The Google-owned platform is taking advantage of its position as a solid music player. In an announcement, the company says it will now promote live gigs on related artists videos. To help with this, the platform has teamed with Ticketmaster to integrate the latter’s live show sales into YouTube. For the end user, there may not be too many differences. Under the current system, artists can still promote their own dates alongside videos. However, they have to do that manually. The new tie up will automatically provide a link to their ticket page in the description notes. “At YouTube, we understand the importance of helping artists find ways to build deeper connections with their fans — the ones who not only watch and listen to videos but are also willing to pay to see live performances,” YouTube says in a blog post. “And, with live concerts becoming a bigger driver of revenue for artists, we want to help artists reach those fans, keep them updated about upcoming shows, and sell more tickets.”
Watch’s the Catch
There are some caveats. The first is obvious. This new integration only works on official videos from artists. So that jerky camera footage you watch to pick apart a live performance is not getting these links. That, of course, makes plenty of sense. The second limitation is that the new feature is reserved for the U.S. market. YouTube will only surface U.S. tour dates and relevant tickets, and only to users located in the U.S. This is disappointing. Users outside the good old US of A, will still get the old system. But again, that relies on the artist manually uploading the tour info, and not all do. If you are in the United States, you can see the links in the description. By clicking “view upcoming shows”, users can browse through all the scheduled live performances for the artist. It is worth noting that purchasing a ticket still involves going off-site to Ticketmaster’s purchasing portal. Also worthy of mention is the fact this works on both web-based and mobile versions of YouTube.
