Ticketmaster Brings in Amazon Vet as CTO, Doubling Down on AI
Ticketmaster's got new leadership and they're making AI the whole thing.
Live Nation's ticketing arm just brought in Jim Freeman—who ran product at Amazon Prime Video—as their new Chief Technology Officer. Dude's got the marching orders to build out what they're calling an "AI-first" operation. So yeah, they're not messing around.
Along with Freeman, Ticketmaster also tapped Rachel Smith from Block (the Square company) and Chuck Mortimore, a Disney veteran, as Senior Vice Presidents. It's the kind of power move that tells you they're serious about overhauling how they work internally.
Why It Matters
Ticketmaster's been catching heat for years—bots, price gouging, site crashes during major drops. Whether an AI-first strategy actually fixes any of that or just means fancier algorithms and higher fees? That's the real question. The company's betting on tech to solve tech problems, which is the move a lot of legacy companies make when they're under pressure. We'll see if it actually changes the game for fans trying to cop tickets, or if it's just a restructuring with better branding.
Read the full story at Music Business Worldwide → https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/jim-freeman-ex-amazon-prime-video-vp-joins-ticketmaster-as-cto-to-lead-ai-first-push/
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