FanTier

Posted on by Steven McDermott

Team Name

The BSC

Timeline

Spring 2025 – Summer 2025

Students

  • Akito Kishi – Computer Science
  • Andrew Graziano – Computer Science
  • Ali Shirazi‑Nejad – Computer Science
  • Greg Jolly – Computer Science
  • Mujtaba Elshaikh Elrayah – Software Engineering

Abstract

FanTier is a weighted‑lottery ticketing website that prioritizes concert tickets for the most committed fans. By using the user streaming data from Spotify, the system computes a “FanScore” for each user and applies a logistic weighting function that gives dedicated listeners a higher probability of receiving tickets while still leaving opportunities for casual fans. The goal is to improve fairness in ticket sales and reward loyalty, reducing the impact of bots and scalpers. The website is a place where users can view their ranking for favorite artists

Background

Major concert tours by artists such as Taylor Swift and The Weeknd consistently sell out within minutes, leaving die hard fans empty handed. Existing ticket vendors typically operate on a first come first serve ticket distribution which is highly susceptible to scalpers and bots. These practices have damaged trust in ticketing platforms and highlighted the need for more innovative, fan-oriented solutions. FanTier invents a new model that exploits fans’ listening history to determine their ticket priority. By rewarding loyal listeners with better access while maintaining fairness for casual supporters, the system aims to make ticket queues more simple.

Project Requirements

  • Use the Spotify  APIs to collect authenticated user listening history.
  • Compute a FanScore for each user based on their percentile ranking among all listeners of a given artist.
  • Implement a logistic weighting function to convert percentiles into ticket queue weights.
  • Offer artist leaderboards.
  • Develop a responsive web application with real‑time updates from the database.
  • Populate user profiles with their listening history, scores, and rankings in a database.

Design Constraints

  • Safety & Welfare: Algorithms must operate without discrimination based on any protected characteristic.
  • Legal Considerations: Must comply with data protection regulations (GDPR for EU, CCPA for California). Spotify API Terms of Service restrict data use and require user consent. The weighted lottery queue must be designed and implemented in compliance with all relevant laws in each operating region to ensure it is not classified as illegal.
  • Sustainability:  The system must remain scalable to handle high traffic ticket sales, and the code must be able to be maintained as Spotify’s streaming API evolves.
  • Accessibility: The web interface must comply with WCAG 2.1 Level AA, such that users with impairments can access and use all features.
  • Cost/Economic:The Spotify API’s free tier was chosen over Apple’s $99 annual subscription. In tandem, we opted out of deploying on the internet until the product was scalable to cut the cost of the servers, which will be deployed through AWS soon.

Engineering Standards

  • OAuth 2.0 with PKCE (RFC 7636): Secure user authentication and authorization with third‑party services.
  • TLS 1.3 (RFC 8446): Encrypted communication between clients and servers.
  • WCAG 2.1 Level AA: Web accessibility for users with disabilities
  • ISO/IEC 25010:2011: Software quality characteristics and evaluation guidelines.
  • OWASP ASVS 4.0: Application security verification
  • REST API Standards: Proper HTTP methods and status codes
  • ACID Compliance: Database transaction integrity
  • PCI DSS 4.0: Payment processing security (future implementation)

System Overview

 FanTier is a web application that centralizes fan analytics and ticket “purchasing”  prioritization into one platform. Designed for both casual and die hard music fans, it includes:

  • Authentication allows users to securely sign in using their Spotify accounts, linking their streaming history to a personalized FanTier profile. This profile stores their top artists, rankings, and ticket advantage information in one place.
  • Streaming data is accessed once connected, FanTier then regularly pulls listening data from Spotify and processes it continuously in the background. This system keeps fan statistics up to date without requiring extra steps from the user.
  • FanTier calculates a unique FanScore for each artist based on listening habits, then compares it to other users to determine percentile rankings.
  • Weighted Queueingis used  during ticket sales, where FanTier uses the lottery queue that gives higher chances to top percentile fans while still leaving a fair shot for everyone else.
  • Fans can browse upcoming concerts, view their ticket advantage for each event, and enter the queue when sales open.

FanTier is built on a scalable website with a clean UI design that works smoothly on desktop browsers. By clearly demonstrating how listening behavior influences ticket access, it offers a more fan based alternative to traditional ticketing systems. This helps promote more trust with FanTier and the artist, through more fairness in ticket sales.

Results

  • Implemented a weighted lottery queue system that boosts ticket odds for highly engaged, top percentile fans while keeping access possible for all participants.
  • Developed a dynamic logistic curve algorithm that adjusts advantage levels based on the median percentile of the queue, ensuring fairness for all types of music fans.
  • Gave users a clean UI to view upcoming concerts and their ranked artists based on their listening history.
  • Incentivized fan engagement by directly linking listening activity to ticket access priority.
  • Delivered a new ticketing model that rewards loyalty without sacrificing fairness, offering a more friendly ticketing experience.

Future Work

  • Finish building out the social media links and customer support resources into the footer to improve user accessibility.
  • Integrate payment processing and ticket fulfilment mechanisms
  • Expand the platform to include dedicated mobile apps, making ticket access faster and more convenient for a wider audience.
  • Expand API integrations to include additional streaming services beyond Spotify.
  • Deploy the FanTier application to a public website and server infrastructure to enable real world access.

References

Spotify AB. Spotify for Developers: Web API Reference. Spotify, https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/web-api. Accessed 1 Aug. 2025.

StatsFM. StatsFM API Documentation. StatsFM, https://stats.fm/api. Accessed 1 Aug. 2025.

Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. Ticketmaster API Documentation. Ticketmaster, https://developer.ticketmaster.com/products-and-docs/apis/getting-started/. Accessed 1 Aug. 2025.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. W3C, 5 June 2018, https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/. Accessed 1 Aug. 2025.

Steven McDermott

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