Live Nation Confirms Exclusive Ticketing Talks With Spotify and Other DSPs

Live Nation’s CEO shared these insights during its latest earnings call. As he revealed, the Ticketmaster parent company has already engaged in talks with Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music to explore ways to provide early ticket access to dedicated fans.

While Rapino did not disclose specific details of the negotiations, he emphasized the significant value of pre-sale tickets compared to the potential benefits and costs of exclusive ticketing. After all, implementing such a system would require coordination between DSPs, the likes of Live Nation/Ticketmaster, and the artists or their labels—potentially posing a complex logistical challenge.

“There’s a cost to that, and we would entertain and look at that option if it made sense for us in comparison to other options we have for that pre-sale, which is a very valuable asset,” he commented on the subject.

He also questioned whether Spotify and other DSPs have sufficient music inventory or other exclusive content to make a premium offering like ‘Music Pro’ attractive to users.

“Our job is to use that inventory that we’ve acquired from the artist and maximise it to sponsorship. Currently, we have a lot of pre-sale programs in place with—you’ve seen them all—Verizon and Citibanks, etc. Our job is always to look at that show, work with the artist and figure out: is there ways to maximise that inventory, to business as well as consumers?,” he stated.

Beyond the costs and involved parties, Rapino highlighted the strategic complexities of making ticketing a reality. The key challenge lies in scaling these opportunities effectively—especially for high-demand events.

“It’s always the easy go-to, let’s give them pre-sale access. The hard part about pre-sale is just scaling it. Everybody wants Beyoncé pre-sale, and that’s hard to scale. So we’ve been working with all three of them [Apple, Amazon, and Spotify], trying to find a model that may work for us and them, and [we] assume they’re talking to others also,” he concluded.

Notably, Beyonce’s recent “Cowboy Carter Tour” ticket sale featured several pre-save options, suggesting that pre-sale initiatives are not uncommon and that scaling them is indeed possible. However, from a cost-benefit perspective, the expense of exclusive ticketing access may be a limiting factor for streaming platforms looking to participate.

As the negotiations are likely to continue, it remains unknown how they will evolve and whether exclusive ticketing options for die-hard fans will become a reality in the foreseeable future.