The Modern Ticketing Industry: Ticketmaster’s Past, Present, and Beyond

Description

The Modern Ticketing Industry: Ticketmaster’s Past, Present, and Beyond: Abstract

This case focuses, in particular, on the issues raised by the 2010 merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster Entertainment to form the conglomerate Live Nation Entertainment (LNE). The two companies became involved in artist management, venue management, and event ticketing. Ticketmaster (via LNE) dominated the market in the 2020s, selling some 500 million tickets annually to customers willing to spend their hard-earned dollars. In this study, students will learn about the many fees added to the face value of ticket prices in both the primary and secondary markets. They will also be exposed to the practice of dynamic pricing used by Live Nation and Ticketmaster in both the primary and secondary markets. Students will be presented with the answer provided by the AI ChatGPT bot when asked about the morality of a dynamic pricing strategy for live event ticket sales. They will then have to take a position for or against the breakup of the quasi-monopolistic Ticketmaster division of the LNE conglomerate.

Teaching objectives

• Understand the modern ticketing industry’s market structure and business dynamics and identify its most influential players worldwide.
• Research one’s own country’s live event ticketing industry and compare it with U.S. practices.
• Discuss the controversy caused by the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster to form Live Nation Entertainment (LNE) and the market dominance of this conglomerate.
• Indicate support for or opposition to the use of dynamic pricing and the potential breach of morality from the eventgoer’s perspective using AI technology.
• Report on how governments could intervene to protect eventgoers from price manipulation.

Additional information

Teachers’ notes are available for university teachers only. Please contact the HEC Montréal Case Centre.