Two years ago, Kyle McPeck came up with a plan to better connect ticket brokers and consumers, both in terms of information sharing and in the marketplace in general. Towards this end, he created the TicketCrush brand, which encompasses several business models, from a traditional buyer/seller direct internet portal, to an online forum for brokers and fans. Today, the business is still expanding, despite the uncertainty on the horizon for the secondary market.
Formerly in the radio business, McPeck told TicketNews that he got his start in the resale market in the traditional way: selling the extra event tickets lying around the radio station. This entrepreneurship led to an increased interest in the market, and soon he began selling and buying tickets on a regular basis. It was time to expand the business.
The first step in this expansion was a daily newsletter that listed ticket onsales and other information of interest to brokers. In turn, this led to the creation of Ticketchat.net, an online forum for brokers and buyers. Today, the newsletter reaches 5,900 people daily, and Ticketchat.net is still connecting brokers and buyers.
In addition, the TicketCrush brand has come to encompass several other entities, including Ticketcrush.net, which is a seller/buyer direct marketplace, and Ticketcrush.biz, a carbon copy of the .net site that employs a different pricing model for brokers.
In a final piece of innovation, McPeck has developed a different business model than most people in the industry: his company also consigns tickets for other brokers, selling them on TicketNetwork, parent company of TicketNews. “That’s the unique part of our business,” McPeck told TicketNews.
In the two years since McPeck launched the business, the ticketing industry has evolved in a number of ways, the most significant of which is the fact that a Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger is a possibility. McPeck notes that as this landscape changes, brokers will have to change with it. “I think brokers will have to be a little smarter about how they do business and how they’re operating,” he said. “Things that worked two years ago won’t work well now. The ones who are most unique and change with the times will do the best. The ones that are stuck with the model they’re using are probably going to have a harder time surviving.”
Despite the uncertainty ahead, for McPeck, it’s business as usual. He’s now looking into developing more ticket-related sites and perhaps expanding into other fields, such as travel and accommodation so that his business will become a one-stop shop that handles the entire entertainment experience for its customers. “We’re trying to expand to minimize what might happen if there is an issue and we have less access to the marketplace,” he said.
“We’re growing. We’re doing more business now than we ever have. We’re still cautious but I see a lot of positive things going on in the marketplace.”
