Venue Financial Terms

Last updated: July 17, 2026

These Financial Terms govern all payment collection, payout, reserve, refund, and liability matters between Stageside and each Venue.

The short version (plain English)

This summary is not the contract — the numbered sections below are what's legally binding — but here's how the money works, in plain terms. (“I” and “me” here mean Stageside; the binding sections refer to it as “the Platform.”)

I collect payment for your tickets on your behalf.I'm the merchant of record, so charges, refunds, and chargebacks run through my Stripe account, not yours. Once a customer pays me, their ticket is paid — their debt to you is settled at that moment, and if the money ever failed to reach you, that would be between you and me, never the customer's problem.
You get the ticket face value; I keep my service fee. The face value is yours — my fee and the sales tax never come out of it.
You're paid on a rolling basis before the show, not weeks after it. I pay out within 3 business days of each sale and hold a small reserve (15–25%, depending on your trust tier) in case of refunds or cancellations. The reserve is released automatically after the event.
If you cancel a show, you cover the refunds for the ticket money I already sent you — face value only. I absorb my service fee and the card processing cost on those refunds.
I only operate in Texas, because that's where I'm set up to collect and remit sales tax.
My service fee is capped at 7% + $0.50 per ticket, and that cap survives even if I sell the company. No rate change can ever push a fee above it, and any assignee is bound to it too.
If I ever change a fee, you get 90 days' notice— and the change never touches tickets you've already sold, and it can never cross that ceiling.
Your data is yours.Ask any time, or within 14 days of closing your account, and I'll hand you a complete CSV export of your events, orders, and customers, at no charge.
Questions about any of this? Email me directly: travis@stageside.live. I'm a real person in Austin.

Section 1 — Payment Collection Agent

By listing events on the Platform, the Venue appoints the Platform as its limited payment collection agent solely for the purpose of accepting ticket payments from customers on the Venue's behalf. The Platform is the merchant of record for all transactions processed through the Platform, meaning that all customer charges, chargebacks, and refund obligations flow through the Platform's payment processing accounts, not the Venue's. This designation refers to the Platform's role in the payment processing relationship with Stripe and card networks; it does not characterize the Platform as a principal in the underlying ticket transaction for tax or accounting purposes. For tax purposes the Platform acts as a marketplace provider under Texas Tax Code § 151.0242 (addressed in the sales-tax provisions below) and as the Venue's limited collection agent — not as a reseller of admissions.

Amounts collected from buyers attributable to ticket face value and applicable sales tax are not the Platform's revenue. They are held as pass-through funds for remittance to the Venue, subject to deduction of the Service Fee and any amounts owed under these Financial Terms. The Platform's revenue consists solely of the Service Fee retained from each transaction.

A buyer's payment is treated as received by the Venue at the moment the Platform (through its payment processor) receives it. On that receipt, the buyer's payment obligation to the Venue for the ticket is fully extinguished, and the buyer bears no risk of loss if the Platform fails to remit the collected funds to the Venue. Any failure by the Platform to remit collected funds is solely a matter between the Platform and the Venue and does not affect the validity of the buyer's ticket or the buyer's right of admission.

The Venue retains exclusive control over the number, type, availability, and face value of tickets for each Event. The Platform does not purchase, hold, or acquire tickets for resale and bears no risk of loss from unsold inventory. Title to each ticket and the right of admission it represents passes directly from the Venue to the buyer at the time of purchase; the Platform does not acquire title to any ticket at any point in the transaction.

For purposes of the ticket transaction, buyers are the Venue's customers. The Platform's services are provided to Venues, and the Platform's Service Fee is earned from the Venue relationship.

The Venue acknowledges that this arrangement does not make the Platform responsible for the Venue's obligations to customers beyond facilitating payment collection and payout as described in these Financial Terms.

Section 2 — Payout Schedule

Following a successful ticket sale (where the customer's payment is confirmed), the Platform will transfer the ticket face value — excluding service fees and applicable sales tax retained by the Platform — to the Venue's connected bank account according to the following schedule:

The Platform will initiate a transfer within 3 business days of the ticket purchase timestamp, subject to:

The Venue having a verified Stripe Connect account with payouts enabled (see Section 3).
The Reserve Holdback described in Section 5.
Outstanding Refund Debt as described in Section 7.

After the Platform initiates the transfer, funds typically arrive in the Venue's bank account within 1–2 business days via ACH, depending on the Venue's bank.

Section 3 — Bank Account Connection Requirement

To receive payouts, the Venue must:

Connect a valid U.S. bank account through Stripe Connect, completing all identity verification required by Stripe.
Maintain the connected account in good standing.

