TicketFly gives Ticketmaster a run for its money

Ticketmaster and Livenation dominate concert sales, but TicketFly is starting to emerge as a competitor. A cheaper, easier to use, and faster ticketing system, TicketFly has a real chance of beating Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster’s business is a big one – but TicketFly may just have a chance of competing. Source for this article – TicketFly – FreeFest helps give Ticketmaster real competition by Personal Money Store.

TicketFly gets defectors

TicketFly was founded in 2008 with $ 3 million in original funding. The Ticketmaster/Livenation group lost about 50 venues to TicketFly when they were “poached”. The venues control who sells tickets to their events. TicketFly really got their sales began with these 50 venues. TicketFly claims to charge much less in both “printing fees” and “convenience fees.” Ticketmaster has become known for the high fees it piles on top of ticket cost. Despite legal questions of a monopoly, Ticketmaster has been adding venues to its concert-promotion packages.

What TicketFly does better

TicketFly has made many promises about prices and function. The claim is that by charging lower fees, TicketFly tickets could be 30 percent less than tickets from Ticketmaster. TicketFly is also set up to give customers discounts if they talk about their purchase on social networking websites. For ticket sellers, TicketFly promises easy, fast updates of ticket info (rather than the three days it takes Ticketmaster). In short, TicketFly promises that it could be less costly and easier to use for everybody involved.

FreeFest pairs TicketFly and Virgin

Virgin Mobile paired up with TicketFly to distribute tickets to the Virgin Mobile FreeFest. Virgin Mobile sent out emails with codes for free tickets to any person who had attended a previous festival. The rest of the tickets go on pre-sale at 10 a.m. on July 24. TicketFly won a big business move with the Virgin Mobile partnership. Because the Ticketmaster/Livenation conglomerate controls a good 50 percent of ticket sales and venues in the United States, it has a lot of pull.