Watch Out Ticketmaster: Amazon In Talks To Offer Event Ticketing In US (reuters.com)

According to Reuters, Amazon is seeking to partner with U.S. venue owners to sell event tickets -- a move that could loosen Ticketmaster's powerful grip on the lucrative ticketing business. From the report: The Seattle-based company sees the U.S. ticketing market as ripe for attack. Consumers dislike ticket fees, and venue owners, sports leagues and teams want more distributors for their tickets as they seek to boost sales. Access to tickets could be another means to lure members to the Amazon Prime shopping club. For music acts and sports teams, selling tickets through Amazon could help sell their merchandise. Currently Ticketmaster, owned by Live Nation Entertainment, is the exclusive seller of primary tickets for many top venues in the United States. Would-be challengers have struggled to compete in the face of Ticketmaster's strong relationships with the operators of major U.S. sports stadiums, arenas, concert halls and other venues. Amazon has had success with ticketing in Britain, where it has been selling seats to West End shows since 2015, even outselling Ticketmaster for some events, according to one of the sources, who owns venues in that country. It is less common for venues in Britain to have an exclusive ticket provider.

Comments

Would be nice

[Quirkz]

If anyone can unseat Ticketmaster and their ridiculous and exorbitant fees, I say: please do!

Now it would be unfortunate if one unpleasant monopoly ended up simply replacing another one, but I'd love to at least see some competition in this area.

Re:Would be nice

[rahvin112]

I can't think of any company more deserving of being fucked in the ass by Amazon.

Re:Would be nice

[Quirkz]

Well, I don't know about everyone else, but if I had to choose between a $100 ticket and $20 in "fees" or a $120 ticket, without fees called out like my bank account is being pillaged (especially when I have to then choose between $5 to print it myself or $10 for delivery by mail, which somehow always seems as if it might not get there in time unless I upgrade to $15, even a month in advance), I'd damn well pay what just looks like a normal price, instead of the one that looks like it's got three layers of extortion.

Maybe the prices end up being exactly the same. Maybe it's just a terrible marketing problem that TicketMaster presents. But I find myself loathing them every single time I have to interact with them, because it feels like they're not just nickel and diming me, but opportunistically bleeding me dry.

Re:Karma

[JohnFen]

I've never had a problem getting tickets at the box office. The problem is that when I do, I still have to pay Ticketmaster their cut.

Fuck Ticketmaster. They're nothing but a bunch of scumbag leeches.

preorders

[bugs2squash]

I wonder if they will allow prime members to pre-order before tickets are oficially released