The Platform reserves the right to withhold payouts until verification is complete. Verification failures or account restrictions imposed by Stripe are outside the Platform's control; the Platform will notify the Venue of any such restrictions promptly.

Section 4 — Service Fees and Tax

The Venue sets all ticket face values in its sole discretion. The Platform does not set, negotiate, or guarantee ticket face values. The Service Fee is a separate charge by the Platform for platform services and is not part of the ticket face value.

The Platform retains the service fee and applicable Texas sales tax from each ticket sale before calculating the Venue's payout. The Venue's payout equals the ticket face value multiplied by the number of tickets sold in each transaction. No deduction is made from the ticket face value itself.

The applicable service fee rate depends on the Venue's pricing tier as set forth in the Venue Agreement. The Founding Partner service fee is 6% of the ticket face value, with a minimum of $1.00 per ticket, and in no case exceeds the published fee ceiling of 7% + $0.50 per ticket (Section 17.1): where the $1.00 minimum would otherwise exceed that ceiling — on tickets priced under approximately $7.15 — the fee is reduced to the ceiling. The minimum does not apply to tickets with a $0.00 face value.

Texas sales tax — the combined state and local rate for each event's location (6.25% state plus up to 2% local, capped at 8.25%), sourced to where the event occurs — is calculated on the total buyer payment, the sum of the ticket face value and the service fee — as required by the Texas Comptroller for amusement services. The Platform, as marketplace provider under Texas Tax Code § 151.0242, is responsible for collecting and remitting this tax; the Venue (as marketplace seller) has no obligation to collect or remit sales tax on tickets sold through the Platform, and excludes those sales from the taxable amount on its own Texas sales tax return.

4.1 Founding Partner Activity Requirement

Founding Partner status is conditioned on continued platform activity. A Venue retains Founding Partner status only if it hosts at least one event with a minimum of one paid ticket sale in any rolling 12-month period.

If a Venue does not meet this activity threshold, the Platform will provide the Venue with 60 days' written notice of the impending status lapse. During the 60-day notice period, the Venue may restore its Founding Partner status by hosting a qualifying event. If no qualifying event occurs before the notice period expires, the Venue's pricing tier will revert to the Standard tier effective the day after the notice period ends.

Founding Partner status is automatically restored if the Venue resumes hosting qualifying events after a lapse. The Platform retains sole discretion to determine whether an event meets the activity threshold for purposes of this section.

Section 5 — Reserve Holdback

5.1 Purpose

The Reserve exists to protect customers and the Platform against financial loss in the event of event cancellations, postponements, chargebacks, or refund requests that occur after ticket revenue has already been paid out to the Venue.

5.2 Holdback Rate and Period

The Platform withholds a percentage of each payout's gross amount as a cancellation and refund reserve (“Reserve”). The rate and hold period depend on the Venue's trust tier, which is determined automatically by the Venue's history of completed events on the Platform:

Trust tier	Qualification	Reserve withheld	Hold period
New	Fewer than 3 completed events	25%	30 days after event date
Standard	3 or more completed events, cancellation rate ≤ 25%	15%	60 days after event date
Trusted	12 or more completed events, cancellation rate < 5%	15%	30 days after event date

A completed event is one whose scheduled date has passed and that was not cancelled. Tier assignment is evaluated automatically and updates as the Venue's history grows; the Venue never needs to request a tier change. The shorter hold period for the New and Trusted tiers is intentional: it returns a New venue's reserve faster to offset the higher withholding rate, and rewards a Trusted venue's established track record.

If an individual order is subject to an active payment dispute, the venue payout amount attributable to that specific order — equal to the ticket face value for that order — is withheld until the dispute is resolved. All other orders in the same payout run are unaffected. The Platform will notify the Venue by email when an order is placed in dispute hold and again when the dispute is resolved.

5.3 Reserve Release

After the applicable hold period for the Venue's trust tier expires — measured from the event date — the Reserve is automatically released and included in the Venue's next scheduled Standard Payout. No action is required by the Venue to release accumulated reserves.

5.4 Reserve Balance Visibility

The Venue may view its current Reserve balance, the amount scheduled for release, and the release date at any time through the Venue payout dashboard.

Section 6 — Event Cancellation and Customer Refunds

6.1 Venue Responsibility

The Venue is solely responsible for all customer refunds arising from events the Venue cancels, postpones by more than 72 hours, or materially alters in a way that constitutes a material change to the advertised event (including but not limited to: change of headlining artist, change of venue, or reduction in access rights included in the original ticket). This obligation exists regardless of whether the Platform has already paid out ticket revenue to the Venue.

