Amazon Runs Into Resistance Becoming A Ticketing Business By Live Nation And Ticketmaster

Amazon, who’s music business has teamed up with The Roots to live stream “A Night of Symphonic Hip Hop, is having trouble starting a ticket business as the company faces competition with Ticketmaster and Live Nation. The business has been trying to start up since two years ago, but not much has been put to further it.

According to Billboard, Amazon’s  CEO Jeff Bezos read a posting explaining their reason for the ticket business saying “Our vision goes beyond selling tickets as we aim to disrupt the entire live-entertainment experience, including what happens before, during and after the show.” He continues by saying “The ticket business is ripe for innovation and improvement, as much of the industry has not fundamentally changed since the 1970s.”

Amazon has looked thoroughly through ticket marketing in Europe for testing, which was a open market due to the lack of exclusive ticket venue contracts. But when looking at the United State’s ticket market has shown more complications. The ticket market is dominated by Live Nation’s Ticketmaster, which is responsible for 80% of all concert tickets in the U.S.

Amazon has already discussed prices, which could result in reduced service fees with the trading of annual membership fees. This has been said to “impact promoters, venues and artists who rely on such charges and rebates as an important revenue stream.” But making and maintaining relationships between artists and venues is another challenge, as just this year, Ticketmaster has spent about four billion dollars to keep their relationships.

Even with the pricing differences, Amazon will still have difficulty gaining more than Live Nation as Ticketmaster has generated $28 billion worldwide, with 480 million tickets sold in 28 countries through deals made with artists and venues.

Negotiations have been difficult with Live Nations pushing Amazon into simpler sponsors. With this Macquarie analyst Amy Yong has stated “If Amazon wants to come into the market, then they will have to negotiate directly with artists, venues and sports teams.”