The Top Picks API provides seat recommendations based on current availability, sampling across various areas of a venue and available price points. Results are near real-time but for certain high velocity events picks may expire (sell out) quickly.
Overview
Authentication
Clients will be provided an API key from Ticketmaster which should be added to every resource endpoint call.
The Ticketmaster back-end reservation systems are distributed globally and events are processed on their local systems. These systems go into a nightly maintenance mode at 2AM local time. This means a show playing at Madison Square Garden will not be transactable between 2AM-4AM Eastern Time. Use the timezone value from the event details response to note when these events may be unavailable for transactions.
Rate Limit
All API keys are issued with a default quota of 1200 API calls per min.
Rate Limit Info in Response Header
You can see how much of your quota has been used by checking the following response headers:
Ratelimit-Quota-Available: What’s the rate limit available to you. This will be 1200 minus all the requests you’ve done.
Ratelimit-Quota-Allowed: How many requests are available to you. The default is 1200/min.
Ratelimit-Expiry: Returns the UTC time in milliseconds which determines when the quota expires and new quota interval starts.
API Response When Quota is Reached
When you do go over your quota, you will get an HTTP status code 429 indicating you’ve made too many requests. The following is the API response you will receive:
Top Picks Details [GET]
Retrieve reservable seat information based on specific criteria.
/top-picks/v1/events/{event_id}?apikey={apikey}
Universal Ids Support
The TopPicks service also supports queries using universal ids via the path
No (default=100) The backend service is restricted to return only 100 elements.
selection
Comma-separated type of tickets
string
Any, Standard, Platinum, Resale( Platinum and Resale is only available for select apikeys specifically configured for that.)
No (default=Standard)
sort
Sort order
string
- listprice - sorts by face value in ascending order - quality - sorts by quality in descending order; does not apply to 3rd party resale. - section - sorts by section, then by row, and then by list price; applies to 3rd party resale only.
No (default=listprice)
Response structure:
page (object) - Page information.
number (number) - current page number counted from 1.
size (number) - size of current page (max=30 per page).
totalElements (number) - total number of elements available.
totalPages (number) - total number of pages available.
picks (array) - Picks.
{array item object} - pick.
type (string) - “general-seating”, or “seats”
quality (number) - A quality score representing a combination of price and location to stage.
area (object) - An area information
id (string) - Area id
name (string) - Area name
description (string) - Area description
descriptions (array) - A list of descriptions for this pick
section (string) - The section name in the venue
selection (string) - “standard”, or “resale”.
row (string) - The row in the section, if applicable (not available during onsale).
snapshotImageUrl - An image url of this pick in the venue. If the venue or event doesn’t support detailed images, this field will be null.
offers (array) - Offers.
{array item object} - offer.
offer id (string) - The offer id corresponding to one in _embedded.offer[].
seats (array) - Seats (not available during onsale).
{array item object} - seat.
seat id (string) - seat names.
_embedded (object) - container for events.
offer (array) - Offers matching those found in picks[] items.
{array item object} - offer.
offerId (string) - The offer id.
name (string) - Name of the offer.
ticketTypeId (string) - Ticket type id required for reserves.
priceLevelId (string) - Price level id (optional for reserves).
description (string) - Description of the offer.
currency (string) - ISO 4217 currency code.
faceValue (number) - Face value of one ticket.
totalPrice (number) - Total price including charges (may not include order processing fees).
charges (array) - Charges.
{array item object} - charge.
reason (string) - Name of charge.
type (string) - Type of charge.
amount (number) - Amount of charge
fee_type (string) - Type of fee (e.g. PER TICKET)
limit(object) - ticket limits info
min (number) - Min no of tickets
max (number) - Max no of tickets
promotions(array) - promotions.
eventDetails (object)- Event details
id (string) - Id of the event
granularPricing (boolean) - True/False based on if the event is granular pricing
venueMapUrl (string) - Url for venue map
venueMapWithLabelsUrl (string) - Url for venue map with labels
safeTixEnabled (boolean) - True/False based on if the event is safetix enabled/enforced
allInclusivePricing (boolean) - True/False based on if the event is using all-in pricing
A visual-representation of the approximate location of seats in the venue. Each result from the Top Picks API contains a snapshotImageUrl of a .png image.
Query Parameters
All query parameters in snapshotImageUrl must be maintained and un-altered. Clients may add the following:
Parameter
Description
Type
Example
Required
w
The width, in pixels, of the image. (min: 102, max: 1024)
number
300
No
pw
The width, in pixels, of the dropped pin in the image.
number
30
No
apikey
Your API Key
string
“GkB8Z037ZfqbLCNtZViAgrEegbsrZ6Ne”
Yes
Response
Status Code
Note
200
Image Rendered
204
Image not available. Event may not be configured with interactive seat map data.
Sample response for status=200
Example use of Top Picks data
Pod Seating
Pod Seating is a seating arrangement that allows an event to operate at reduced capacity so family and friends can maintain a socially safe distance from other attendees. Pod Seating enables venues to sell seats together as a group or ‘pod’ (e.g., pod of 4 seats), and each pod is spaced apart from other pods based on local health and safety guidelines. To maintain pod integrity, ticket buyers are required to purchase the entire pod and may not split the pod, ensuring that people who chose to attend an event together will not sit next to other people who are unknown to them. A variety of venues have adopted Pod Seating, including concerts, comedy shows and sports leagues.
Top Picks API Response
The Top Picks API will return each Pod Seating offer under “tickettypes” if an event has implemented Pod Seating. Each offer will contain a name, ticket type ID and sellable ticket quantities (displayed as “sellableQuantities”), which represents the number of tickets that fans can purchase in a single transaction. Fans may only buy tickets in a quantity shown under sellableQuantities. If a fan attempts to purchase tickets in any other amount, the Reserve response will return return a 400 error with the message “Inventory authorization failure due to limit violation”. The Top Picks API will only return “tickettypes” for events using Pod Seating; otherwise, the field will be empty.