If recent job postings are any indication, Amazon has some fairly ambitious goals to shake up the live ticketing business. As spotted by Recode, the Washington-based online retailer is recruiting new hires for its Amazon Tickets division, which launched in the U.K. last year, and sells tickets to concerts and theater performances.
One posting, for head of operations, a new role based in London, has been active since June, as has been an opening for head of music. But more interesting are the recently posted gigs for Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, including at least three key business development managers. All three (one is for theater, the other music, and the third is general) specifically mention expansion of the company’s ticketing business in their job descriptions.
“The purpose of the role is to help the Tickets team grow its business relationships in the entertainment industry to expand tickets selection across existing and new categories and territories by working with ticket rights-holders to reach agreements on distribution for sale to end customers,” the posting reads.
Read more: Amazon Launches On-Demand Music Streaming Service in U.K., Germany
Other current openings in the Amazon Tickets department include a business intelligence engineer, who will be in charge of developing and supporting analytics, and a software development engineer to help build a “new consumer facing web application and numerous backend services to support the Tickets business.”
Several of the postings have been updated in the last day, which could explain why some of the bolder language described in the Recode report has disappeared, or is simply harder to find. For example, a listing for a web development engineer found on LinkedIn says their vision “goes beyond just selling tickets as we aim to disrupt the entire live entertainment experience” and that the “ticketing business is ripe for innovation and improvement, as much of the industry has not fundamentally changed since the 1970s.”
The listing for a similar job on Amazon’s own job site omits talk of disruption and the perceived lack of innovation in the ticketing market, instead saying that “as we grow our team to support our rapid expansion we are looking for talented individuals to join us in delighting customers and having some fun along the way.”
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
Read more: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Extends Olive Branch to Donald Trump
If part of Amazon’s “rapid expansion” of ticketing includes the U.S., it will face a market already dominated by Ticketmaster and its parent, Live Nation. Ticketmaster operates in more than a dozen countries and, in 2015 alone, moved more than 530 million tickets to fans.
Amazon shares are up nearly 1 percent on Tuesday, currently trading at $786. Year-to-date, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has gained 16.75 percent.
This article was found on billboard.com
