Voices

Live Nation Pushes Out President at Ticketmaster

The company is seeking a “tech guru,” according to one person familiar with its plans, hoping to expand the ticketing platform into a major e-commerce site.

Live Nation Aims to Unify Ticketmaster, Ticket Resale Businesses

Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino says the company can’t afford to sit on the sidelines any longer.

The Californication of the Daily Deals Market: Cheap Tickets

Crowd Seats is bringing a bit of Hollywood to the daily deals business.

News Byte

LivingSocial Adds Sports and Entertainment Tickets With AEG Partnership

LivingSocial has mostly built its business from scratch, developing its own discounted travel and adventures side businesses. But for tickets and events, the Washington, D.C., company decided to partner. Today, it’s announcing a deal with with AEG, which owns and operates many venues. A year ago, Groupon partnered with Live Nation’s Ticketmaster.com over a similar deal. Groupon also has a deal with Expedia for travel.

Amazon Job Descriptions Hint at More Perks Coming to Prime

First, Amazon Prime offered free two-day shipping for $79. Then it started offering add-on services for no additional cost, like streaming videos and Kindle books. What’s next?

News Byte

Sequoia Leads $10 Million Round for Songkick

Songkick, the four-year-old concert notification start-up, has raised a $10 million round led by Sequoia Capital. Earlier investors such as Index Ventures also re-upped. Songkick makes money via lead generation, taking fees of up to 10 percent from concert promoters like Ticketmaster. The New York Times has a nice interview with CEO Ian Hogarth.

The Most Interesting Uses of Facebook’s New Open Graph

While many Facebook Open Graph partners are just porting more data into the social graph, some companies like Fab.com and Ticketmaster got a little more creative.

Socially Awkward Teens May Drive Mobile Payment Adoption

Using a credit card is not much harder than using a payment-enabled phone. If you don’t get that, maybe it’s because you are getting too old (sorry if I’m the one breaking it to you).

Ticket Search Expert SeatGeek Gets Front Row Seats on Yahoo

SeatGeek, a two-year-old New York-based start-up that aspires to be the Kayak of sports and concert tickets, has signed a multiyear partnership with Yahoo Sports to drive traffic to its site.

Lockerz Nearing Closure on $45 Million Round From Live Nation, Others

Seattle-based Lockerz, an e-commerce company trying to build a rewards-based program for teens, is close to securing a third round of capital totaling $45 million.

Joe Walsh Introduces Irving Azoff At D7

Will eBay Dump StubHub, Too?