Perhaps the biggest industry news this week was Warner Music Group’s acquisition of ‘Songkick.’ The American company who have more than 15 million active music fans across the world using their app. The app itself helps music fans ‘track their favourite artists, discover new concerts and buy fairly priced tickets under one roof.’ According to the Songkick website. Set up with real music fans in mind, Songkick aims to out those fans and the artists they enjoy first. Ensuring their tickets end up in the hands of real people and away from scalpers.
Is this a Wise Purchase?
With 15 million users, 6 million concert/festival posts, 12,000 new events listed every week, and an apparent saving of $50 million by helping reduce ticket scalping. Songkick seems like a very wise purchase for WMG. But there is one interesting part of the deal that may have some people confused. Warner didn’t get the ticketing business side of the company. Songkick merged with ‘Crowdsurge’ in 2015 to offer more event tickets and sales. However that side of the business is currently in a legal battle with Live Nation/Ticketmaster for ‘Abuse of Market Power’. This means WMG avoid any future legal battles but do get the artist/discovery side of the app to help their artists.
Songkick has worked with some big names before. From the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Adele, so this new version of it is likely to see more and more big names involved. The Songkick app will now be run by a division of WMG. Also is likely to help expand on their already extensive network of direct-to-fan marketing and communications. It has often been said that the live music business is the booming side of the industry. With news coming out earlier in the week about a 12% boost in UK live music audiences in 2016 compared with the previous year. Very smart move from WMG.
He discovered the gem when he was 12 years old and still has it now, claiming it to be why he fell in love with music. He likes to play disc golf when he's not writing about music. He is a one-of-a-kind individual who is always the first to bust out his air guitar on the dance-floor.
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