Ticketfly buys Gigbot to take on Ticketmaster

Online ticketing startup acquires music event promotions site to fight entertainment behemoth

Can you remember the last time you bought tickets online not from Ticketmaster? It's a rare occurrence because Ticketmaster, a Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. company, is easily one of the largest online ticketing vendors in the world.

Nevertheless, competitors believe there is still room in the sector for alternative services.

Looking to boost its chances to take on Ticketmaster, independent ticketing and social marketing platform Ticketfly announced today it has acquired music event listing and promotions site Gigbot.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Sean Porter, Gigbot’s founder and chief architect, has joined Ticketfly as the Vice President of Product.

While Ticketfly already offers event promoters and venues the advantages of social media marketing, the acquisition of Gigbot will allow the company to bolster those offerings. The tools available from Gigbot are almost too numerous to list: generate revenue from the sale of music, stream videos from YouTube and audio from an artist’s website, publicize shows via social networks, schedule auto tweets, and create integrated email newsletters.

Promoters and venues can also integrate the experience on social networking sites so fans can discuss and share events, discover new music, see friends who are going to the show, and receive alerts when their favorite artists play in their area.

When Ticketfly says it will be integrating the very best of Gigbot, it also takes the best ideas from a plethora of other services, like Last.fm, Pandora, and even Ticketmaster.

Founded in 2008, the San Francisco-based startup just recently raised raised $3 million in funding from The NYC Seed Fund, High Peaks Venture Partners, Contour Venture Partners, and a group of angel investors including Howard Lindzon.