Ticketmaster buys DIY ticketing service Universe & festival ticketer Front Gate
PRESS RELEASE:
Ticketmaster is continuing to expand its ticketing offerings in the festival and DIY verticals through two separate transactions to acquire festival ticketer Front Gate Tickets and DIY ticketing platform Universe. These strategic acquisitions will allow Live Nation to greatly expand its services in the rapidly growing festival and DIY event markets, while accelerating its strategy to provide its clients across all verticals with the largest and most flexible distribution network through which to engage fans and sell tickets.
"Ticketmaster provides the world's largest ticketing marketplace, connecting over 450 million fans with their favorite artists and other live events each year. Front Gate and Universe have built innovative platforms for their respective verticals, and combined with Ticketmaster's marketing and distribution capabilities we will be able to deliver the best experience for even more fans and artists. The companies continue to build on our commitment to provide the best solution for each segment of the ticketing landscape, combining the specific needs for each occasion with the power of our global marketplace," said Live Nation Entertainment President and CEO,Michael Rapino.
"We are dedicated to maintaining Front Gate's fan-focused philosophy and targeted festival-specific functionality. Universe's advanced DIY ticketing and event marketing platform will not only provide event organizers with amazing tools to manage their events, but their plug-and-play distributed commerce and analytics products will also benefit clients across the entire Ticketmaster portfolio, including festivals," saidJared Smith, President of Ticketmaster North America.
Front Gate Tickets was founded in 2003 as an alternative ticketing service for venues inAustin, Texas, and has quickly become one ofNorth America's leading festival ticketing platforms. Its clients include such top-tier music events asCoachella, Austin City Limits, Electric Forest, The Governors Ball Music Festival, Lollapalooza, RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest and X Games, to name a few. The company also leverages its technologies to help brands connect with highly engaged festival-goers, a service that will perfectly complement Live Nation's integrated live-music sponsorships network.
Additionally, Front Gate Tickets offers features specifically tailored to the festival market, including RFID-powered access control, experiential marketing and cashless POS systems that streamline festival entry, sponsorship activations, and concession sales, benefiting organizers, partners and fans alike. In 2014, Front Gate processed over$300 millionin sales, sold over 3 million tickets, shipped over 1 million wristbands and scanned over 2.5 million RFID chips.
Universe is a DIY ticketing company that provides event organizers with powerful and easy-to-use marketing and management tools. Its unique ticket-sales platform allows event organizers to embed a customizable Buy Now button tosell tickets on any websitewith no redirect to Universe. The company, which serves thousands of event organizers globally, saw a seven-fold increase in sales last year.