Songkick has signed a deal with French ticketing giant Fnac, after last month winding up its own ticketing arm.
The long-running legal battle between Live Nation and Songkick concluded in January with Ticketmaster’s owner buying its rival’s assets and agreeing an out-of-court settlement worth more than $100m.
Live Nation acquired Complete Entertainment Resources Group’s (CERG) ticketing commerce platform, anti-scalping algorithm, API applications and patent portfolio for an undisclosed sum.
Fnac – which owns France Billet, Carrefour Spectacles and its own ticket agency, Fnac Spectacles – is a market leader in France, selling nearly 14 million tickets annually through its online platform and its network of more than 1,200 physical shops, including its Fnac music retail stores.
“We have tapped into Warner’s global infrastructure and existing fan base to accelerate growth and solidify Songkick’s status as the best concert discovery tool in the market,” said Tony Harlow, president of WMG’s label services division, WEA, in a statement.
“We know that Songkick users are highly engaged passionate music fans and we strive to provide them more content, access and rewards for their enthusiasm.”
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The Warner Music Group-owned Songkick also entered into a partnership deal with Facebook to add concerts from its listings onto the social network.
The new partnerships follow deals with internet radio and streaming service Pandora and music video platform Vevo.
“Since we joined forces with Tony and his amazing team at WEA, we’ve been in growth mode, striking a series of deals with distribution and ticketing partners aimed at expanding our global presence,” said Songkick’s chief technology officer, Mark McIntyre.
“Our team is growing, and our plans for the years ahead are more ambitious than ever. We’re off to a great start and are looking forward to building on this exciting partnership.”
Songkick, which merged with CrowdSurge three years ago, began legal action against Ticketmaster and Live Nation in 2015, initially accusing the entertainment giant of anticompetitive acts. Later it filed an amended complaint accusing a former CrowdSurge employee, who went on to work for Ticketmaster, of hacking trade secrets.
Songkick lost a number of pretrial motions, but was able to proceed with its expensive legal proceedings despite it effectively ceasing operations last year.
CERG sold the Songkick discovery platform to Warner Music Group last July and in October 2017 wound up its artist ticketing business. At the time a Songkick source claimed that the sale was more akin to a liquidation, with most staff having been laid off and the company simply fulfilling existing contracts and no longer accepting new customers.
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