Rapino defends Ticketmaster at Goldman conference, says data is ‘secret sauce’

Michael Rapino, president and CEO of Live Nation Entertainment, says there’s a simple reason for Ticketmaster’s market dominance: It’s a stronger product than its competitors and offers partners more information.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference, Rapino defended Live Nation’s much-criticized ticketing division, which is now facing an antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice.

“What Ticketmaster has consistently done is build the best global platform for enterprises,” Rapino said during his interview with Goldman Entertainment analyst Stephen Laszczyk.

Live Nation acquired Ticketmaster in 2010 as part of the merger that changed the live entertainment industry forever. Rapino says Ticketmaster was a private operation at the time, keeping the data it collected about events and ticket buyers to itself. Now, Rapino says, that information is shared with venues, artists and teams. That, he says, is the “secret sauce advantage.”

What now faces Ticketmaster and Live Nation — besides defending themselves in a complicated antitrust case — is global expansion. Rapino said that outside of Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and, to some extent, Australia, ticketing remains “unsophisticated” with “not nearly the technology that Ticketmaster has.”

Rapino acknowledged that some of the near-constant consumer backlash Ticketmaster receives is largely unavoidable. With a limited number of tickets, there will be a significant number of potential ticket buyers left empty-handed, and he said the company is still struggling to resolve “this PR battle,” particularly in making consumers understand that Ticketmaster only keeps a small portion of the fees it charges.

Rapino also said that on the venue side, Live Nation’s Venue Nation is targeting “white space” markets: markets that don’t have suitable arena-sized concert venues. While basketball- and hockey-loving markets have plenty of them, given their sporting demands, much of the world is enamored with soccer, resulting in a glut of stadiums and a shortage of indoor buildings.

He also reiterated his previous earnings call predictions about the 2025 pipeline. This year has been relatively quiet for the stadium business, with Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” and Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” coming to an end, though Live Nation has seen stability in arenas and growth at the amphitheater level. Rapino says the stadium business should rebound next year with continued strength in arenas and consistency in warehouses.