Ticketmaster’s global president Saumil Mehta has categorically rejected claims that music venues and sporting facilities lack choices when it comes to which ticketing companies they can use, during an interview at the Trapital Summit in Los Angeles. The new Live Nation executive told Tech and Music conference participant Dan Runcie of Trapital, that he disagrees with a narrative suggesting venues don’t have options regarding their partners. 'I would categorically reject that venues don’t have choices,' Mehta stated emphatically. He went on to explain his stance by sharing insights gained from participating in numerous ticketing contract renewals over the last 10 months. According to Mehta, every renewal involves competitors bidding for venues and that those rights are becoming more expensive as a result of increased competition.
'Every renewal we go up on…there are competitors bidding for those venues,' he explained. 'There is no question about it.' Despite this competitive landscape, Mehta affirmed that venues do indeed have choices. He elaborated that the live entertainment industry in the U.S. operates under an exclusivity model where a venue can sign exclusive contracts with ticketing companies such as Ticketmaster. Artists and teams performing at these venues are then subject to using the exclusive ticketer. This structure is one of the major topics discussed during recent antitrust trials against Live Nation. Mehta clarified that in cases involving venues not signing exclusive contracts, Live Nation threatened concert performances. The jury found this to be an illegal monopoly practice by Live Nation. However, Live Nation denies these claims.
The ticketing model operates differently in other countries, including the U.K., where large venues use multiple ticketing companies for the same event and allocate inventory among them. Mehta expressed willingness to adopt a similar allocation system if it were implemented in the U.S. 'I have empirical evidence that we’ve done it in the U.K., so it’s fine,' he added, noting that this business model has been successful for both Live Nation and Ticketmaster there for years. When questioned about where his personal opinions diverge from public opinion, Mehta explained, 'Depending on how you count, [the modern ticketing industry] has been around for 40-plus years and narratives build up and calcify over long periods of time.
So, I’ve inherited 40 plus years of decisions and narratives, both good and less good, and that’s okay.' Mehta also emphasized his message to the Ticketmaster team: 'Come in here, compete every day, build better products, and know that if we continue to build better products and do great work for fans and artists and teams, we will get picked, and if we don’t, we will lose clients, and we will deserve to lose clients.' He concluded by emphasizing the importance of a free market: 'It’s wildly competitive, no matter what some news companies say. So I act like it.'