
Eventjoy (YC W14) Is Joining Ticketmaster - frabrunelle
http://blog.eventjoy.com/post/97224665476/were-joining-ticketmaster
======
darkstar999
Ticketmaster is easily regarded as the most evil thing to happen to concerts.
That sucks.

~~~
bashinator
Really they just play Bad Cop for the venues. Most of the "fees" that TM
collects go right back to the people putting on the concert. It's really a
great business model - clubs get to look like their tickets are cheaper than
they actually are, and Ticketmaster gets a nice cut of pure profit.

~~~
tehwebguy
Venues are paid a split out of the ticket price with an optional flat fee,
aside from maybe the venues TM owns.

~~~
bashinator
From this article, it sounds like the (independent) venue in question was
getting 20-30% of the fee as well.

[http://www.ticketnews.com/news/Ticketmaster-fee-structure-
ex...](http://www.ticketnews.com/news/Ticketmaster-fee-structure-exposed-in-
Philadelphia-bankruptcy-case081117396)

~~~
tedunangst
Money quote: "Rather than ordering Tickets through the TM System, customers
purchased Tickets to the Attractions in person at the Facility Box Office to
avoid the prohibitive Convenience Charge. The effect on the Debtor of the
increase in the Convenience Charge has resulted in a reduction in the
Royalties that it receives due to a decrease in the number of Tickets sold
through the TM System."

Apparently they were selling tickets at not quite break even, and depending on
their cut of ticket master fees to turn a profit.

Aligns with my experience trying to avoid fees by buying in person. Usually
there ends up being a "box office window" fee.

------
nanexcool
Ah, that's sad. Ticketmaster and "joy" do not go in the same sentence.

------
thenmar
Lots of criticism in the comments so far. Maybe Ticketmaster is acquiring them
in order to resurrect their bad reputation and improve their services. Or
maybe that's just what they wrote on the checks to Eventjoy...

------
picardo
Really sad. They must have been very desperate.

------
joshmlewis
My guess is Ticketmaster was scared and bought them out before they became a
big enough target to do big damage and creep into their main territory.

Eventjoy is less than a year old, probably received funding after YC and most
startups raise for 18 months of runway which means unless something went
terribly wrong they should still have a few months of runway before they
raised their Series A. It's a perfect time to buy a company that's growing
because after each round you have to pay that much more.

If Ticketmaster thought they were going to die, they would have let them.

P.S. I've also learned that there are usually two types of founder scenarios.
1.) the founders that are really passionate about a subject and have a lot of
domain knowledge and they've made it their life goal to solve the problem
they're going after. 2.) the founders found a niche or area that they believe
they can solve but they aren't considering it their life's work. Yes there are
tons of variations and exceptions but that's what I've seen the few years I've
been around startups.

------
zeruch
Well, I guess Eventjoy will now be EventPloy, because the only company I think
worse than Ticketbastard is Comcast...or maybe Congress.

------
pbreit
Ideas on what kind of price tag, if any?

~~~
kazinator
... and was there a "venue fee" and "convenience fee"?

------
livejamie
RIP

------
anonbanker
That's pretty disgusting. So much for market disruption, eh?

------
astrodust
Maybe they received an offer they couldn't refuse.

------
general_failure
Acquihire?

