They're a monopoly.
We already have a thriving marketplace of seating- it's called the airline industry. You can buy a seat on a plane from dozens if not hundreds of sellers online.
Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?
21–30 of 250 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?
#22Rant: Trying to buy tickets for the Knicks game at MSG. Is it really impossible to have a ticketing platform that prevents scalpers from marking up prices to an insane amount? $10000+ for a ticket that originally costs around 2k should be illegal. Most of these tickets will go unsold I'm sure.
> $10000+ for a ticket that originally costs around 2k should be illegal. Most of these tickets will go unsold I'm sure.
I'm not so sure. See this article in the Washington Post where multiple season pass holders they talked to sold their seats for $5k+ quite quickly: "His tickets fetched more than $8,000 each within the first few hours of going up."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2026/06/08/knicks-seas...
Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?
#23Corruption.
Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?
#24Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) gave a good explanation many years ago already: https://stereogum.com/58831/trent_reznor_blasts_ticketmaster...
He also predicted the future for after the merger.
Its funny - of all the stuff people make up that was Obama's fault, no one ever mentions his admin allowing Ticketmaster and Live Nation to merge. Now they need to be broken up, probably like the Bell System back in the day. But I'll keep on dreaming about that.
Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?
#25Rant: Trying to buy tickets for the Knicks game at MSG. Is it really impossible to have a ticketing platform that prevents scalpers from marking up prices to an insane amount? $10000+ for a ticket that originally costs around 2k should be illegal. Most of these tickets will go unsold I'm sure.
Without regulation, yes. Brokers (i.e. scalpers) will buy up tickets to events and take all of the risk off of TM’s plate, and reprice however they’d like. ~80% of tickets in the U.S. are sold this way. Stubhub has done a great job of lobbying for this since their existence depends on ticket brokers.
Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?
#26I frequent a small venue that sells all its tickets through this vendor. They have other venues as well, also using this vendor.
Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?
#27I try to always buy tickets on TickPick when I can (no affiliation). No fees and total prices are often much better than Ticketmaster. But my usecase is almost always buying from resellers. I never up-to-date to buy official tickets.
Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?
#28[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?
#29One component of the total picture also is that many of these stadiums/arenas are being funded by the public / tax payer often by tax breaks etc. and the politicians / lobbies are using their relationship to monopolize that public good.
IMO every event at an area should go through a public auction / RFP of who is the ticketer for that event (maybe artist gets right of first refusal to pony up the difference for their preferred ticketer?)
Re: Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?
#30Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) gave a good explanation many years ago already: https://stereogum.com/58831/trent_reznor_blasts_ticketmaster...
Worse, they are all owned by the same company now. It’s all a multi-headed hydra of suck. Live Music has been completely monopolized.
If you like specific acts, sure. Or maybe some cities take independent venues more seriously than others. Growing up, ok I missed out on getting Metallica tickets because I didn't want to support clear channel (or Live Nation, or TM, etc...), but I still was able to see plenty of amazing metal bands in indie venues.
Another interesting note: Weird Al is playing three venues within driving distance from me. Only one of them is selling tickets through TM.