Amazon may be pursuing distribution partnerships with the major ticketing companies rather than its own dominance of the market, according to a report that casts doubt on last week’s Reuters scoop.
On Friday Reuters published a story suggesting Amazon was ready to take on Ticketmaster in North America by selling event tickets. The report, backed up by four sources, added that Amazon was already in talks with major venues and rights-holders.
However, entertainment news site Amplify believes that Amazon Tickets, under former Warner Music Group vice president Lawrence Peryer, is building a ticketing distribution system that will tie into the APIs of major ticketing companies — including potentially Ticketmaster — that will push out ticket offers to users of Prime.
The US division would be similar to that already on offer in the UK with three tiers – Prime Tickets, Prime Experiences and Prime Live Events.
Amplify reporter Dave Brooks wrote: “What Amazon is not doing is building out a box office software suite for venues that would compete with the primary ticketing companies.
“What they ARE doing is creating deals with various ticketing platforms to pull inventory and work directly with content owners to market tickets to its 85 million subscribers, according to recent Consumer Intelligence Research Partners — that’s a 22-million subscriber increase over this time last year.”
Brooks added: “Amazon is not trying to sign away big arenas and music venues from Ticketmaster. Yes, Amazon has the opportunity to disrupt the space, to improve the customer experience, to do something about annoying ticketing fees and teach us new things about the consumer we don’t already know, but it’s not a Ticketmaster-killer.”
Meanwhile, Channel News reports that Amazon is looking to move into the Australian ticketing market while also becoming a major sports sponsor. The news service suggests such a move could affect Ticketmaster, while also impact retailer Harvey Norman, a major NRL sponsor.
According to sources cited by Channel News, the web giant is keen to attack the ticketing market, and wants to offer premium customers tickets to events while also being able to bundle live shows with their Amazon Prime offering.
Share this