LiveXLive expands into ticketing

Live music streaming company LiveXLive has acquired Wantickets, one of North America’s largest ticketers for dance music and DJ/nightclub events.

Founded in 1999, Wantickets has since sold more than 250 million tickets and generated close to US$50 million in revenue last year. It also offers self-service and full-service B2B solutions for promoters, including tools for event management, accounting and real-time reporting.

Joe Schnair, CEO of Wantickets, says the acquisition will combine “our strong marketing and ticketing capabilities with LiveXLive’s live music streaming network, allow[ing] the company to take advantage of synergies in the emerging digital music market.”

“Our strong marketing and ticketing capabilities combined with LiveXLive’s live music streaming network allows the company to take advantage of synergies in the emerging digital music market”

Robert Ellin, LiveXLive’s founder and chairman, adds: “We believe the acquisition of Wantickets presents an ideal opportunity to expand content reach and build LiveXLive’s subscription model by utilising the company’s massive database of live music buyers.”

LiveXLive, owned by Loton Corp, launched last July and is positioning itself as the “ESPN of premium live music experience” with its aim to create a 24-hour network of live music broadcasting digitally and on mobile. In May it signed a strategic partnership with MTV which saw the broadcaster carrying LiveXLive’s stream of the closing night of Rock in Rio Lisbon.

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