Following months of serious legal trouble with ticketing giant Ticketmaster, competitor Songkick is officially shutting down. Come October 31, it will be no more.
The online ticketing company — which specializes in selling tickets directly to fans through artists' website, social media platforms and fan clubs, often before they go on sale via Ticketmaster/Live Nation — has been accused of antitrust violations and anticompetitive behaviour from Ticketmaster. As a result of these accusations and in turn a lawsuit against Songkick from Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation, Songkick founder and CEO Matt Jones issued a notice to clients this week informing them that it will be ceasing operations at the end of the month.
As Variety reports, Jones issued the following statement: "I'm sad to write that on October 31, Songkick will bow to pressure from Live Nation and Ticketmaster and complete the shutdown of all ticketing operations (including the design and maintenance of artist webpages) we began earlier this year when Ticketmaster and Live Nation effectively blocked our U.S. ticketing business. Our antitrust, trade secret misappropriation and hacking lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster will continue unabated."
Despite shutting Songkick down, the company's concert discovery app — one of the assets acquired by Warner Music Group earlier this year — will continue to operate. That said, the trial between the warring parties is still scheduled to begin in November.
As Brooklyn Vegan points out, competing concert discovery app Bandsintown has just announced that it has joined forces with Facebook, in a truly truly strange bit of timing. Now, whenever an event is added to the app, it will auto generate an event on Facebook. You can learn more about that here.
You can read Jones' full statement about the end of Songkick below:
Before I say anything, let me say thank you.
Thank you to the artists and managers who entrusted us with their tickets and audience; to the agents, labels, promoters and venues that partnered with us to make artists' visions into realities; and to the many – always committed and now nearly all former – employees of CrowdSurge and Songkick who worked tirelessly over the last 10 years with nothing short of a remarkable passion to better the live experience for artists and fans.
With that said, I'm sad to write that on October 31, Songkick will bow to pressure from Live Nation and Ticketmaster and complete the shutdown of all ticketing operations (including the design and maintenance of artist webpages) we began earlier this year when Ticketmaster and Live Nation effectively blocked our US ticketing business. Songkick's concert discovery app, which was sold to Warner Music Group in July, will continue uninterrupted under the WMG umbrella.
Our antitrust, trade secret misappropriation and hacking lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster will continue unabated, with trial currently scheduled to begin in the second week of November, just a month from now. Many of you receiving this note have helped us immensely as we prepare for our day in court, and even as we shutter our business, we will remain focused on pursuing a legal victory and making the live music industry better for artists and fans.
If you are an artist, promoter or venue for whom we have sold tickets to a show occurring on a future date, you will be contacted individually over the following three business days to arrange for payment. All outstanding amounts will be paid in full.
If you are an artist, promoter or venue currently using our services to sell tickets, list shows, store customer data or power parts or all of your website, these services will become unavailable on October 27.
On behalf of myself and all of my colleagues, it's been a pleasure to work with you. Once again: thank you, for everything.
All the best,
MJ
The online ticketing company — which specializes in selling tickets directly to fans through artists' website, social media platforms and fan clubs, often before they go on sale via Ticketmaster/Live Nation — has been accused of antitrust violations and anticompetitive behaviour from Ticketmaster. As a result of these accusations and in turn a lawsuit against Songkick from Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation, Songkick founder and CEO Matt Jones issued a notice to clients this week informing them that it will be ceasing operations at the end of the month.
As Variety reports, Jones issued the following statement: "I'm sad to write that on October 31, Songkick will bow to pressure from Live Nation and Ticketmaster and complete the shutdown of all ticketing operations (including the design and maintenance of artist webpages) we began earlier this year when Ticketmaster and Live Nation effectively blocked our U.S. ticketing business. Our antitrust, trade secret misappropriation and hacking lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster will continue unabated."
Despite shutting Songkick down, the company's concert discovery app — one of the assets acquired by Warner Music Group earlier this year — will continue to operate. That said, the trial between the warring parties is still scheduled to begin in November.
As Brooklyn Vegan points out, competing concert discovery app Bandsintown has just announced that it has joined forces with Facebook, in a truly truly strange bit of timing. Now, whenever an event is added to the app, it will auto generate an event on Facebook. You can learn more about that here.
You can read Jones' full statement about the end of Songkick below:
Before I say anything, let me say thank you.
Thank you to the artists and managers who entrusted us with their tickets and audience; to the agents, labels, promoters and venues that partnered with us to make artists' visions into realities; and to the many – always committed and now nearly all former – employees of CrowdSurge and Songkick who worked tirelessly over the last 10 years with nothing short of a remarkable passion to better the live experience for artists and fans.
With that said, I'm sad to write that on October 31, Songkick will bow to pressure from Live Nation and Ticketmaster and complete the shutdown of all ticketing operations (including the design and maintenance of artist webpages) we began earlier this year when Ticketmaster and Live Nation effectively blocked our US ticketing business. Songkick's concert discovery app, which was sold to Warner Music Group in July, will continue uninterrupted under the WMG umbrella.
Our antitrust, trade secret misappropriation and hacking lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster will continue unabated, with trial currently scheduled to begin in the second week of November, just a month from now. Many of you receiving this note have helped us immensely as we prepare for our day in court, and even as we shutter our business, we will remain focused on pursuing a legal victory and making the live music industry better for artists and fans.
If you are an artist, promoter or venue for whom we have sold tickets to a show occurring on a future date, you will be contacted individually over the following three business days to arrange for payment. All outstanding amounts will be paid in full.
If you are an artist, promoter or venue currently using our services to sell tickets, list shows, store customer data or power parts or all of your website, these services will become unavailable on October 27.
On behalf of myself and all of my colleagues, it's been a pleasure to work with you. Once again: thank you, for everything.
All the best,
MJ