Ticketmaster Archive

NY-based SeatGeek describes their service as, “Bing Travel for concert and sports tickets.” The company provided an overview of their ticket forecasting service and I’ve posted the video below. The goal of SeatGeek is to tell you when is the best time to purchase tickets to sporting events and concerts.

SeatGeek displays maps of the arenas and stadiums and color-codes the seats based on the best available tickets. SeatGeek analyzes millions of tickets from the secondary markets and then apply their own values for things like winning percentages and weather forecasts to determine when is the right time to buy. The company says they are 80% accurate on forecasting ticket prices.

Tickets are offered for the top 2,000 artists and all major sports events except hockey which they note will be available soon. SeatGeek generates revenue from affiliate commissions anywhere from 7-10%. They work with StubHub, eBay, RazorGator and a variety of other small broker firms.
Continue reading “SeatGeek Forecasts Ticket Prices” »

Yesterday we learned that the NFL and Ticketmaster have joined together in a partnership to form a rival to eBay’s StubHub. Ticketmaster is owned by IAC (Nasdaq:IACI).

Today it’s the NHL. The National Hockey League has signed a deal with Ticketmaster to create a resale service. Ticketmaster is now known as the "Official Resale Ticket Provider of the NHL."

They note in the release, "The NHL resale ticketing service will provide fans looking to buy or sell NHL tickets a safe, convenient and league-endorsed resale platform." I like how they call it safe. What they really mean is a "way for us to make bushels of cash on you".

Eric Korman, Ticketmaster Executive Vice President then said, "Hockey fans will benefit from greater protection, flexibility and the unparalleled efficiency of our technology. The NHL wins by providing to fans the ability to resell tickets in a safe and secure environment. Our partnership will also make it easier for the League and its teams to connect with its millions of fans directly."

What he really means is that Ticketmaster will make money coming and going. So now you buy a ticket for a game, pay the ripoff Ticketmaster fee and you can instantly turn around and sell it on the resale service and pay another fee! It’s very smart, I give them that.

It’d be interesting to get a report from Ticketmaster showing how many people buy tickets only to a moment later resell them. 

Ticketmaster has announced this morning that for every concert ticket purchased at ticketmaster.com, you will receive a free iTunes song. Guess that helps with the very high fees that TM charges per ticket. They will also offer iTunes customers who purchase selected artists' songs the chance to buy concert tickets ahead of everyone else. I wonder if this will still be after the online scalpers get their tickets?

"By providing direct links to iTunes, the world's most popular online music and video store, we're giving iTunes and Ticketmaster customers the opportunity to buy concert tickets, and explore and purchase great music," said Sean Moriarty, president and CEO of Ticketmaster. "We're thrilled to be working with iTunes to offer concert-goers even more ways to connect with their favorite artists."

"Our exclusive digital album pre-orders have been extremely popular with iTunes customers," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We're thrilled to be teaming up with Ticketmaster again to give music fans free music and the ability to buy concert tickets on Ticketmaster.com before they go on sale to the general public."