Music Ally

In the third of a five-part series on self-service ticketing we speak to Julia and Kevin Hartz, co-founders of online ticket site Eventbrite which is opening up ticketing to all sorts of small event producers.

Julia and Kevin’s comments can also be found within a feature in last week’s Music Ally PDF Report alongside insights from executives at companies including See Tickets and Clubtickets. If you’re not yet a Music Ally subscriber you can sign up for a two week trial in a matter of minutes to read the original article as well as stories dating back nearly ten years.

Meanwhile, for the Q&A with  Julia and Kevin Hartz, co-founders of Eventbrite, keep reading after the jump…

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The UK Competition Commission has given permission for the so-called  ”merger of equals” between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, despite initial expectations that the merger would be opposed.

Earlier this month Live Nation published a document detailing what it described as “key legal flaws” in the Competition Commission’s provisional ruling, which was made in October.  In a curious twist on the usual bullish attitude of corporate giants, both Ticketmaster and Live Nation found themselves explaining why they believe their market powers and technological capabilities are  lower than the Competition Commission had claimed.

The Competition Commission has now reversed its finding that competition will be harmed, particularly in terms of UK market entry for German ticket provider CTS Eventim, with Commission inquiry group chairman Christopher Clarke stating that “we concluded it was unlikely that the merged entity would harm other ticketing agencies, promoters or venues”.

Music Ally is currently running a week-long special looking into the various competitors in the ticketing space, particularly the new generation of online self-service providers including Eventbrite. To read an interview with Stormcrowd CEO and former Ticketmaster executive Steve Machin view today’s piece or for Matt McNeill from eTickets to view yesterday’s. A detailed feature looking at the world of ticketing is published in last week’s Music Ally PDF Report – sign up for a two week free trial.

In the second part of a five-part series on self-service ticketing we speak to Steve Machin, whose extensive experience at companies from Ticketmaster to Tixdaq to Live Nation’s Ultrastar makes him a leading expert in the world of entertainment ticketing.

Steve’s comments can also be found within a feature in last week’s Music Ally PDF Report alongside insights from executives at companies including See Tickets, Clubtickets and Eventbrite. If you’re not yet a Music Ally subscriber you can sign up for a two week trial in a matter of minutes to read the original article as well as stories dating back nearly ten years.

Meanwhile, for the Q&A with Steve Machin, CEO of Stormcrowd, continue reading after the jump.

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AEG Live issued a statement over the weekend clarifying its plans to refund people who’ve bought tickets for the planned run of 50 Michael Jackson gigs at The O2 in London. Well, we say clarified, it’s more telling people when they plan to clarify their plans.

“On behalf of the entire AEG organisation we extend our deepest condolences to Michael Jackson’s family and friends during this tragic time. Full ticket refund information and procedures will be released early next week for all Michael Jackson “This Is It” shows. Fans are advised to hold onto their ticket vouchers/proof of purchase.”

Ticketmaster, which emailed the statement to everyone who’d bought tickets from it, added that it will contact all these customers once AEG’s refund plans have been finalised.

This doesn’t, of course, apply to people who bought tickets on eBay or from ticket reselling sites. For more on the potential fallout in the secondary ticketing market from Jackson’s death, read our post from Friday.

A storm may be brewing in the secondary ticketing market, following the death of Michael Jackson last night. With 750,000 tickets sold for his planned run of gigs at London’s The O2 venue – many of which have been re-sold through the secondary market – the after-effects could shine a spotlight on secondary ticketing – and specifically how trustworthy it is, and how honest ticket resellers will prove to be.

While Michael Jackson’s official Sony-hosted site, the Seatwave and Viagogo secondary ticket sites have acknowledged the pop icon’s death, concert promoter AEG’s MichaelJacksonLive.com is still displaying the same buzz and hype as it did in the days prior to his death. At the time of writing, Ticketmaster.co.uk is still allowing fans to explore dates for Jacko’s O2 concert run as if the star wasn’t dead. Ticketmaster has now taken the O2 dates off the site.

It is expected, though not yet fully confirmed, that legitimate retailers will offer full refunds to ticket buyers, leaving promoter AEG out of pocket to the tune of tens of millions of pounds. UPDATE: Seatwave has confirmed this, according to BBC News Online. But Jackson’s concert run was arguably the biggest yet to provide official blessing to secondary ticket retail through partners such as Viagogo, with yet more tickets sold at marked-up prices through eBay.

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The US Department of Justice has asked Ticketmaster and Live Nation for more information about their planned merger – the second time it’s made such a request – according to Associated Press.

That suggests it’s taking a detailed look at the deal – although this shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the size and importance of both companies in their respective markets.

Meanwhile, Ticketmaster chairman Barry Diller has gone on the attack again over accusations that the company isn’t serving fans well enough, particularly around big gigs like Michael Jackson and Phish. “Oddly, the better we sell tickets, the more unpopular we become,” he says.

Hypebot has an interesting article highlighting the fact that Eddie Van Halen, Seal, Billy Corgan and Journey have all sent signed letters to the US Congress expressing their support for the proposed merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation.

Why is that interesting? Well, none of them mentioned the fact that they were either managed or co-managed by Front Line Management, whose boss Irving Azoff is also CEO of… Ticketmaster.

The problem isn’t that they signed letters supporting their boss’ corporate strategy, but that they didn’t declare the connection. That said, there are an increasing number of other artists who have come out against the merger too – whatever their affiliations.

One of the issues bubbling out of the Live Nation / Ticketmaster merger is the involvement of artists and managers in the secondary ticketing market. The Wall Street Journal has an expose whose opening paragraph makes the issue clear:

“Less than a minute after tickets for last August’s Neil Diamond concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden went on sale, more than 100 seats were available for hundreds of dollars more than their normal face value on premium-ticket site TicketExchange.com. The seller? Neil Diamond.”

The article goes on to examine Ticketmaster’s policy of listing hundreds of the best seats for some concerts on its secondary ticketing websites, and splitting the additional revenue with the artists and promoters. The WSJ also fingers recent tours by Bon Jovi, Celine Dion and Van Halen as examples of this.

The rumours were right, it seems. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the boards of Ticketmaster and Live Nation have approved an agreement to merge, with the new company thought to be named Live Nation Entertainment.

The deal will create a genuine goliath of a company, covering ticket sales, venues and promotion, and management activities. One aspect of the deal is the two companies’ desire to make cost savings of up to $40 million, but the merger will face an intense anti-trust review, and is already attracting criticism from lawyers, artists and politicians.

To push it through, Live Nation and Ticketmaster will need to convince the regulatory authorities that the merger is good for consumers. For more on the story, check what Reuters, the Financial Times and USA Today have to say.

Ticketmaster is feeling major heat after fans of Bruce Springsteen were redirected to the company’s secondary-ticketing site TicketsNow when trying to buy tickets for The Boss’ upcoming tour, even though tickets were still available at face value on the main Ticketmaster site.

Bruce himself has issued a statement saying “We condemn this practice”, adding for good measure that he doesn’t want to see Ticketmaster and Live Nation merge (as is currently being rumoured) for fear of making these kinds of problems worse.

Meanwhile, Ticketmaster boss Irving Azoff has issued a public apology to Springsteen and his fans. “While we were genuinely trying to do the right thing for fans in providing more choices when the tickets they requested from the primary on-sale were not available, we clearly missed the mark.”