>You can't get tickets any cheaper than what they sell them for.
Yes you can. I've been to two local music stores that sell tickets and they charge a low transaction fee, under $3. Ticketmaster on the other hand has charged me $9 or so, for random shit.
That's about half as many as are in my city now in total, and it's a major metropolitan area. They're able to sell tickets to shows only where there isn't a preexisting deal with TM, and only because they cut deals directly with local venues.
Ticketmaster has deals that are already semimonopolistic both vertically and horizontally. How do you compete with that at scale?
how does ticketmaster operate? ie- where can local merchants, music stores, or others sell tickets in addition to ticketmaster? I'm assuming it's only for smaller shows and such.
Yes you can. I've been to two local music stores that sell tickets and they charge a low transaction fee, under $3. Ticketmaster on the other hand has charged me $9 or so, for random shit.