The first of what is expected to be a flood of streaming platforms integrating Ticketmaster sales directly into their sites has dropped, and it’s not Spotify (yet). SoundCloud beat them to the punch.
SoundCloud has announced Ticketmaster integration through a “partnership” with the accused monopoly ticket broker. Using Ticketmaster’s fairly under-utilized “Universe” platform, the integration will allow subscribers to SoundCloud’s “Artist Pro” tier to use a suite of “event management, ticket sales, promotion, check-in, and tracking features will help SoundCloud artists take control of their shows within the SoundCloud platform,” SoundCloud wrote in a release.
“Ticketmaster and Universe events will also be promoted to fans throughout SoundCloud through new concert discovery features.”
While SoundCloud boasts that this will allow artists to “create events, sell tickets and share their shows” directly on their profile, it seems artists will be unable to do this without also using Ticketmaster’s Universe platform — essentially locking artists in to using Ticketmaster. Universe uses a billing system called “Universe Payments” which will automatically apply a 10% surcharge per ticket.
Digging into SoundCloud’s support docs, it appears you can switch from Universe Payments to Stripe for payment processing but Soundcloud warns that “if you choose to integrate your own Stripe Connect account with your Universe account, you will incur additional costs on top of the service fees to process payments via Stripe Connect. These processing costs will not be passed on to your customers.”
It doesn’t seem possible to promote your show in the same way if the artist or the venue uses See Tickets, Dice, or any other ticketing platform or Ticketmaster rival without giving Ticketmaster a cut.
Spotify is also reportedly in talks with Ticketmaster over integration in their app. Negotiations are reportedly centered around creating a new “super premium” payment tier for Spotify users, who would then receive access to pre-sale tickets sold using Ticketmaster.
The Justice Department sued Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation in May 2024, accusing the ticketing giant of monopoly practices. Ticketmaster’s conduct and dominance across the music industry “harms fans, innovation, artists and venues,” according to the DOJ.
