Spotify: Ticket Masters?

Spotify has this week launched ‘Concerts’, a new feature which recommends local gigs to users.

The feature, which is provided in partnership with Songkick, is currently rolling out to Android and iOS users and offers recommendations based on users listening habits. It will take a similar approach to the weekly ‘Discover’ playlists, offering a mix of established and new acts. The default recommendations will be local to the user but it is also possible to change location if you are travelling.

Find out more in this blog post from Spotify, in which the company states: “Our new Concerts feature lets you know when your favorite artists announce new concerts near you so you’ll never miss another show. And for artists, it’s easier than ever to get the word out to fans about new concerts”.

This is an interesting move from Spotify. As documented in this fascinating article by Sammy Andrews, Head of Digital at Cooking Vinyl over at Music Business Worldwide, Spotify is also reportedly running trials on ticketing offers.

There are increasing connections between streaming services, data and ticketing. Will the streaming site start to sell tickets through this partnership with Songkick? Will artists be given more access to fan data as a result? It seems so, as Spotify have also announced the launch of ‘Fan Insights’, a new service designed to help artists and their representatives identify commercial opportunities within segments of their fanbase.

Given Spotify’s user base of 20m paying subscribers and insights that it holds into what users are listening to, it surely has the potential to be a powerful platform for gig recommendations and ticketing.