On October 12th, event guide Songkick’s CEO and founder sent out a statement to artists and managers that the company will cease all operations on October 31st. Songkick chief Matt Jones has thanked all artists, agents, managers, promoters, venues, partners and “now nearly all former employees if CrowdSurge and Songkick.”
“I’m sad to write that on October 31, Songkick will bow to pressure from Live Nation and Ticketmaster and complete the shutdown of all ticketing operations (including the design and maintenance of artist webpages) we began earlier this year when Ticketmaster and Live Nation effectively blocked our U.S. ticketing business.” said Jones.
All outstanding amounts owed from ticket sales to upcoming shows will be paid out in full, comments Jones. He has also stated that Live Nation and Ticketmaster anititrust suits will continue with a trial scheduled to start on November 4th.
Stephen Mead, Ticketmaster’s former director of artist-services unit has reportedly ‘hacked’ Songkick’s database and used trade secrets to revamp Ticketmaster’s own services. During the lawsuit, the senior VP/GM of it’s concert and touring division, Zeeshan Zaidi has also been accused of acting improperly.
