By Jane Cohen and Bob Grossweiner
In a move designed to help seamlessly integrate the selling of recorded and live music to the same customer, Ticketmaster and iTunes have expanded their “music + tickets” offerings by integrating digital album sales directly alongside concert tickets in a single transaction on Ticketmaster.com.
The Ticketmaster and iTunes program launches with a special seasonal offer of $1 off discount applied to every digital album sold on Ticketmaster and fulfilled via the iTunes Store through Dec. 29, 2007. Ticketmaster.com will provide a direct link that will take the user to the iTunes Store to download their album. Among the first musical artists to have there songs and concert tickets intertwined under the offering are Kanye West, Keith Urban, Modest Mouse and Bon Jovi, and currently there are more than 700 musical acts with concerts currently on sale via Ticketmaster.
“The ability to connect live and recorded music, concert tickets and album sales is the future of the music business,” said David Marcus, senior vice president of Music, Ticketmaster, in a statement. “The collaboration between Ticketmaster and iTunes makes it simple for fans to download the latest music from the artists they want to see live. We’ve now extended the music + concert tickets program we introduced with iTunes earlier this year, and we’re thrilled to now offer digital albums integrated with concert ticket sales.”
This collaboration comes at an important juncture for Ticketmaster, which is being spun off by parent company IAC/InterActiveCorp, and will lose its biggest client, Live Nation, when their contract expires at the end of 2008 (the contract with Live Nation subsidiary House of Blues, ends at the end of 2009).
Specific statistics on the number of iTunes subscribers is elusive, but published reports place that number well above 10 million. The relationship between Ticketmaster and iTunes dates back two years when the two ran a similar promotion for Depeche Mode, and earlier this year the two offered songs to buyers of some summer concert tickets.
“This Ticketmaster + iTunes program instantly gives our music huge exposure to a very important consumer audience — the people who come to our shows,” West said in a statement. “Touring is the most powerful and sincere connection that we have with our fans, so being able to deliver our music for download during the ticket buying process is a slam-dunk for us, and for all recording and touring artists out there who depend on reaching their live audience.”