Ticketmaster Facts
Ticketmaster is the world’s largest seller of event tickets. It is based out of West Hollywood, California, USA, but has operations in many countries around the world.
Ticketmaster has grown to become one of the most popular choices for venues because of the extremely flexible and powerful ticketing system they have developed, as well as a distribution network that makes it easy and convenient for the public to purchase tickets. Ticketmaster’s VAX-based ticketing software has the ability to sell hundreds of thousands of tickets per day.
Typically, Ticketmaster’s clients (arenas, stadiums, and theatres) are in total control of their own events, and Ticketmaster simply acts as an agent, selling the tickets that the clients make available to them.
Ticketmaster Prices
Although Ticketmaster makes it convenient to purchase tickets, they have been the subject of controversy and complaints due to high ticket service charges. In the 1990s, Pearl Jam brought a lawsuit alleging that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, whose markup price is sometimes more than 30%. Ticketmaster was found to be not guilty of violating antitrust law. There are many web sites that protest Ticketmaster’s service charges.
Competitors of Ticketmaster usually advertise the ability for venues to charge lower service charges, or the ability for clients to keep more of the service charges for themselves.
Ticketmaster Technology
Ticketmaster has introduced a lot of technology to keep up with fraud and offer clients more options to sell their tickets. One of the first ticketing companies to sell tickets on the Internet, Ticketmaster now operates one of the most popular web sites, and sells a large percentage of its tickets online.
Other technology includes barcoded tickets, which offer a high level of security, including the ability for a ticket to be refused entry at the door if there is something wrong, such as if the ticket is fake.
On April 28, 1997, Ticketmaster sued Microsoft over its Sidewalk service for deep linking into Ticketmaster’s site. The two settled after a two-year legal battle.
Ticketmaster is owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, a large company that also owns many other popular Internet sites and services.
