Pandora sells its ticketing agency Ticketfly to Eventbrite

Pandora has sold its ticketing agency platform Ticketfly to rival Eventbrite, the San Francisco-based ticketing agency that tickets nearly 3 million events a year.

The US$200 million deal, said to be a write-down for a quick sale, will combine Eventbrite’s expertise in music and event technology and Ticketfly’s marketing skills and success in music.

Ticketfly currently works with over 1,800 of the top music promoters and venues across North America, supporting 100,000 events per year which generate $600 million in gross ticket sales.

The two “plan to enter into a future distribution agreement “to extend the benefits already proven out with the Pandora and Ticketfly integration.”

For most of 2016, Ticketfly’s integration created push notifications and email updates to advice fans that the acts they followed on Pandora were performing at the nearest Ticketfly venues.

Pandora emphasises that while the sale allows it to focus on its core radio and streaming businesses, it is not abandoning its live music interests.

The companies will work to bring in more promoters to work with, and to offer listeners notifications for a wider range of live events.

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and we see immense alignment and opportunity with this union, especially as we continue to expand Eventbrite’s global footprint in music,” said Julia Hartz, CEO and co-founder of Eventbrite.

“Together with Ticketfly, we will focus our collective energy on further developing our unparalleled solution and superior services for indie music venues and promoters around the world.”

Ticketfly co-founder Andrew Dreskinwill lead Eventbrite’s music efforts.

“We are happy to be joining forces with our friends at Eventbrite,” Dreskin said. “Ticketfly and Eventbrite are the two most progressive live events technology companies out there, and together we will create a transformational platform that will be game-changing for independent venues and promoters.

“We plan to build on the great work that Ticketfly and Pandora have done and offer the benefits of that partnership to Eventbrite’s customers, delivering even more live event notifications to Pandora listeners.”

When Pandora bought Ticketfly in October 2015, it was originally valued at $450 million. It was reduced to $335 million but some felt Pandora had paid too much for it. That Ticketfly dropped in value by 38% in two years seemd to affirm that speculation.

Earlier in the year, Eventbrite bought out European ticketing company Ticketscript.

Last month, Eventbrite announced that Australia and New Zealand would be the first countries in the world where its collaboration with Entegy would launch.

The end-to-end event management solution will allow organisers to create an event on Eventbrite. By using its open API platform Eventbrite Spectrum, they can connect it to an account in Entegy’s core operating system to transfer attendee data in real-time.

This includes event apps, social and networking functions, live audience polling, Q&A and discussion, multi-session attendance tracking, digital exhibitor lead generation, and touch screen kiosks for self-serve onsite name badge printing.

Eventbrite Australia and New Zealand GM Phil Silverstone said the integration a natural fit.

“Through our partnership with Entegy, we now enable event organisers to take the contact data generated through our system and deliver the next level of event experience,” he said.

“We believe the collaboration will assist more event organisers to maximise the outstanding technologies available to support events and improve attendee experiences.”