TikTok & Ticketmaster Expand In-App Purchasing Program To 20+ Markets

TikTok and Ticketmaster are expanding their partnership to reach more global audiences. On Monday (December 4), TikTok announced that it is allowing users in more than 20 marketplaces to purchase event and concert tickets without leaving the social media platform.

Following a beta launched in the US in August 2022, the feature extends to customers in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Germany, France, Canada, Mexico, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, Spain and Sweden.

Verified artists who are categorized as “certified artists” on TikTok can now promote their tour dates by adding their Ticketmaster event links to their videos. Once in-app links are embedded, customers can opt in and purchase tickets directly with a few clicks.

In an official statement, Michael Kümmerle, TikTok’s Global Music Partnership Development Lead, said, “By enabling fans to buy tickets directly through TikTok, we’re giving artists the opportunity to reach ticket buyers in a whole new way and change the game for live events around the world. As we bring fans closer to the artists and events they love, we hope to deliver further value to all artists throughout all stages of their careers and provide more opportunities for a growing fanbase.”

“Today’s music lives on a global stage and the demand for ‘live’ has never been greater,” Michael Chua, Ticketmaster’s VP of Global Business Development & Strategic Partnerships, added. “Through our partnership, TikTok and Ticketmaster are empowering artists to easily connect their content to event discovery and ticket purchase in-app making it easier than ever for fans around the world to experience their favorite artists live.”

Niall Horan, The Kooks, Burna Boy, DJ Snake and Shania Twain are a few of the first artists to try the in-app feature, and collectively have garnered a total of 2.5 billion video clip views. No reporting of how many customers actually purchased tickets were provided. The feature is now available to over 75,000 artists.

The ticket-purchasing program comes after the news that TikTok just recently launched artist accounts, which provides musicians with promotional tools to help grow their fanbases. TikTok’s effort to cater to artists and their audiences give them a competitive edge to take on music streaming services like Spotify and Apple
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TikTok continues to launch features that keep users in-app to increase average time spent. In September, the platform launched the TikTok Shop in the US, which is a marketplace tab solely dedicated to discovering new products and promotions, as well as allows creators to link products they are referencing in their feed videos.

It was previously reported that 19% of U.S. consumers start their shopping search on TikTok, and that the platform is the search engine of choice amongst Gen Z. This is just another example of how TikTok is attempting to become a one-stop shop of various sectors like content, music and retail to compete with corporate giants.