Songkick Adds Tickets Sales In UK, Plots U.S. Rollout
Thursday 6 November, 2014
Songkick has added ticket sales to its concert discovery platform; and just a few months after launching in the UK, says its selling tickets for 25% of all London shows. This momentum has motivated the startup to want to spread their ticketing service elsewhere. But there's a catch, particularly in the U.S. Exclusive venue deals with Ticketmaster, Ticketfly and others that prevent additional sellers like Songkick. Undeterred, Songkick CEO Ian Hogart is on a mission to change that.
60% of Songkick’s users are in the U.S., but because of the restrictions here, Songkick's plan is to build a strong story in Europe that will help them break into ticketing the U.S. “If you look at what it took to bring Spotify to the U.S., it took traction elsewhere, and it took a partnership with Facebook. Now look. The labels are wholly behind it,” CEO Ian Hogarth told TechCrunch. "I’m going to scale it out wherever I can find partners, and eventually bring it to the U.S. when the time is right.”
Of course, the competition on this side of the pond is already fierce, BandsInTown, Eventful and handful of others are gaining real traction here. And the elephant in the room - Ticketmaster and owner Live Nation - could have their Labs whip up a competitor, as well.
