Overview
- Spotify unveiled Reserved on Thursday, May 21, as a new presale tool that will begin rolling out in the U.S. this summer for select newly announced tours.
- Eligible Premium subscribers aged 18 and over are chosen by Spotify using signals such as streams, shares, and other activity and will receive an email and in-app notification when two tickets are held for them.
- Reserved holds tickets for about a day and routes purchases to partner ticketing sites with no extra Spotify fees, backed by a reported multiyear partnership with Live Nation and more than 40 other ticketing partners.
- Spotify says it will monitor for bots and AI-driven gaming of engagement metrics, but it warns there will be far more superfans than seats and availability will vary by artist, tour, and location.
- The move expands Spotify’s live-music strategy, which the company says has driven over $1.5 billion in ticket sales, and its success will hinge on eligibility thresholds, allocation size, and how well partners prevent fraud.