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Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?

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Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?

#191

Post by ghaff »

alexose wrote: post #48

Ticketmaster obviously sucks, and their monopolistic business practices deserve a close look by regulators. But the core of it is that an unregulated ticket market actually supports these prices. Fans keep showing that they're willing to dig deep and outbid each other to attend these events in person. Ticketmaster realizes this, and have set up a business model that extracts accordingly. I think this is where us Amer…

Yes. A lot of people have this sense that you should be able to attend the World Cup, a Taylor Swift concert, or the Indianapolis 500 without taking out a second mortgage. But there are only so many seats. You can have a lottery which is actually fairly common for many, especially government, permits but doesn't actually increase the number of slots. Whether luck or money is the better way to allocate a scarce resource presumably depends on your personal philosophy and the goals of the organization doing the allocating.

Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?

#192

Post by palmotea »

gregoriol wrote: post #137
jorisw wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What incentive would Oasis have to help bring down the prices for their own shows anyway?

Having seen shows with super-premium prices at the front, with half the place being non-reactive to the show because people paying extra are not actually huge fans but huge wallets, yeah you need to put down prices and get those front tickets to fans if you want to have nice shows

> Having seen shows with super-premium prices at the front, with half the place being non-reactive to the show because people paying extra are not actually huge fans but huge wallets, yeah you need to put down prices and get those front tickets to fans if you want to have nice shows

Probably depends on the band. An older "legacy" band like Oasis may not (my speculation) be affected by that, because it will have a lot of wealthy, older fans that both like the band and can pay super-premium prices.

What you talk about probably applies more to newer, hotter bands where the enthusiasm is with younger and/or poorer people.

Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?

#193

Post by yogorenapan »

vova_hn2 wrote: post #152

A question only tangentially related to the original post, but I always wonder about it when I read such discussions. To all the people, who complain about "price gouging" or "scalpers" and "lack of regulations": if there are no fair market price, how exactly are you planning to judge who is "worthy" of getting a ticket and who isn't. Let's say, you somehow forced them to sell tickets at low prices and somehow magica…

> How do you decide who are the lucky ones?

Lottery. That's how Japan does it, and it works decently well. Usually tied to phone number which requires an ID. That prevents most severe multiple entries

Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?

#194

Post by dfxm12 »

peteforde wrote: post #109

Many of the other commenters have explained how the ownership structure of Ticketmaster gives them near monopoly control because they also own the radio stations and the venues and the promoters. (I'm using "they" and "own" very liberally in this paragraph.) The simple fact that there's an ownership link between Ticketmaster and the scalper I mean totally legit resale sites is so wildly corrupt that, well, it's textb…

Does dice require that you buy tickets through their app and you're required to present the app as your ticket? That sucks too.

Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?

#195

Post by maerF0x0 »

trumpdong wrote: post #161
maerF0x0 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most cities have lots of venues of various sizes, I like a market place of them rather than a publicly owned monopoly. (Hence why I dont like Canada healthcare either)

¿Por qué no los does? The city owns a few venues, so private venues have to be better than the city ones to make any money.

For sure, a mix is good too. Just not a monopoly :)

Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?

#196

Post by ghaff »

dfxm12 wrote: post #194
peteforde wrote: post #109

Many of the other commenters have explained how the ownership structure of Ticketmaster gives them near monopoly control because they also own the radio stations and the venues and the promoters. (I'm using "they" and "own" very liberally in this paragraph.) The simple fact that there's an ownership link between Ticketmaster and the scalper I mean totally legit resale sites is so wildly corrupt that, well, it's textb…

Does dice require that you buy tickets through their app and you're required to present the app as your ticket? That sucks too.

No idea about the specifics in this case. But, unfortunately, it's an increasingly common trend. Especially when going on vacation I like to have backup paper printouts of tickets but, these days, it's not uncommon to have a "We'll email you or the ticket will be available in this app 48 hours before."

Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?

#197

Post by cogman10 »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #195
trumpdong wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

¿Por qué no los does? The city owns a few venues, so private venues have to be better than the city ones to make any money.

For sure, a mix is good too. Just not a monopoly :)

I'd argue that the city owning the venue can't be a monopoly as the next city over is a different owner. That might be different if we were talking about the county or state taking ownership. IMO, these things shouldn't be state or federally ran.

But otherwise, yeah I'm happy if their is private competition with the city. I just give more priority to the city owning venues as the people in the city have the ability to vote out the politicians running the venue if they displease them.

Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?

#198

Post by dbbk »

dfxm12 wrote: post #194
peteforde wrote: post #109

Many of the other commenters have explained how the ownership structure of Ticketmaster gives them near monopoly control because they also own the radio stations and the venues and the promoters. (I'm using "they" and "own" very liberally in this paragraph.) The simple fact that there's an ownership link between Ticketmaster and the scalper I mean totally legit resale sites is so wildly corrupt that, well, it's textb…

Does dice require that you buy tickets through their app and you're required to present the app as your ticket? That sucks too.

Yes

Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?

#199

Post by wilkommen »

peteforde wrote: post #109

Many of the other commenters have explained how the ownership structure of Ticketmaster gives them near monopoly control because they also own the radio stations and the venues and the promoters. (I'm using "they" and "own" very liberally in this paragraph.) The simple fact that there's an ownership link between Ticketmaster and the scalper I mean totally legit resale sites is so wildly corrupt that, well, it's textb…

Ticketmaster uses their monopoly power to unfairly squeeze the venues and the artists too. They're using their monopoly power to squeeze all sides of the live music marketplace - fans, artists, venues, and promoters. So the bad guys are really Ticketmaster, not the artists.

Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?

#200

Post by wilkommen »

stephenhuey wrote: post #70
ryukoposting wrote: post #62

From the point of view of the promoters, concerts are a two-sided marketplace. Two-sided marketplaces are notoriously difficult for small players to compete in. You need to attract good acts so people will buy tickets, but to attract the top acts you need to show that you can sell lots of tickets. Ticketmaster avoided the two-sided market problem until they reached scale. They were just a website where you buy ticket…

Just tried searching for a long-form article I read in recent years. Wish I could find it, but obviously the facts are not a secret. It explained in depth all the problems with the monopoly, but it also pointed out something very surprising to me. A few artists have spoken out angrily on behalf of their fans. However, the fact is, the artists in general do financially benefit from Ticketmaster's way of doing things.…

Could it be this podcast? https://www.organizedmoney.fm/p/emergency-pod-the-live-natio...
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