Ticketmaster, Facebook team up to make buying over-priced tickets a social experience

Ticketmaster, the world’s most-loved company, announced today a new partnership with Facebook that allows user to share where they’ll be sitting at upcoming concerts and other events, and to see where their friends, family or sworn enemies plan to sit.

Launched last year, the so-called interactive seat maps feature is accessible through the Ticketmaster website. As of today, users can login to Facebook directly from Ticketmaster.com, which opens access to the map’s Facebook integration functionality.

Once logged in, a user can see if anyone they know is attending the event and, if so, where those people are sitting. Users can then purchase their seat, and tag themselves. This information is then shared through Facebook, to either just friends, or everyone who checks out the seating map for that event. A “Check out my seats” post is automatically generated and posted to a user’s Wall, which includes a “buy tickets” link, along with the standard “like” and “comment” options.

“Live events are inherently social and leveraging social media to enhance them allows the passion to exist in the digital space before, during and after live events,” said Nathan Hubbard, CEO of Ticketmaster, in a statement. “Our team is fanatical about leading the industry forward and we will continue to innovate the live experience.”

The partnership with Facebook is just one of the first steps in Ticketmaster’s scheme to “integrate social into every fan touch point, extending the fun and excitement of the live entertainment experience far beyond the walls of the venue,”  according to the release. The company believes that “these interactive seat maps will create a community around each live event that will begin with the onsale [sic] and build through the live event.”

As we see it, this feature has one — and only one — genuinely valuable function: It makes it easier for groups of friends to buy tickets independently and still make sure they will be sitting near each other. No question, that’s a useful feature. What it will likely not do — as much as poor Ticketmaster wishes it would — is make people buy more tickets simply because someone who they vaguely know on Facebook is also attending an event.

If Ticketmaster really wanted to make attending live events more “fun” and “social,” maybe they should stop charging infuriating “convenience fees” for every ticket they sell, so we can better afford to bring some more of our (real) friends along with us.

Watch a video about Ticketmaster’s new Facebook integration feature below:

(via Fast Company)