The managers of Arctic Monkeys, One Direction, Mumford & Sons and PJ Harvey have launched the FanFair Alliance - a new campaign to unite businesses, artists and fans against online ticket touting.
FanFair aims to combat the growing black market in ticket resales, which is now estimated to be worth more than £1bn per year (based on resales from secondary ticketing platforms Viagogo, StubHub, GetMeIn and Seatwave).
Talking at the launch event at Somerset House, London, Arctic Monkeys’ manager Ian McAndrew said: ‘The growth in online ticketing has completely changed the way fans get to see artists.
‘Back in 2007 when we put Arctic Monkeys’ shows on sale and a minute later saw huge quantities appear on resale sites, it became evident this wasn’t a fan-to-fan issue – this was a largescale organised touting problem, and one that needed to be managed and controlled.
‘It remains today probably the number one grievance expressed by music fans in their experience of going to live music events.’
Brian Message, who manages PJ Harvey and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, added: ‘Obviously there are major corporations operating in the ticketing world. They have a responsibility to help us all drive the agenda to move on from the industrialised ticket-touting we’re seeing.
‘All of us in the chain – whether it’s managers, artists, agents and in particular the big corporations – have a responsibility,’ he said.
FanFair Alliance has submitted evidence to a Competition and Markets Authority review, which includes details of ticket resale listings in breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and other UK consumer laws.
Message continued: ‘We’re directors of the Music Managers Forum and we’re looking, through the MMF, to engage with government not only to drive forward how we properly police the Consumer Rights Act that was introduced last year and has no teeth, but also to get those corporations, in particular Live Nation and Ticketmaster, to come with us and help us drive some solutions.’
Harry McGee, One Direction manager, added: ‘We manage a lot of young pop artists and the backlash that comes from the price of tickets going on the secondary market always goes back to the artists.
‘A lot of thought goes into pricing tickets for the fans with ourselves and the artists and promoters. But distortion in the marketplace and confusion for those buying tickets is very damaging and continues to escalate.’
FanFair Alliance is urging fans, artists and the wider music industry to add their name to a declaration supporting fair ticket pricing. Sign here - http://fanfairalliance.org/declaration/
For more on the initiative, and to learn about its three main campaign strands (which includes criminalising the use of technology to scalp tickets), please visit http://fanfairalliance.org/
FanFair Alliance is supported by a broad cross section of the music industry including PRS for Music, Featured Artist Coalition, Association of Independent Music, Musicians' Union and the Music Producers Guild.
Top picture credit: Kirsten Holst.
FanFair aims to combat the growing black market in ticket resales, which is now estimated to be worth more than £1bn per year (based on resales from secondary ticketing platforms Viagogo, StubHub, GetMeIn and Seatwave).
Talking at the launch event at Somerset House, London, Arctic Monkeys’ manager Ian McAndrew said: ‘The growth in online ticketing has completely changed the way fans get to see artists.
‘Back in 2007 when we put Arctic Monkeys’ shows on sale and a minute later saw huge quantities appear on resale sites, it became evident this wasn’t a fan-to-fan issue – this was a largescale organised touting problem, and one that needed to be managed and controlled.
‘It remains today probably the number one grievance expressed by music fans in their experience of going to live music events.’
Brian Message, who manages PJ Harvey and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, added: ‘Obviously there are major corporations operating in the ticketing world. They have a responsibility to help us all drive the agenda to move on from the industrialised ticket-touting we’re seeing.
‘All of us in the chain – whether it’s managers, artists, agents and in particular the big corporations – have a responsibility,’ he said.
FanFair Alliance has submitted evidence to a Competition and Markets Authority review, which includes details of ticket resale listings in breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and other UK consumer laws.
Message continued: ‘We’re directors of the Music Managers Forum and we’re looking, through the MMF, to engage with government not only to drive forward how we properly police the Consumer Rights Act that was introduced last year and has no teeth, but also to get those corporations, in particular Live Nation and Ticketmaster, to come with us and help us drive some solutions.’
Harry McGee, One Direction manager, added: ‘We manage a lot of young pop artists and the backlash that comes from the price of tickets going on the secondary market always goes back to the artists.
‘A lot of thought goes into pricing tickets for the fans with ourselves and the artists and promoters. But distortion in the marketplace and confusion for those buying tickets is very damaging and continues to escalate.’
FanFair Alliance is urging fans, artists and the wider music industry to add their name to a declaration supporting fair ticket pricing. Sign here - http://fanfairalliance.org/declaration/
For more on the initiative, and to learn about its three main campaign strands (which includes criminalising the use of technology to scalp tickets), please visit http://fanfairalliance.org/
FanFair Alliance is supported by a broad cross section of the music industry including PRS for Music, Featured Artist Coalition, Association of Independent Music, Musicians' Union and the Music Producers Guild.
Top picture credit: Kirsten Holst.
