Apple Introduces us to a New iTunes “Concert Ticket +” System
There's no missing the point that Apple wants to enter the electronic concert and event ticket business via a new application and system simply called “Concert Ticket +.” The system that is laid out in this extraordinarily detailed patent …
Context & Ripple Effects
Patently Apple's read of the filing shows Apple laying out, in unusual detail, an iTunes-native system called "Concert Ticket +" for buying and delivering electronic event tickets. It is the second time in under a year that Apple has patented its way toward live events: a June 2009 patent application covered delivering sporting events through Apple TV, and together the two filings sketch a company positioning iTunes as a storefront for attending things, not just owning recordings.
The timing matters because the rest of Apple's April 2010 pipeline is already crowded — iAd was unveiled at the iPhone 4.0 preview, new App Store developer guidelines landed this month, and carrier sources have fueled rumors of a June iPhone refresh at AT&T — so ticketing reads less like a standalone product than another layer Apple wants pre-cleared in patents before the hardware and services push.
First-order effects
- If built as filed, iTunes gains a new commerce category — live-event tickets sold through the same accounts and devices people already use for music, making event access another SKU in Apple's storefront rather than a separate purchase flow.
Second-order effects
- An Apple-run ticket channel would give venues and promoters a second serious buyer for digital distribution, eroding the pricing leverage of whichever ticketer currently controls their inventory and pushing fees down as a competitive response.
- Because the system lives on iPhones and iPads, Apple would also capture the check-in moment itself — the ticket becoming a device feature, which raises switching costs for fans already inside the iTunes ecosystem.
Third-order effects
- The longer pattern in these filings points toward Apple converting media commerce into device-native transactions: if concerts follow the sporting-events template, iTunes evolves from a store for copies into a gatekeeping rail for live experiences, with whoever owns the device owning the door.
- Whether regulators or incumbent ticketers contest that gatekeeping is the open question — a single company controlling both the storefront and the handset used to present the ticket is precisely the structure antitrust scrutiny tends to find interesting.
The trend: Apple is extending iTunes from selling recordings toward transacting access to live events, with its installed device base serving as the delivery rail.