6.2 Platform Refund Process

When an event is cancelled or a refund is otherwise required, the Platform will:

Issue a full refund of the full amount paid by the customer — including the ticket face value, service fee, and applicable sales tax — to each affected customer using available funds, which may include the Venue's Reserve balance, other held funds, or Platform funds advanced on the Venue's behalf. The Platform absorbs the payment processor's original transaction fee (currently 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for Stripe), which is not returned to the Platform on refunded transactions.
Apply the refund amounts against the Venue's Reserve balance as described in Section 7.
Notify the Venue by email of the total refund amount issued and the resulting impact on the Reserve balance or Refund Debt.

6.3 Customer Refund Request Deadline

Customer refund requests for cancelled, postponed, or materially altered events must be submitted within 30 days of the event's originally scheduled date. The Platform reserves the right to decline refund requests submitted after this deadline. The Venue remains financially responsible for refund obligations under Section 6.1 regardless of whether a customer submits a timely request.

6.4 Venue Cooperation

The Venue agrees to notify the Platform promptly — and in no event later than 24 hours after the decision is made — of any event cancellation or postponement so that the Platform may communicate with affected customers and initiate the refund process.

Section 7 — Refund Debt and Clawback

7.1 Reserve-Covered Refunds

The Venue's financial obligation on a refund is limited to the ticket face value that was paid out to the Venue — the amount the Platform actually transferred to the Venue's bank account. The Platform's service fee and the applicable sales tax were retained by the Platform and are not part of the Venue's obligation; the Platform absorbs the loss of those amounts when issuing a customer refund on a cancelled event.

When a refund is issued after a payout has been made, the Platform will apply the Venue's refund obligation (the paid-out ticket face value per ticket, multiplied by the number of tickets refunded) against the Venue's Reserve balance. If the Reserve balance covers the full obligation, no debt is created.

7.2 Refund Debt

If the Venue's refund obligation (as defined in Section 7.1) exceeds the Venue's available Reserve balance, the shortfall (“Refund Debt”) is recorded against the Venue's account. The Venue acknowledges this debt and agrees to its repayment through the mechanisms described in Sections 7.3 and 7.4.

7.3 Deduction from Future Payouts

The Platform will automatically deduct any outstanding Refund Debt from the Venue's next scheduled payout(s) before paying out funds to the Venue's bank account. The Venue's payout dashboard will display any outstanding Refund Debt and the projected deduction from the next payout.

If the Refund Debt equals or exceeds the gross amount of a scheduled payout, the Platform will apply the entire payout to the debt and pay out $0 to the Venue for that period. The Venue will receive a notification explaining that the payout was applied to an outstanding refund balance.

7.4 Direct Payment

If the Venue has no future payouts (for example, due to account closure or extended inactivity) and a Refund Debt remains outstanding, the Venue must pay the outstanding amount to the Platform within 14 days of written notice. Failure to pay may result in the Venue being referred to collections and may constitute a breach of the Venue Agreement.

7.5 Chargeback Recovery

As the merchant of record, the Platform is responsible for responding to chargebacks initiated by customers with their payment card issuer. The Venue agrees to:

Cooperate fully with the Platform's chargeback response process, providing requested documentation within 5 calendar days of the Platform's written request. The Platform will make reasonable efforts to provide the maximum available window permitted by the card network, but Venue delays that cause a chargeback response to miss a card network deadline will be the Venue's responsibility.
Reimburse the Platform for any chargeback amounts, chargeback dispute fees (typically $15–$25 per dispute), and associated processing costs that are attributable to events hosted or cancelled by the Venue.
Permit the Platform to deduct chargeback amounts and fees from the Venue's Reserve balance or future payouts under the same mechanism described in Sections 7.1–7.3.

The Platform's administration of the chargeback process and its discretion to absorb certain chargeback costs as a cost of platform operations does not imply that the Platform is a principal in the ticket transaction or that the Platform bears general financial responsibility for events hosted by the Venue.

7.6 Payment Recall

If a customer's payment is recalled or reversed by the customer's bank or payment provider after a payout has been made to the Venue — for example, due to unauthorized card use or bank error — the Platform reserves the right to treat the recalled amount as a Refund Debt subject to Sections 7.2–7.4, and to cancel the affected order. The Platform will notify the Venue promptly of any such recall.

