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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?

#61

Post by canucker2016 »

blindriver wrote: post #12

Pearl Jam tried to do something about it 25 years ago but their monopoly is too entrenched. They gave up.

almost 30 years ago, now

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/pearl-jam-war-with-ticketmaster...

does ticketmaster monopolize small venues, as well?

maybe those venues could also sell streaming access as well as in-person viewing, to attack ticketmaster from 'below'. Other than Pearl Jam (and Prince, RIP), the big concert attractions seem to be happy with the current ticketmaster situation.

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

#62

Post by zimpenfish »

Fernicia wrote: post #48

Ticketmaster is a company which is so hated, people ascribe their success to malice and illegal activity rather than any compelling economic arguments. It's unfortunate because their business model is, imo, quite interesting. The first thing to point out is that the question itself is flawed. Ticketmaster has a number of competitors (StubHub, Eventbrite, AXS, Seatgeek). Nevertheless, artists do seem to always gravita…

> Nevertheless, artists do seem to always gravitate to companies like Ticketmaster, even when neither they nor their venue have any affiliation.

Artists will want play at more than one venue, surely, and I should imagine that TM's stance is "If you want to play at any of our venues, you sign with us". Might be possible for a small indie band to completely avoid any TM venues but for any moderately popular band, it's probably not possible.

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

#63

Post by TT2048 »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #45
willcipriano wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds anticompetitive to me, antitrust action should be taken.

Anti-trust (at least to me) has a connotation with trust-busting and splitting up companies, but I'd be interested in the ramifications of restricting Ticketmaster to creating contracts no longer than, say, 6 months. On one hand, free markets involve sellers and buyers coming together freely which exclusivity contracts prohibit, but on the other hand exclusivity contracts are nominally voluntary agreements which is a…

This could be a headache for venues. The financial arbitrage is too good for them, they have almost zero risk of having their venue empty.

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

#64

Post by thfuran »

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…

As much as I am in favor of breaking up anti-competitive monopolies, I don't think that really gets to the root of th issue. As long as it's legal to make the sort of exclusivity deals that Ticketmaster has, someone can take over the market.

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

#65

Post by progbits »

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…

Can't wait for EU commission to notice this and add them to the "gatekeepers" list.

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

#66

Post by trollied »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #45
willcipriano wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds anticompetitive to me, antitrust action should be taken.

Anti-trust (at least to me) has a connotation with trust-busting and splitting up companies, but I'd be interested in the ramifications of restricting Ticketmaster to creating contracts no longer than, say, 6 months. On one hand, free markets involve sellers and buyers coming together freely which exclusivity contracts prohibit, but on the other hand exclusivity contracts are nominally voluntary agreements which is a…

6 months would not make sense, when people routinely buy tickets for concerts 12-18 months out.

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

#68

Post by jbotdev »

leehuffman wrote: post #59
Terretta wrote: post #51

We replaced Ticketmaster for fan club tix to Prince's Musicology tour. Ticketmaster wasn't set up to handle the unique setup Prince wanted, popular tour in both arena and intimate venues with scheduled sales. When all Prince's music club fans were trying to buy the tickets to a 300 seat venue at 12 noon on a Friday, Ticketmaster had trouble. Prince being Prince ditched the studio for his music, and bypassed Ticketmas…

Erm except AEG promoted that whole tour (and the too few beyond it – RIP Prince) and is a replica of, and/or, the only direct competitor of Live Nation. That's a weird example to pick out, as if Prince was 'fighting the system', and yet I'm sure you know he exclusively signed & got paid up-front from the 2nd positioned monopoly in the game. Cool story that you got to sit side stage and wrote code behind his fan club…

It’s weird to complain about supporting AEG claiming they’re somehow the 2nd “monopoly” after LiveNation. You can only have one “monopoly” in a given industry, otherwise they’re both just close competitors.

Having a close second competitor is still a step in the right direction, even if you disagree with their business practices.

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

#70

Post by ggrelet »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #13
bluewalt wrote: post #8

In France it was widely used but now we have new competitors like www.shotgun.live with a modern app, built-in resale feature, stripe payment, etc.

What would you estimate the market share to be?

Afaik shotgun is specialized in nightclubs and electronic music festivals so I would say it’s not that big but it’s getting bigger.

Also, Ticketmaster influence wasn’t that big in France to begin with because many concert halls and arenas have their own ticketing website. Music events were also not that pricey compared to other neighboring countries, probably because the state pumps a lot of money in the music system.

Of course now we also have huge expensive festivals owned by Live Nation and the likes and the model is changing: festival are going from 30€ a day to almost 80€+

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