The head of Ticketmaster Sean Moriarty gave a keynote speech at the Pollstar Concert Industry Consortium (CIC) on Tuesday in which he announced that TIcketmaster will start selling music downloads in partnership with Apple. This will apparently allow the company to sell Fairplay-protected music -- despite Steve Jobs assertion earlier this week that opening up Fairplay to other online music stores is impossible, because doing so would allegedly compromise the DRM protection insisted upon by the major labels.
Hypebot notes that the companies have worked together in the past, offering people who purchase an album in advance the first opportunity at buying concert tickets, but this is the first time Ticketmaster will itself sell music.
There's no word on what each download will cost, but if Ticketmaster's approach to ticket sales is any indication, each song will cost the standard $0.99 plus a tacked-on $0.17 cent handling charge.
Update: Contrary to hypebot's post, Ticketmaster's press release says that the company will give iTunes songs away for free rather than selling them. Buyers will get a credit for one iTunes song every time they purchase a concert ticket, and will have access to a digital sampler of artists touring Billboard venues. This does not constitute a possible opening of Fairplay, as suspected above.
(image of Ticketmaster's Sean Moriarty from CIC)
