The live event business is making further inroads with social apps, as Shazam pacts with Ticketmaster and TikTok integrates Eventbrite. Ticketmaster says artists can now link live events in Apple’s Shazam app, where they’ll appear when a user Shazams a track. The feature will work in the more than 30 countries where Ticketmaster operates. The Live Nation-owned company also has deals with Snap and TikTok, whose new alliance with Eventbrite allows event producers and TikTok users to embed Eventbrite links in-stream. Now the TikTok community can discover events and purchase tickets “without ever leaving the app.”

Ticketmaster says users of the Shazam music identification app will be able to purchase tickets “with just a few clicks.”

Unlike its description of the TikTok integration, “where Certified Artists can easily share links to their Ticketmaster events so that fans can get tickets without leaving the app,” this most recent Ticketmaster announcement does not say the Shazam partnership facilitates in-app purchases.

But unlike TikTok, participation via Shazam does not appear to be limited to “Certified Artists.”

The Ticketmaster integration with TikTok, “initially launched in the U.S. in 2022 and expanded to more than 20 markets in 2023,” according to Music Business Worldwide. The deal marks “another step towards sales through social media” for Ticketmaster, which “generated revenues of $723 million in Q1 2024,” a 7 percent year-over-year increase.

In May, Live Nation-Ticketmaster was sued by the Department of Justice, which wants to break-up the company due to what the Associated Press describes as claims of “an illegal monopoly over live events in America.”

TikTok is experiencing its own legal woes, and is itself suing the U.S. government over a 2024 law that would force its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the company by January 19 or face a ban in U.S. app stores. The legal challenges are not preventing the companies from expanding their businesses and services, however, as these deals indicate.

“TikTok’s new Eventbrite integration will make it easier to include links to publicly listed events on Eventbrite, with the direct link highlighted within the TikTok clip,” enabling “viewers to tap through to the Eventbrite app or website to learn more, and make a booking,” Social Media Today explains.

“Through this partnership any TikTok user can easily become an event creator by hosting their events on Eventbrite,” TikTok writes in its own newsroom post.