Ticketmaster, the formerly IAC-owned events behemoth, went from large to small today, launching an affiliate widget program.
Blogger Rex Dixon caught the release. The company says it's the first primary ticket seller to offer an affiliate program, though there's a thriving economy of secondary affiliate ticket sales online. How many of those affiliate programs have their own snazzy widgets, though?
Affiliate links can be served up in text or through any of seven Flash widgets. The sample widgets appear in a standard size but with awfully small text. I suppose people whose eyes aren't sharp enough to read it are too old for rock and roll anyway.
Affiliates will receive fifty cents for each ticket they sell priced between $20 and $60, $1.50 for tickets priced between $150 and $199, and up to $5.00 for tickets priced above $500. That's a 1% commission on $500 tickets, hardly a generous sum.
Programs like this seem to illustrate the way that a long-tail economy can take the form of countless points of distribution feeding into the same major players that already dominated the old economy. Monopoly is a net-negative in terms of social impact, something that any of countless Ticketmaster-haters can tell you. Now the company will deploy an army of widgets to do its bidding. Can you think of a scarier widget play?
Comments
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This terrifies me. When the Grim Reaper came to play. Thanks for the heads up on this. Checking it out.
Posted by: Tessa | November 27, 2007 11:47 AM
It is a scary thought, but the real question is - How many sites do you think will jump on this? That's where the problem is - everyone is trying to make money online (well a lot of people are) - so they will try anything, and even though TicketMaster has a bad name in some parts - it does have "brand recognition" which will equate into trust for some.
btw - thanks for the props! :)
Rex
Posted by: Rex Dixon | November 27, 2007 11:56 AM
Totally fair, Rex. I know I am thankful for the ability to make a living online, so I always have mixed feelings about criticizing other peoples' efforts to do so. In this case, though - I'll just criticize Ticketmaster. They are bad.
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick | November 27, 2007 12:01 PM
I think calling Ticketmaster a net negative or a monopoly is ridiculous. For one thing, I don't know the last time I bought a ticket through them for a venue around here, but I see mainly smaller shows. Second, if there is a thriving secondary market, that means tickets are being sold below their real market value, something that is proven daily by scalpers and other resellers-- hardly the actions of a monopolistic predator.
The fact is, they keep their prices as high as they can, but just low enough to make major competition coming in less likely. This affiliate program is another obvious example of the fact that they are, in fact, in competition in the market. Whether that is against other sellers, or against venue or musician or consumer backlash, or against potential future changes in the market, or anything else, doesn't make make the competition any less real. The few tickets I do get through Ticketmaster are not appreciably more expensive than any other way.
There is absolutely zero net negative in a voluntary transaction for a clearly-priced good that I desire. If the ticket is worth more to me than my money is, that's a positive. If it's not, then I'm just stupid for buying it, or I should re-think my feelings about a band that would put me through the pain of using Ticketmaster.
Posted by: Morgan | November 28, 2007 12:09 AM
Those payouts are awful. Why would anybody be their affiliate?
Posted by: dmi | November 28, 2007 7:57 AM
Is it really ticketmaster thats the problem or is it the live music venues who solely deal with ticketmaster to handle their shows?
Posted by: GC | November 28, 2007 10:28 AM
Can you elaborate on why they're so evil? I can't say I love dealing with all the ticketing charges, but when I need a ticket for an event, I go to them - not craigslist, stubhub, or a scalper.
Posted by: David Berkowitz | November 28, 2007 10:48 AM
This article bites - where is the problem with releasing an affiliate widget?
Posted by: Hank | November 28, 2007 10:50 AM
Not the first widget play. Look at TicketLeap.
Posted by: Marc M | November 28, 2007 11:16 AM
Um...how cheap is ticketmaster. Are they not even aware that StubHub offers 8% of a ticket sale to an affiliate. Why even bother?
Posted by: Dumb Ticketmaster | November 29, 2007 4:35 PM
1% is pretty low, especially considering that some people estimate TicketMaster receives a portion of the ticket price, plus service charge, plus a portion of the "building charge."
Posted by: Cliff | December 18, 2007 1:51 AM