Songkick Bandsintown

Songkick shutting down; Facebook now scans Bandsintown for events

Concert discovery and ticketing platform Songkick is officially shutting down on October 31, Variety reports.

Songkick (and Crowdsurge, which it merged with in 2015) which allows artists to sell tickets to fans before they go on sale via Ticketmaster/Live Nation, and which filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster/Live Nation accusing them of antitrust violations and anticompetitive behavior, “will bow to pressure from Live Nation and Ticketmaster and complete the shutdown of all ticketing operations (including the design and maintenance of artist webpages) we began earlier this year when Ticketmaster and Live Nation effectively blocked our US ticketing business,” founder and CEO Matt Jones wrote in a statement. He also mentioned that the lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation “will continue unabated.” The concert discovery app, one of Songkick’s assets acquired by Warner Music Group this year, will “continue uninterrupted under the WMG umbrella.” You can read Jones’ full statement below.

In what is possibly coincidental timing, days after Songkick announced its shutdown, competing concert discovery app Bandsintown announced that they had teamed up with Facebook to automatically generate Facebook events anytime an event is added to Bandsintown. “Facebook will scan Bandsintown once a day and automatically generate an event for each newly added tour date. Then, all [musicians] have to do is approve the event to post to [their] Facebook page. Facebook page admins will be able to update their events on the Facebook platform should they wish to make any additional changes.” Bandsintown also launched a redesign of the ‘Tour Dates’ app on Facebook, which now more closely mirrors Bandsintown’s own website.

Meanwhile, Songkick still has its “Concerts” app on Facebook, and Songkick’s Tourbox still publishes concert listings on Spotify, Bandcamp, and Hype Machine.

FULL STATEMENT FROM SONGKICK FOUNDER AND CEO MATT JONES:

Before I say anything, let me say thank you.

Thank you to the artists and managers who entrusted us with their tickets and audience; to the agents, labels, promoters and venues that partnered with us to make artists’ visions into realities; and to the many – always committed and now nearly all former – employees of CrowdSurge and Songkick who worked tirelessly over the last 10 years with nothing short of a remarkable passion to better the live experience for artists and fans.

With that said, I’m sad to write that on October 31, Songkick will bow to pressure from Live Nation and Ticketmaster and complete the shutdown of all ticketing operations (including the design and maintenance of artist webpages) we began earlier this year when Ticketmaster and Live Nation effectively blocked our US ticketing business. Songkick’s concert discovery app, which was sold to Warner Music Group in July, will continue uninterrupted under the WMG umbrella.

Our antitrust, trade secret misappropriation and hacking lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster will continue unabated, with trial currently scheduled to begin in the second week of November, just a month from now. Many of you receiving this note have helped us immensely as we prepare for our day in court, and even as we shutter our business, we will remain focused on pursuing a legal victory and making the live music industry better for artists and fans.

If you are an artist, promoter or venue for whom we have sold tickets to a show occurring on a future date, you will be contacted individually over the following three business days to arrange for payment. All outstanding amounts will be paid in full.

If you are an artist, promoter or venue currently using our services to sell tickets, list shows, store customer data or power parts or all of your website, these services will become unavailable on October 27. 

On behalf of myself and all of my colleagues, it’s been a pleasure to work with you. Once again: thank you, for everything.

All the best,
MJ