HoB Goes In-House

House of Blues’ contract with Ticketmaster ended Dec. 31. Since then, the music venue chain has been using the Live Nation ticketing system.

That may seem confusing, considering many shows on LiveNation.com are processed by Ticketmaster.

The difference is whether the show takes place at a Live Nation venue. Shows promoted by Live Nation at venues the company does not own are contracted to be processed by TM.

However, shows at Live Nation’s amphitheatres and buildings, like the Hollywood Palladium, go through the in-house system – Live Nation Tickets, which is powered by CTS Eventim from Europe.

As of Jan. 1, that included Live Nation’s HoB chain. Of course, bloggers are already railing against Live Nation’s higher service fee, compared with that of Ticketmaster’s.

But as Live Nation spokesman John Vlautin pointed out to Pollstar, Live Nation ticketing provides free print-at-home versus TM’s fee and, at final checkout, the pricing is equivalent.