If you’ve ever attended live music, comedy, or theater, there’s a good chance you bought your tickets through Ticketmaster. The site is one of the most prominent ticket sales companies in the world. In 2008, it became part of Live Nation Entertainment, one of the largest entertainment businesses.
However, their market dominance means they aren’t always the best place to buy tickets. Unfair pricing strategies have hurt fans and artists alike. They also operate a ticket resale site, which was the cause of controversy in mid-2019 when it was discovered Ticketmaster helped artists sell their tickets directly to the resale market at inflated prices.
If you’re looking for sites like Ticketmaster for your online ticketing needs, we can help. Here are the five best Ticketmaster alternatives available right now.
1. Tickets.com
Ticketmaster is often associated with live music, but the site covers a wide variety of events. Tickets.com is the most comprehensive alternative to Ticketmaster. It includes a similarly extensive range of activities and shows but is mainly focused on live entertainment. This isn’t surprising—Tickets.com is owned by Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM).
Aside from MLB games, the site also offers tickets to live wrestling and other sports events. In 2010, it was chosen as the ticketing partner for the Vancouver Olympic Games. It’s an excellent choice for sports fans, but the site has a wide userbase, too. Before heading to the site, you may want to use these mobile apps to discover events happening in your area.
Tickets.com has many partnerships with venues across the US. This makes it a breeze to search the site either for a specific event or to see what’s on at your favorite venue. Like Ticketmaster, the site does charge a service fee on top of the ticket’s face value. Although this can vary by venue and event, it seems that this charge is usually $2.50 per ticket.
2. See Tickets
See Tickets is one of the most significant Ticketmaster alternatives. The site’s origins stretch back to a local record store in Nottingham, UK in the 1980s. After a merger, it began trading as See Tickets in 2004 and was then acquired by the French ticketing firm Vivendi SA in 2004. The site is most famous for being the ticket seller for the Glastonbury music festival, the UK equivalent of Coachella.
In November 2019, it was announced that See Tickets were expanding their US presence and opening new offices. Although the large ticketing sites maintain a near-monopoly on significant events in the US, See Tickets has found its own market.
According to their Global CEO, the company has found itself as the go-to ticketing website for indie music events and independent music festivals. It is also a popular destination for country music events and fans.
3. Eventbrite
Eventbrite is not a direct Ticketmaster alternative—you won’t find the same shows or artists on the site—but is an excellent alternative ticketing website. Eventbrite first launched in 2006 and has since gone on to acquire complementary businesses and cement its place as one of the best ticketing websites. Eventbrite’s primary use is for local events ticketing.
Before the internet, organizing a community event would mean going door-to-door or sending newsletters to generate interest. Now, you can put your event up on Eventbrite, and the site takes care of the rest.
Payments are made directly through the Eventbrite website, so you don’t have to register with over a dozen small sites and trust them with your financial data. Tickets are available as PDF email attachments, or as QR codes within the Eventbrite mobile app.
That said, Eventbrite isn’t just for community and local events. Businesses around the world use Eventbrite to organize all sorts of live and online events. If you’re looking for inspiration, you can browse the listings to find shows and events near you. You can filter these by date or category. You can also find business-focused events, music festivals, and educational courses available to book through the site.
Download: Eventbrite for Android | iOS (Free)
4. Twickets
Stubhub is one of the most well-known ticket resale sites. It is not affiliated with Ticketmaster, but has been accused of many similar manipulative business practices. For most of its operating life, Stubhub was a part of eBay.
In November 2019, it was announced that Viagogo, another resale company with a similarly controversial background, would acquire Stubhub. Despite these issues, it is still one of the best sites to get tickets, thanks to its large inventory of resale tickets.
Twickets is an ethical alternative to Stubhub, Viagogo, and Ticketmaster. The site, founded in the UK, allows you to resell your tickets, but only for the face value or less. This is to ensure that professional ticket resellers aren’t able to abuse the platform and make large profits from fans. Although it’s possible to sell your tickets at face value, there will often be tickets available at substantial discounts.
Resellers can adjust the price based on demand and whether the event is actually sold out. After all, why would someone want to pay face value for second-hand tickets when they could buy them directly, instead?
Twickets is available on the web and your smartphone through the official Android and iOS apps. The site has even been endorsed by high-profile artists like Ed Sheeran, the Spice Girls, and Andrew Lloyd-Webber.
Download: Twickets for Android | iOS (Free)
5. Dice
The ticketing website Dice is one of the best places to find concerts near you. The UK-based service launched in 2014 as a way to find local events to attend. Dice has since expanded into the American market. The site currently covers New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, with plans to launch in other areas of the US.
Dice is unique in the ticket market. Although you can browse events on the website, tickets are only available on the Dice mobile app. This is done to prevent for-profit resellers from getting access to the tickets. If you’ve purchased a ticket, all you need to do is turn up at the venue and show the QR code on the Dice app.
It’s not a problem if you can’t attend either. You can quickly return the ticket to Dice, who will then release it on a first-come-first-served basis to those on the waitlist. Although it is relatively new in the US, it has been popular in the UK, with many independent and small to mid-size venues selling tickets exclusively through Dice.
Download: Dice for Android | iOS (Free)
The Best Alternative to Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster was one of the first companies to operate online ticket sales, and, in many ways, revolutionized the ticketing market. However, their market dominance means they often don’t have the fans’ best interests in mind. High prices, extraordinary fees, and manipulative practices mean that Ticketmaster isn’t always the best place to buy your tickets.
These Ticketmaster alternatives offer you choice. Many of them have arisen with the explicit intention of challenging Ticketmaster’s business practices, too. So, you should be able to find a fair and affordable price for the live event you want to attend.
If you’re buying a ticket for a music festival, be sure that you’ve got the most essential tech gadgets for music festivals before you go.
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