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Music group in parliament also planning ticket touting inquiry
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 7 February 2014
Westminster’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Music has announced it will be holding an inquiry into ticket touting later this year, with a view to reporting in 2015. The investigation will specifically focus on the impact of the booming secondary ticketing market on the music business, the artist community and music consumers.
Though it’s not the only parliamentary investigation into secondary ticketing, with the separate APPG on Ticket Abuse already throwing the spotlight on the touts, albeit not specifically in music. That group held its first evidence session on Wednesday with reps from the sport, theatre and music sectors contributing, including Kilimanjaro Live CEO Stuart Galbraith.
As previously reported, Christoph Homann at Live Nation’s Ticketmaster business earlier this week set out his top line viewpoints on secondary ticketing, expressing an interest in participating in the APPG on Ticket Abuse’s inquiry. Although best known as a primary ticket seller, Ticketmaster is also in the resale business, in the UK via its Get Me In! site, and Homann oversees those operations. It’s thought there is and always has been an interest at the ticket-focused APPG to involve the main resale sites in its investigation, but it remains to be seen if Homann takes part in future evidence sessions.
The ticketing group hopes to report on touting by as soon as late March, in a bid to inform amendments to the Consumer Rights Bill that is already working its way through parliament. The music-centred APPG will presumably have more time to go into the whole touting thing in more detail in the autumn.
Music APPG Co-Chair John Robertson MP told CMU yesterday: “The secondary market has grown exponentially over the last decade, but has been subject to very little scrutiny. As a result, music fans are finding it increasingly hard to get to top gigs unless they’re prepared to pay well over the odds, and this is particularly true for the young people that many artists want and need to attract to be successful in the long run. I want this inquiry to get to the bottom of how the market works now and how it should work in the future if it is going to support the music industry, rather than undermine it”.
Meanwhile Mike Weatherley MP, who is involved in both the music and ticketing APPGs as well as advising David Cameron on IP matters, added: “Industrial-scale touting is affecting more and more live entertainment events, but nowhere is it more noticeable and more damaging than in live music. Touts are capitalising on the risk, talent and intellectual property of others while contributing nothing to the continued success of the industry, and it’s important that the issue is looked at by parliament and the government. I hope that this inquiry will lead to much-needed improvements which are acceptable to the whole industry”.
