Live Nation and Ticketmaster have been two of the few huge ticket selling companies. Ticketmaster was founded in 1976 while Live Nation was founded in 1996. While you would think Ticketmaster would have the biggest business in venue operations, that is in fact not true. Headerquartered in Los Angeles, California, "AEG and Live Nation are subsidiaries of multinational media corpora- tions and now have a big business in venue operations, merchandising and sports events. Live Nation is the company that has expanded most aggressively. It has established itself as the major national promoter in many countries, built a huge club venue franchise with the Fillmore and House of Blues brands, seized further control of ticketing and generally moved towards the 180- and 360-degree business models through long-term contracts with stars such as Madonna, U2, and Jay-Z, with package contracts involving touring, merchandise and recordings (Hillary and Peters, 2008; Waddell, 2007b, c, 2008b). The company has thus become a self-contained entity that capitalizes on its control over the value chain," (Holt, 2010, p.249). As Live Nation monopolized, the company and Ticketmaster, who was the dominating ticketing company at the time, merged in February 2009. The merge itself angered and shocked fans and the US Justice Department. It also received reactions from superstars like Bruce Springsteen that was completely against the merge, (Holt, 2010, p.249).
Since they have been merged, Live Nation has continued dominating the ticket selling industry. In the 4th quarter and final financial report of 2005, Live Nation reached $752.5 Million, (Live Nation Entertainment, 2006). Prior to the pandemic and now years post Ticketmaster merge, in 2019 Live Nation reach a revenue of $11.5 billion and a operating income of $325 million, (Live Nation Entertainment, 2020). So far this year, as of their 2nd quarterly report the 2021 for the months of April to June, revenue is at $575.9 Million," (Mulligan, 2021). It is clear that the Ticketmaster and Live Nation merge benefit both companies.
Due to the digital age, the way of purchasing tickets has significantly changed. According to Calson, "In the 1980s, when I desperately wanted concert tickets, I would call whatever telephone number I was instructed to call by a television commercial that was alerting me to the tickets going on sale soon. I would dial over and over again until I didn't get a busy signal. And then I would be placed on hold. I usually lucked out, particularly after the "redial" button was invented. The other options were waiting on line at a box office or record store, and mail order. Thanks to a little persistence and patience, I'm pretty sure I got tickets, for face value, every time I wanted them," (Calson, 2017). This way of purchasing tickets has significantly changed. Furthermore Calson stated, "Earlier this summer I signed up to become a Ticketmaster Verified Fan online, which was the first step in securing tickets to Bruce Springsteen's intimate Broadway shows this fall. Last night I was informed via email that I was not chosen as one of the fans to be allowed access to the ticketing system. I don't know what robot decided which fans would be allowed the chance to purchase tickets, but I will find that robot," (Calson, 2017). I can admit comparing the selling of tickets prior to the digital era to how it is now seems more difficult and fustrating. There are a lot of more ways bots and scalpers can get tickets before the actual fans do which causes a lot of frustration. Along with websites crashing, the ticket buying experience is very angering. To lessen this problem, Ticketmaster adopted a way to make sure the website doesn’t crash when selling tickets by using Smart Queue. “Smart Queue drops fans into a virtual queue requiring each user to sign in and provide a unique phone number for validation,” (Ticketmaster). They also use “Wait List” which “completely replaces the traditional onsale for certain high-demand events by using a fan pre-registration process that adds additional screening and verification of potential buyers,” (Ticketmaster). This process does lessen the stress of getting kicked off the site due to the overflow of traffic but still can be very frustrating.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster's merge has made them the titians of venue operations and ticket selling. Due to the ongoing advancement of the digital era and the internet overall, I believe that they will continue to climb the hierarchy and conquer all.
Works Cited
Carlson, J. (2017, August 30). Let's Go Back To Waiting On Line For Concert Tickets. Gothamist. https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/lets-go-back-to-waiting-on-line-for-concert-tickets
Holt, F. (2010). The economy of live music in the digital age. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 244–261. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.871.1193&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Live Nation Entertainment. (2006, February 21). Live Nation Reports Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2005 Financial Results. https://www.livenationentertainment.com/2006/02/live-nation-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2005-financial-results-2/
Live Nation Entertainment. (2020, February 27). Reports Fourth Quarter & Full Year 2019 Results. https://www.livenationentertainment.com/2020/02/live-nation-entertainment-reports-fourth-quarter-full-year-2019-results/
Mulligan, R. (2021, August 4). Ticketmaster benefits from record month of on-sales. TheTicketingBusiness News. https://www.theticketingbusiness.com/2021/08/04/ticketmaster-benefits-from-record-month-of-on-sales/
Ticketmaster. (n.d.). Ticketing 101. https://www.ticketmaster.com/ticketing101
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