Section 8 — Platform Right of Offset

The Platform reserves the right to deduct from any future payout any amount the Venue owes to the Platform under these Financial Terms or the broader Venue Agreement, including but not limited to:

Refund Debt (Section 7.2)
Chargeback amounts and fees (Section 7.5)
Payment recall amounts (Section 7.6)
Any other amounts owed under the Venue Agreement

The Platform will provide written notice to the Venue of any offset at the time it is applied.

Section 9 — Venue Obligations

9.1 Licenses and Permits

The Venue is solely responsible for obtaining and maintaining all licenses, permits, and authorizations required to host the events it lists on the Platform, including but not limited to:

Venue operating permits and fire marshal certifications
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) licenses, where applicable
Performance and entertainment licenses, including any music performance licenses required under applicable law
Any other local, state, or federal permits required for the event as advertised

The Platform makes no representation that listing an event on the Platform satisfies any regulatory or licensing requirement. Failure to obtain required permits is the Venue's sole responsibility and does not relieve the Venue of its obligations under these Financial Terms.

9.2 Event Accuracy

The Venue represents and warrants that all event listings — including descriptions, performer lineups, dates, times, locations, and access rights included with the ticket — are accurate and complete at the time of publication. The Venue agrees to update listings promptly if any material information changes, and to notify the Platform of any change that may constitute a material alteration under Section 6.1.

9.3 Legal Compliance

The Venue agrees that its use of the Platform and its hosting of events will comply with all applicable local, state, and federal laws, rules, and regulations.

Section 10 — Account Suspension

The Platform reserves the right to suspend new ticket sales and withhold pending payouts for a Venue if:

The Venue has an outstanding Refund Debt that has not been reduced in the preceding 30 days and no future payouts are anticipated.
The Venue cancels events at a rate or pattern that poses an unreasonable financial risk to the Platform or its customers, as determined by the Platform in its reasonable discretion.
The Venue's Stripe Connect account is suspended or restricted by Stripe.
The Venue has engaged in fraudulent conduct, misrepresentation of events, or any activity that the Platform believes, in its sole discretion, violates applicable law or poses a risk of harm to customers.
The Venue fails to obtain or maintain required licenses or permits under Section 9.1, and the Platform determines, in its sole discretion, that continued ticket sales would expose the Platform or customers to legal or financial risk.

The Platform will notify the Venue in writing before or promptly after implementing any suspension.

10.1 Account Termination

In addition to the suspension rights above, the Platform reserves the right to permanently terminate a Venue's account — including cancellation of all future events, revocation of access to the Platform, and forfeiture of the Founding Partner pricing tier — if the Platform determines in its sole discretion that the Venue has:

Created events with no good-faith intention of hosting them;
Engaged in fraudulent, deceptive, or malicious use of the Platform with the intent to harm the Platform, its customers, or third parties;
Repeatedly violated these Financial Terms or the Venue Agreement after written notice; or
Provided materially false information during account registration or event listing.

Upon termination for cause, the Venue remains liable for all outstanding Refund Debt, chargeback obligations, and any direct financial losses the Platform incurred as a result of the conduct giving rise to termination — including payment processor fees absorbed by the Platform on transactions that were subsequently refunded due to the Venue's bad-faith conduct. The Platform's right to offset under Section 8 and the Venue's indemnification obligations under Section 12 apply in full.

Section 11 — Limitation of Platform Liability

11.1 Exclusion of Consequential Damages

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Platform will not be liable to the Venue for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive, or exemplary damages — including lost profits, lost revenue, loss of data, or business interruption — arising out of or in connection with these Financial Terms or the Venue Agreement, regardless of the theory of liability and even if the Platform has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

11.2 Aggregate Liability Cap

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Platform's total aggregate liability to the Venue for any and all claims arising out of or related to these Financial Terms or the Venue Agreement will not exceed the total service fees paid by the Venue to the Platform in the three (3) calendar months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

11.3 Essential Basis

The Venue acknowledges that the limitations in this Section 11 reflect a reasonable allocation of risk between sophisticated parties and are an essential basis of the bargain between the Platform and the Venue.

Section 12 — Venue Indemnification

The Venue agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Platform and its officers, directors, employees, contractors, and agents (the “Platform Parties”) from and against any and all claims, demands, suits, proceedings, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to:

Any event the Venue lists or hosts on the Platform, including bodily injury, property damage, or harm to attendees;
The Venue's failure to obtain or maintain any required license, permit, or authorization under Section 9.1;
Any misrepresentation or inaccuracy in the Venue's event listings under Section 9.2;
The Venue's breach of these Financial Terms or the Venue Agreement;
The Venue's violation of any applicable law, rule, or regulation;
Any third-party claim arising from a cancelled, postponed, or materially altered event under Section 6.

