Apple Music partners with Ticketmaster to power its concert discovery feature

Apple Music announced on Tuesday that it’s partnering with Ticketmaster to power its Concert Discovery feature. This integration aims to improve how users discover live music events based on their listening habits.

Ticketmaster is the first ticketing service to integrate with Apple Music, allowing listeners to find nearby concerts and events tailored to their individual music preferences. Every event listing on the music streaming app now includes a direct link to Ticketmaster for easy ticket purchasing.

With the new integration, Apple Music users can explore ticket options through various features in the app, including the homepage carousel that highlights nearby concerts related to their listening habits, a dedicated Concerts Tab for browsing events, and Artist Pages that display concert listings along with a badge indicating when an artist is on tour.

Additionally, push notifications will alert fans when their favorite artists are performing nearby.

Ticketmaster already powers other event listings across the Apple ecosystem, including Maps, Spotlight Search, Photos, and Shazam, so this is an expansion of the partnership.

For instance, when users identify songs using Shazam, they can also discover and purchase tickets for upcoming concerts. Searches for artists on iOS devices conveniently display Ticketmaster events in the results. Users can explore future events at any venue selling Ticketmaster tickets through Apple Maps. 

Plus, with the launch of iOS 16, Apple Photos provides fans a way to revisit past concerts through their images and videos, linking them directly to upcoming events for those artists.

This is Apple Music’s latest attempt to keep up with rivals when it comes to concert discovery. In 2023, it launched a feature that allowed users to browse and listen to the set lists from favorite artists currently on tour. The company also offers curated guides on both Apple Music and Apple Maps, which highlight top live music venues in popular cities. 

The integration with Ticketmaster comes on the heels of Spotify, one of Apple Music’s biggest rivals, teaming up with SeatGeek so music fans can access ticket links when browsing an artist’s page or upcoming tour dates.

In the past, Ticketmaster has partnered with competitors to facilitate ticket sales, such as SoundCloud and YouTube.

Separately, the U.S. Justice Department announced earlier this month that it has tentatively settled with Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, following an antitrust lawsuit. Since the merger in 2010, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have dominated ticket sales and venue bookings in the U.S. However, the ticket purchasing process has faced scrutiny, and customers have expressed frustration over dynamic pricing practices that can significantly inflate costs.