Everything changed when one of Ticketmaster’s pivotal CEOs realized that people attending concerts weren’t the company’s main customers. Venues were. “Instead of charging venues to use their ticketing system, Ticketmaster offered to pay them with a cut of the service charges. In exchange, Ticketmaster became their exclusive ticketing platform.” And the rest is history. Well, there was also the acquisition of LiveNation, owner of about 400 major venues. The Hustle: The sneaky economics of Ticketmaster.