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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?

#71

Post by n4r9 »

wwalexander wrote: post #31

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 o…

Yep, the fact that events (or even specific days of an event) can have their resale queue disabled at any time is a huge downside. My wife's been bitten by that as well.

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

#72

Post by n4r9 »

calderwoodra wrote: post #47

One lesser known moat that Ticketmaster has is they have the best tech stack. From what I've heard from folks in the industry, literally no one else is capable of handling the biggest artists like Taylor Swift.

Didn't they spectacularly fail to handle Taylor Swift's tour last year?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/ticketmaster-taylor-sw...

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

#73

Post by safety1st »

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…

What's really wild is that for the last 2.5 years the FTC has been led by somebody who's super dialed in on antitrust issues and trying to take these companies to court, but the government is having a hard time winning the cases. So either the courts have been bought and paid for, or the laws are weak and out of date because Congress is bought and paid for, or both. All this despite a rough but widespread understanding among the majority of Americans that the economy is rigged.

Biden is probably the first President since Carter to have even acknowledged the issue, we have 40 years of both Democrats and Republicans at every level of government slopping at the trough at this point.

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

#74

Post by masklinn »

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.

> But, alas, that money too good.

This one. Not only does ticketmaster have contracts with most venues unless they own them outright, they're also a very convenient foil as they serve as ire-magnets.

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

#75

Post by locallost »

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…

Obviously not true. Pearl Jam tried to ditch Ticketmaster in the 90s and ended up cancelling their tour because they could only get shitty locations. The top comment here is correct: Ticketmaster has exclusive deals with venues and you can't get around it as a performer.

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

#76

Post by IshKebab »

latchkey wrote: post #28
cbsmith wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not accurate. TM already had a lock the market before LN acquired them. In fact, LN created their own ticketing platform to compete with TM... and failed miserably. Take a look at the largest venues in the country. Most of them aren't owned by LN, but they still use TM for ticketing. If anything, TM has helped LN to acquire more venues than the other way around. In general, TM has a much more dominant share of the ti…

You're bringing up the past, they are talking about the present, which is absolutely accurate.

OP asked why nobody has beaten TM. The answer cannot be "because they have a vertically integrated monopoly" because in the past that wasn't true and nobody was able to beat them then either.

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

#77

Post by gigatexal »

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…

So where’s Lina Kahn pressuring to break up these exclusive agreements? She made hay talking about them in 2022 but what has been done recently? https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/big-firms-lik...

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

#79

Post by morsch »

progbits wrote: post #65
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.

Ticketmaster isn't huge in Europe. I think CTS Eventim is the closest equivalent, with a similar share of tickets sold in a few countries, including their home turf, Germany. But I don't think it's comparable, as they're not similarly vertically integrated.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTS_Eventim

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