Vienna-based easy-connect provides the app technology behind "Opera for All," the Met's new initiative to reach new audiences, announced on September 24 by the Met and Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The Met Opera app is the initiative's exclusive digital channel: a secure lottery, from digital ID verification to mobile ticket, expanded with easy-connect for the launch. First results after 10 days: more than 100,000 new app downloads, with around 89 percent of registrations new to the Met's database.
VIENNA and NEW YORK, Oct. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Announced by the Met and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the initiative significantly expands the Met's efforts to reach new audiences — with a secure lottery on the Met Opera app, from digital ID verification to mobile ticket.
The Met Opera app has become the digital home of "Opera for All," the Metropolitan Opera's new initiative for New Yorkers who have never attended the Met. Tickets are distributed through a secure lottery in the app, which the Met and Vienna-based easy-connect expanded for the launch — so that every entrant, win or lose, becomes a patron the Met can welcome back.
Opera for All was announced on September 24 by the Met and by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The Met will release 10,000 tickets each month throughout the 2026–27 season — about 10 percent of all tickets for the season, with seats across every section of the house. Any New Yorker who has not purchased a Met Opera ticket since 2019 is eligible. According to the Met, Opera for All "significantly expands the Met's efforts to reach new audiences," and the initiative will carry over into upcoming seasons.
From ID check to ticket, in one app
New Yorkers verify their residency digitally by uploading a photo of their ID, enter the lottery for an eligible performance, are notified by email and push notification if they win, and receive their tickets directly in the app. The first draw took place on Monday, September 28. The new lottery flow builds on the Lottery Mechanism that has run the Met's digital rush-ticket lottery since 2024.
"We wanted Opera for All to make it easy for New Yorkers across the five boroughs to discover the Met, and to give us a way to welcome them personally. Building the lottery and ID verification into the app we already use for our Toll Rush ticket program meant we could go from idea to launch remarkable quickly, and at the scale this ambitious initiative needed. This was all possible because of our relationship with the innovative and adaptable team at easy-connect who worked with us through every step of design and delivery." said Gillian Brierley, Chief Audiences, Marketing, and Communications Officer at the Metropolitan Opera.
First results of the initiative after the first 10 days:
- More than 100,000 new app downloads
- Around 89 percent of registrations new to the Met's database
- More than 95 percent of all eligibility checks — new-to-file status and New York residency — completed automatically
Verification that improves accessibility
Digital eligibility verification is part of every easy-connect app. An institution sets the rule, and the app checks it before a ticket is issued, working with specialized verification services in the background. Beyond residency, the same approach powers age-based audience development programs and student eligibility checks, and it can verify people in need, recipients of SNAP benefits, military personnel/veterans, teachers, and first responders.
"The Met had the vision for this amazing initiative; our job was to make it simple to run," said Wolfgang Graf, Co-Founder & CEO of easy-connect. "When we founded easy-connect, we wanted to make Arts & Culture as accessible as possible and give venues new digital options for innovative, data-driven audience development. Opera for All shows what that looks like at the scale of a whole city: every single entry becomes a relationship the Met can build on. We're really proud to have made this happen together with the Met — and grateful for such a great partnership."
For easy-connect, Opera for All is one example of how an institution's own app lets it launch new audience initiatives — access and young-audience programs, lotteries, memberships and personalized communication — on top of existing ticketing systems such as Tessitura rather than replacing them.
About easy-connect
easy-connect builds White Label Apps for Arts & Culture. The easy-connect mobile app provides a branded environment for sales, engagement and loyalty and integrates directly with an institution's existing ticketing, CRM and CMS systems, including Tessitura, Spektrix, Eventim and other major ticketing systems. More than 100 cultural institutions work with easy-connect, among them the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Schaubühne Berlin. easy-connect is a brand of Ticket Gretchen GmbH, headquartered in Vienna, Austria. easy-connect.io
Media contact
Sophie Garzon-Lapierre, Head of Business Development & Marketing• easy-connect | Ticket Gretchen GmbH • Mariahilfer Str. 109/20, 1060 Vienna, Austria • [email protected]
Media Contact
Sophie Garzon-Lapierre, easy-connect / Ticket Gretchen GmbH, 43 13613030, [email protected], https://www.easy-connect.io/
SOURCE easy-connect / Ticket Gretchen GmbH
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