This indemnification obligation will not apply to the extent that a claim arises from the Platform's own gross negligence or willful misconduct.

Section 13 — Disclaimer of Warranties

The Platform provides its services on an “as is” and “as available” basis. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Platform expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

The Platform does not warrant that:

The Platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure at all times;
Any particular volume of tickets will be sold;
Payout timing will be unaffected by third-party payment processor delays, bank processing times, or force majeure events outside the Platform's control.

The Platform is not responsible for the products, services, acts, omissions, or failure to act of any Venue, performer, organizer, promoter, or other third party in connection with any event listed on the Platform. Any dispute between a Venue and its customers, performers, or other third parties is solely the Venue's responsibility.

Section 14 — Governing Law and Disputes

These Financial Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute arising out of or related to these Financial Terms that cannot be resolved informally will be resolved exclusively in a state or federal court located in Travis County, Texas, and both parties consent to personal jurisdiction in such courts.

Section 15 — Updates to Financial Terms

The Platform may update these Financial Terms from time to time, including changes to the Reserve rate or hold period. The Platform will provide Venues with at least 30 days' advance written notice of any changes that increase the Reserve rate, extend the hold period, or expand the Platform's rights with respect to suspension or offset. Continued use of the Platform after the effective date of a change constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

Changes to the Platform's service-fee rates are subject to stricter limits than the general 30-day notice above. The Platform will provide Venues with at least 90 days' advance written notice of any change to a service-fee rate, and no service-fee change will ever apply to tickets already sold. Every service-fee rate remains bound at all times by the published fee ceiling in Section 17.1: the 90-day notice governs only the movement of a rate beneath that ceiling and can never authorize a fee above it. For a Standard-tier Venue already at the ceiling, a rate change can therefore only ever lower the fee. Continued use of the Platform after the effective date of a service-fee change constitutes acceptance of the updated rate.

Section 16 — Geographic Scope

The Platform operates exclusively in the State of Texas. By creating a Venue account, the Venue owner represents and warrants that (a) the Venue is physically located in Texas, and (b) all events listed on the Platform will take place in Texas.

This restriction exists because Stageside is registered to collect and remit Texas sales tax only. Accepting payments for events outside Texas would create sales-tax nexus obligations in other states that the Platform is not currently equipped to fulfill.

The Platform reserves the right to immediately suspend or terminate access for any Venue found to be operating outside Texas, and to withhold or claw back any funds collected in connection with out-of-state events under the same mechanisms described in Sections 7 and 8.

Section 17 — Survival of Pricing Commitments

17.1 Published Fee Ceiling

The Platform's standard service fee is 7% of the ticket face value plus $0.50 per ticket, and this figure operates as an absolute ceiling on the Platform's service fee: no service fee charged to any Venue will ever exceed 7% + $0.50 per ticket, regardless of pricing tier, custom fee arrangement, or future rate change. This ceiling is enforced in the Platform's software, which refuses to calculate or charge a service fee above it. (The Founding Partner tier is 6% of face value with a $1.00 per-ticket minimum, itself bound by this ceiling: on tickets priced under approximately $7.15, where the $1.00 minimum would otherwise exceed 7% + $0.50, the fee is reduced to the ceiling. The minimum does not apply to $0.00 tickets, per Section 4.)

17.2 Survival on Assignment or Change of Control

The published fee ceiling in Section 17.1, and any Founding Partner tier pricing granted to a Venue, survive any assignment of the Venue Agreement or these Financial Terms and any change of control of the Platform — including a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of substantially all of the Platform's assets. Any assignee or successor takes the agreement subject to these pricing commitments and may not modify them except within the limits of Section 15, which permit movement of a rate only beneath the ceiling and never above it.

Section 18 — Data Portability and Exit

The customer relationship, and the event, order, and customer data associated with a Venue's events, belong to the Venue. The Venue may request a complete export of that data at any time during the term of the agreement, and for up to 14 days after account closure. The Platform will provide the export in a standard machine-readable format (comma-separated values, CSV) at no charge. This right survives termination of the Venue Agreement. The Platform does not treat a Venue's departure as a reason to withhold that data.

This right binds the Platform to the outcome — a complete, no-charge export — and not to any particular mechanism. It is currently fulfilled by the Platform on request; self-serve export from the Venue dashboard will follow in a future release.