Registration to buy tickets to shows on Beyoncé’s first world tour in more than six years has begun. That means the focus is on Ticketmaster and its parent company following last year’s debacle surrounding sales of Taylor Swift tickets.
Ticketmaster, a platform owned by
Live Nation
(ticker: LVY) that sells event tickets, had to cancel some sales to Taylor Swift fans, citing “extraordinarily high demands on ticket systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory.”
Live Nation stock sank on the news and ended 2022 with a 42% loss. It was the stock’s worst year since 2008.
“It’s absolutely crucial that Ticketmaster, Live Nation, not screw this up,” Rosenblatt Securities analyst Barton Crockett told Barron’s Thursday. “They can’t be in a situation where they start to turn the world’s music superstars against them.”
After the Taylor Swift ticket sales incident, Ticketmaster apologized and blamed bots buying tickets in bulk, to be resold later for more, as one factor that brought “unprecedented traffic” onto the website.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster didn’t respond to requests for comment, but Ticketmaster has listed on its website how it plans to sell tickets this time to avoid problems.
“The North American leg of the RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR is leveraging Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan technology to ensure more tickets get into the hands of concertgoers,” the website reads. A verified fan is someone who registers to buy tickets before the official sale date. The intention is that would filter out buyers looking to resell.
Despite the negative attention the Taylor Swift incident brought to Live Nation—some politicians say the company doesn’t have enough competition—most analysts are bullish on the stock. Of the 19 analysts surveyed by FactSet, 14 rate the stock as a Buy, four rate it at Hold and one has it at Sell.
“The flip side of people getting angry about not being able to buy a ticket — there’s a lot of people want to buy concert tickets. This is a business that’s on fire,” Crockett said. He rates the stock as a Buy.
“It’s a great business right now,” he said. “They just have to execute better than they did with Taylor Swift, which to be fair, usually they do.”
Shares of Live Nation were up 0.3% Thursday to $81.52.
Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com
Credit: marketwatch.com