dates, auto-build pages), Magic Templates (auto-design emails), and Suggested Segments (surface likely buyers).
(1:05:14) — AI, Coding & Why Live Still Wins AI accelerates development but doesn’t replace great engineers. Alec expects AI to flood music with generic tracks — increasing demand for real live experiences. Laylo’s core bet: own your audience, automate the busywork, and drive fans to shows.
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