WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hypebot) –
With Irving Azoff at the helm of the new Ticketmaster Entertainment, the company is stepping up efforts to sell downloads alongside tickets. "It's a platform for us to build a lot of other things…We're going to build the ability for people to distribute their music." he told Billboard.
In a commentary, I questioned the plan. Ticketmaster is a place to buy tickets and not a music destination. Instead of trying to use bands to drive traffic to Ticketmaster; they should provide the technology to sell tickets on the artist's site. Some very smart Hypebot readers had their own opinions:
"…Music + interactive social media + control of seats = new ways to build fan to fan relationships, and this will also equate to one of the most interesting ways to create tiered incentive programs (best fans = best seats) – Bruce Warila, Unspring Media
"This isn't about a music destination, this is about leveraging direct to fan channels…they have massive insights into fan behavior…" – David DeVore, Fan Mail Marketing
"My gut tells me that most people will be REMINDED that they might want a certain song/album from that artist, but whether or not they will actually be moved to take action and take money out of their pocket is harder to prove." – Artist House Music
