Amazon may be the everything seller, but one item it doesn't sell in the US is an event ticket. That, apparently, is something Amazon wants to change.
The retail giant is in talks with venue owners to sell tickets directly to shoppers, according to four sources speaking with Reuters.
Ticket sales in the US are dominated by Ticketmaster, but anyone who's used the service knows hefty fees are tacked on, and the price of a ticket can double or more.
Bringing Amazon into the mix would help venue owners sell more tickets, presumably because any additional fees wouldn't be as high. The upside for Amazon is that it could offer ticket promotions to Amazon Prime members, thus giving consumers more of an incentive to join.
Amazon UK, by the way, already sells tickets to West End theater shows.
Interestingly, Amazon is said to have held talks with Ticketmaster about possibly teaming up on ticket sales, but questions of which company would control customer data left discussions cold.
Venue owners, too, want access to customer data, but this is one area Amazon is reportedly holding firm on. Whether this becomes an insurmountable hurdle for Amazon's ticket ambitions remains to be seen.
No timeline for when Amazon's ticket ventures might begin was provided in today's report. If Amazon does get into this side of the event business, it's one more area of our lives it could easily take over.
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