Spotify Gets Into Concert Ticket Sales, But Only Presale Events to Start
From music streamer to ticket agent: Spotify is expanding its reach with a new site for selling concert tickets directly to fans.
The test, dubbed Spotify Tickets(Opens in a new window), offers presale passes for a handful of artists—starting with Limbeck, Annie DiRusso, Dirty Honey, Crows, TOKiMONSTA, Four Year Strong, and Osees.
Log into your Spotify account and click an event for more information, like doors and show times, headliner and supporting acts, age restrictions, venue address, and ticket prices (including any booking fees, which are disclosed during checkout). Once the presale ends, Spotify refers users to a partner site where they can buy general admission tickets.
Spotify has already teamed up with Ticketmaster, AXS, DICE, Eventbrite, See Tickets, and others for its Live Events Feed, which promotes concerts to users via their in-app feed and direct messages. The company also rewards artists' biggest fans by emailing info(Opens in a new window) about presale tickets and exclusive merch. But, until now, Spotify has never stocked actual tickets.
According to the site's legal page(Opens in a new window), Spotify sells passes "on behalf of third parties" (venues, event promoters, fan clubs, artists), and does not set prices, but it will charge customers a booking fee.
Spotify Tickets is thus far focused on presales rather than primary ticketing. Spotify did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but tells The Verge(Opens in a new window) that the company "routinely test[s] new products and ideas to improve our user experience, [and] Tickets.spotify.com is our latest test. We have no further news to share on future plans at this time."
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