Your First Hit’s Free; Then You Pay

A discount ticket program aimed at college students has been quite successful at drawing young adults to arts events in Pittsburgh, but some in the city’s arts community have begun to question whether the cheap (and sometimes free) tickets will ever actually translate into a new generation of paid subscribers. Still, the program represents an important revenue source for performing arts groups in a time of fiscal uncertainty. And the program’s coordinator claims that more and more students lured in by an initial freebie are taking advantage of discount ticket offers.