A few months ago, TikTok launched its subscription-only music streaming service to compete with major players Spotify, Apple and Amazon. Now, the company appears to be throwing its hat in the ticketing ring with its latest announcement. TikTok announced today its first live global music event, “In The Mix,” marking the first time the short-form video app maker will sell event tickets to its users.
TikTok partnered with ticketing technology company Tickets.com to help with ticket sales for its event, a company spokesperson told TechCrunch. “In The Mix” tickets will be available through TikTok’s new website, TikTokInTheMix.com, with presale starting on October 27 and general sale beginning on November 2. Prices range from $25 to $60.
TikTok’s new ticketing initiative comes a year after Spotify rolled out a website to sell tickets directly from its platform.
While TikTok has yet to launch ticketing capabilities within its app, the company experimented with it four years ago. In 2019, TikTok tested a program called “TikTok Tickets” that was only available in Thailand, and sold tickets for 500 films and concerts.
TikTok also partnered with Ticketmaster last year to introduce an in-app discovery feature for events, allowing users to buy Ticketmaster tickets directly through TikTok.
If TikTok’s “In The Mix” event succeeds with high ticket sales, it begs the question as to whether the company will continue hosting its own events and if it might create a dedicated in-app tickets page, to better compete with Spotify and other music event discovery services. For instance, Apple-owned Shazam also announced today a way to browse and discover concerts in their own area.
The upcoming “In The Mix” event, which occurs on December 10, will feature popular artists Cardi B, Niall Horan, Charlie Puth and Anitta, as well as rising talents Isabel LaRosa, Kaliii, LU KALA and Sam Barber from the TikTok Elevate emerging artist program.
“In The Mix” will also include various activities inspired by trending videos on TikTok’s For You feed. So, maybe you’ll see a lot of people trying to do Tyla’s Water dance or recreating the subway tube girl video.
The event will also be streamed globally via TikTok Live.