Social networking goliath Myspace.com is aiming to take on Ticketmaster and Live Nation under a new plan to begin selling concert tickets.
The website, which boasts millions of users, is reportedly looking for ways of improving sales figures beyond their main revenue generator of advertising. According to Bloomberg, besides concert tickets the site is also planning on selling digital music, similar to iTunes, in a venture with several of the major record labels. Myspace has more than 30 million registered users and more than 5 million music artist/band profiles on its site.
In recent years, Myspace has launched concert tours and benefit shows, but has not tried to become a full-fledged ticketer. Because of Myspace’s scope, the ticket and music-selling components could potentially reach tens of millions of users, and for record companies the venture could help them break free of Apple, the industry’s dominant digital music retailer.
The competition to sell tickets, whether at the primary or secondary level, continues to heat up as Ticketmaster, Live Nation, StubHub and others vie for the collective attention of consumers for entertainment spending. Ticketmaster has gone on a spending spree recently, acquiring TicketsNow and signing exclusive deals with sports leagues. Live Nation has also aggressively sought to expand its scope by signing a total entertainment deal with Madonna, and looking to sign a similar deal with Jay-Z.
Under the new plan, Myspace will share revenues generated from ticket and music sales with the artists and record labels, according to Bloomberg.
