Your favourite internet radio service will soon make it easier to buy concert tickets. Pandora just bought Ticketfly, a Ticketmaster competitor, for $624 million. Why? Because it’s a great idea.
Pandora’s been scrambling to grow and diversify its offerings to music lovers for a while now. In the past year, the company’s bought two data startups — the Artist Marketing Platform (AMP) and Next Big Sound — that provide a better picture of what people are listening to and looking for. With the purchase of Ticketfly, an innovative ticket sales platform, Pandora can now help music fans get their asses to some great shows.
What’s especially exciting about Pandora’s acquisition, however, is the fact that it might mean that Ticketfly can really give the evil Ticketmaster a run for its money. Ticketmaster is owned by the multi-billion dollar conglomerate Live Nation and controls ticket sales for the vast majority of concert venues in the country. (Fortune reported in 2013 that Ticketmaster controlled 80% of venues.)
We don’t yet know how Pandora will integrate Ticketfly into its own service, but it’s exciting to imagine the possibilities. Because honestly, anything is better than the status quo.