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Ask HN: Why has no one replaced Ticketmaster?

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Re: Ask HN: Why has no one replaced Ticketmaster?

#31

Post by wwalexander »

I’ve seen a lot of use of Dice lately, which has a nice app and a decent ticket resale process.

I was initially quite a big fan until I purchased “sold out” tickets to a music festival a year in advance with the assurance that I could resell them if I changed my mind, only to see the resale queue disabled many months before the festival due to “lack of demand”. This didn’t seem to align with the festival being sold out, and apparently the tickets were released in batches which allowed them to claim it was “sold out” despite there being plenty of tickets still available. I’m not sure if this was the fault of Dice or the festival itself but soured my impression significantly.

Dice is still leagues better than Ticketmaster both in terms of UX and fees, but to me Resident Advisor is still the gold standard; unfortunately it seems a lot of the sort of shows that would be listed on RA are now on Dice instead.

Re: Ask HN: Why has no one replaced Ticketmaster?

#33

Post by okdood64 »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #11

Ticketmaster has exclusive deals with artists and venues. Artists not signing deals with Ticketmaster lose access to venues, and venues not signing exclusivity deals with Ticketmaster lose access to artists. There are enough of these on both sides that neither wants to lose the other so they sign. Side note: I worked at a small ticketing software shop circa the Ticketmaster/LiveNation merger. The CEO got a call from…

Perhaps if there were enough big artists to get together and "strike" against Live Nation/Ticketmaster exclusive venues something might change for the better for their fans.

But, alas, that money too good.

Re: Ask HN: Why has no one replaced Ticketmaster?

#34

Post by Apreche »

cushpush wrote: post #25

why is ticket scalping still a thing with robust ID

Tickets for events necessarily have a limited supply. If demand exceeds supply, price goes up. The box offices keep the face value prices of the tickets lower than what the market will bear. Therefore, someone will always step in to arbitrate and collect the margin. Even if Ticketmaster were destroyed, it would not have any impact on scalping. The only way to stop this from happening is for the face value of high demand tickets to rise greatly. For example, you could sell tickets with a dutch auction.

Re: Ask HN: Why has no one replaced Ticketmaster?

#35

Post by burkaman »

bastard_op wrote: post #18

The question should really be why the FTC tolerates this, letting them after all this time enjoy the blatantly monopolistic anti-consumer stance they've enjoyed since the 80's (at least). It isn't difficult to see how nasty of a business this is by how hated they are by artists and consumers alike, and if nothing else they should be broken up the same way Ma Bell as a telecom monopoly. At least it might come with som…

They are maybe working on it according to this vague article: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/28/feds-home-in-on-tic...

Re: Ask HN: Why has no one replaced Ticketmaster?

#36

Post by simonw »

okdood64 wrote: post #33
kelseyfrog wrote: post #11

Ticketmaster has exclusive deals with artists and venues. Artists not signing deals with Ticketmaster lose access to venues, and venues not signing exclusivity deals with Ticketmaster lose access to artists. There are enough of these on both sides that neither wants to lose the other so they sign. Side note: I worked at a small ticketing software shop circa the Ticketmaster/LiveNation merger. The CEO got a call from…

Perhaps if there were enough big artists to get together and "strike" against Live Nation/Ticketmaster exclusive venues something might change for the better for their fans. But, alas, that money too good.

If a venue has signed a multi-year contract with Ticketmaster there's not much they can do as a short-term measure inspired by something like a strike.

Re: Ask HN: Why has no one replaced Ticketmaster?

#37

Post by massysett »

cbsmith wrote: post #30

Honestly, it's not what the rhetoric tells you. The entertainment business is not very technical. TM serves as their IT department. By the nature of the business, everyone wants to differentiate themselves from everyone else. So literally every client wants some special feature that no one has seen before. TM is the only place that can afford to say, "sure, we'll do it" to all of them, and since most of the clients (…

What kind of “special feature”, any examples?

Re: Ask HN: Why has no one replaced Ticketmaster?

#39

Post by thaumasiotes »

> I constantly see people complaining about ticketmaster with scalping, nasty business tactics, broken interfaces, etc. and they get sued left and right after countless big events.

> Yet even with all that, it seems no competitor has been able to reasonably get off the ground and poise a viable alternative. What gives?

To the extent that you're complaining about scalping, that's not something ticketmaster does. Scalping is a choice made by whoever originates the tickets. If the facial price is $20 and the market value is $700, scalping is going to occur regardless of whatever platform(s) may be involved. And if the facial price is $20 and the market price is $5, scalping won't occur regardless of whatever platform(s) may be involved.

Re: Ask HN: Why has no one replaced Ticketmaster?

#40

Post by abnercoimbre »

Wrote my own Ticketmaster replacement for the Handmade conferences, as it's one of our core principles [0]:

> Anything essential to our conferences is processed in-house. E.g. When you register for an event we personally handle the process to generate your ticket—removing spying middlemen like Ticketmaster.

It saves thousands in Ticketmaster fees which is life-changing when you're indie. We don't have to overcharge ticket holders.

I'd be interested in turning this into a polished webapp other organizers can install and use. Sadly, building your own replacement doesn't address the monopoly TM has with the biggest venues.

[0] https://handmadecities.com/about

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