Ticketmaster Rules : Action Could Leave Band’s O.C. Agency Without Clients

Pearl Jam’s move Wednesday to abandon its boycott of Ticketmaster Corp. could leave the band’s Costa Mesa ticket agency without any clients.

But executives of ETM Entertainment Network, the start-up company that handled ticket sales for the grunge rock band’s current tour and hopes to capture a significant share of ticket sales revenue around the country, say they are undaunted.

The firm’s high-tech approach, which includes automated telephone ordering and bar-coded tickets, ultimately will help them lure other acts, said Peter Schniedermeier, co-founder and senior vice president.

Schniedermeier acknowledged, however, that the band’s actions this week illustrate the difficulties of competing against Ticketmaster, which holds exclusive rights to many major concert venues.

“You have a monopoly out there, so people have to be very careful how they deal with it,” Schniedermeier said. “The whole issue about Pearl Jam is that they have to go out and play in the middle of the Sahara Desert” to avoid Ticketmaster’s charges.

A Ticketmaster spokesman said he could not comment on ETM’s allegations because of an ongoing Justice Department investigation.

ETM is negotiating to handle ticket sales with other well-known acts, Schniedermeier said, but he declined to name them.

The company has 40 employees who develop and sell its software. The company’s main product, a computerized telephone system to broker ticket sales, handled up to 8,000 calls at once while selling tickets for Pearl Jam’s current tour. The system gives ETM a significant cost advantage over Ticketmaster, which employs 2,000 operators in 14 reservation centers around the country to process ticket requests, according to executives at both companies.

In addition, ETM’s bar-coded tickets allow agents at this summer’s shows to check their authenticity. Later this year, ETM will also introduce machines to dispense tickets automatically.

For its part, Ticketmaster has begun an experimental service through America Online in Chicago and Florida to allow concert fans to buy tickets through home computers. The company plans to expand such services soon.

Schniedermeier and two other entertainment-industry executives founded ETM late last fall. They received a major investment in January from Philadelphia-based Fillmore Mercantile Inc., an entertainment software company, which helped line up ETM’s contract to sell the Pearl Jam shows.