Ticketmaster Partners with CashorTrade to Expand Face Value Resale
Ticketmaster has partnered with CashorTrade to integrate its inventory with the fan-to-fan face-value ticket exchange platform. Under the new arrangement, ticketholders can list eligible Ticketmaster tickets on CashorTrade, combining Ticketmaster’s verification technology and artist-approved pricing terms with CashorTrade’s comprehensive community marketplace in an extension of the former’s existing face-value ticket exchange.
“Fans deserve more ways to buy and sell tickets at the original price, with confidence that what they’re getting is legitimate,” said David Marcus, EVP of Music at Ticketmaster. “By working with CashorTrade, we’re expanding face value resale in a way that gives fans more choice, and we’ll continue to support partnerships with resale platforms that operate with integrity and respect artist terms.”
Ticketmaster’s inventory on CashorTrade is currently only available for select tours. All Ticketmaster listings will be automatically capped at the ticket’s original price, eliminating the need for CashorTrade users to monitor for resale above face value. The companies’ cooperation extends Ticketmaster’s Face Value Exchange initiative, introduced in 2019 to allow artists to cap aftermarket ticket prices. CashorTrade has cultivated a strong following in the jam community since its 2009 founding for its tools enabling direct communication between buyers and sellers, with high-profile acts like Phish, Stick Figure and Waxahatchee among those to partner with the platform.
“What started in the parking lots as a fight for fairness has grown into something much bigger,” said Brando Rich, CEO and Co-Founder of CashorTrade. “This integration gives fans more freedom to buy and sell authenticated tickets at the artists’ original prices.”
News of Ticketmaster’s new partnership arrives amid Live Nation’s antitrust trial, which has continued under the leadership of state plaintiffs after the Department of Justice announced a settlement just one week in; the DOJ’s proposed terms included several accommodations for increased competition within the primary ticketing industry, including the stipulation that Ticketmaster must carve out ticket allotments for other ticketing services in its venue contracts, and host listings from those competitors on its platform.
As the trial entered day 21 on Tuesday, the state plaintiffs and Live Nation agreed to narrow the scope of the case considerably in a late-trial adjustment before jury deliberations, dismissing claims related to the alleged anticompetitive effect of Ticketmaster’s long-term venue-exclusivity contracts in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Though the dismissal represents a major win for the defense, it leaves discussion of Ticketmaster’s exclusivity contracts intact as part of the plaintiffs’ venue-facing primary ticketing market claims, including the charge that those arrangements were used to hold a monopoly in that market.
Given that CashorTrade’s face-value exchange has grown in opposition to some of Ticketmaster’s more controversial policies, including its dynamic pricing model and pricing transparency issues, some users voiced concerns about the partnership. CashorTrade responded with a comment on its social channels, as reported by Live for Live Music:
“We spent months looking at comments, gathering feedback, and creating a list of what we can do to address the most pressing needs of our members. One of the most common issues we heard was that fans wanted to be able to verify that the tickets being posted are, in fact, face value. This takes the guess work out of buying/selling on CashorTrade and the integration is only a tool to verify [tickets], and make in app transfers easier! And actually, should help us get a lot more face value tickets on the site.”
Read Ticketmaster’s official announcement here.
