Ticketmaster integrates with Snapchat
Ticketmaster has partnered with Snap, the developer of Snapchat, to launch two TM-branded ‘experiences’ in the popular teen-friendly video-sharing app.
The integration with Ticketmaster is one of several new features announced at Snap’s partner summit yesterday (20 May), with the leading ticketing company getting its own layer on Snapchat’s location-sharing feature, Snap Chat, as well as a Ticketmaster ‘Mini’ (Snap jargon for an in-app game or utlity) that allows Snapchat users to share concerts they are interested in with their friends and buy tickets.
Map Layers launches with two partners: Ticketmaster and restaurant review site The Infatuation. The Infatuation’s Layer overlays Infatuation-approved restaurants, while the Ticketmaster layer displays upcoming concerts at nearby venues. The Ticketmaster layer, which rolls out later this year, will take Snapchatters directly into the Ticketmaster Mini to buy tickets to the show.
The Ticketmaster layer rolls out later this year
The TM Mini also allows users to swipe right or left on different artists to connect with Snapchat friends across the world who want to see the same show.
At launch, the Ticketmaster layer and Mini will specifically on live music events, a spokesperson confirms.
The integration with Ticketmaster is the latest live music partnership for Snap, following an earlier tie-up with Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, as well as secondary ticketing site SeatGeek. Snapchat had around 265 million daily users as of Q4 2020.
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Snap debuts AI-powered Crowd Surf at Outside Lands
Snapchat developer Snap Inc. used last weekend’s Outside Lands festival in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, as the debut for a new feature for the app: Crowd Surf, which stitches together audience ‘snaps’ to create a multi-angle video account of a concert or live event.
Snap deployed Crowd Surf during Lorde’s performance on Sunday 13 August, synchronising the audio using artificial intelligence from multiple fans filming the New Zealand singer to create an interactive Snapchat ‘story’ in which viewers can cycle between different crowd perspectives using a button on their smartphone screen.
Tech site Mashable has a video demonstrating Crowd Surf during Lorde’s song ‘Green Light’, showing multiple angles, including crowd selfies and the view from stage left.
A Snap spokesperson says Crowd Surf will be available at select events in future.
According to Mashable, with Crowd Surf Snap “hope[s] to bolster its Stories feature so that users submit to them more and also spend more time watching them. That’s good for Snap Inc. The more time users spend with Stories, the more likely they’ll be served an ad, which contributes to the majority of Snap’s revenue.” Snap Inc. posted disappointing financial results in Q2 2017 with a loss of US$443 million, below Wall Street forecasts.
Both Live Nation and AEG Live/Presents have agreed commercial partnerships around their festivals with Snap, with advertisers and sponsors using Snapchat to target festivalgoers. The former has, since last September, also sold tickets on the platform.
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