Over 20 live music businesses in the US have announced their support of Live Nation Entertainment’s call for a FAIR Ticketing Act.
Live Nation announced its support for the initiative during the company’s most recent earnings call in February.
FAIR stands for ‘Fans & Artists Insisting on Reforms in Ticketing’ and is calling for artists to be able to decide resale rules, to make it illegal to sell speculative tickets, to expand the ‘BOTS Act’ and increase enforcement to deter those that break the law. The act also calls for a crackdown on resale sites that make it easy for ticket scalpers and to mandate all-in pricing across the US.
According to a report from Rolling Stone, some of the companies that have backed the initiative include Creative Artists Agency, William Morris Endeavor (WME), United Talent Agency, Wasserman Media Group and the world’s largest music company Universal Music Group.
Further support has come from artist management companies such as Crush Music, which represents the likes of Green Day, Miley Cyrus and Sia, as well as Salxco, which represents The Weeknd and Dojo Cat.
Lucy Dickins, WME’s global head of contemporary music told Rolling Stone in a statement: “There is no doubt that change is needed in the current ticketing ecosystem to protect our clients and their work. The FAIR Ticketing reforms would provide the necessary tools to empower artists and creators who know their fans best while putting an end to deceptive ticketing practices.”
The push from Live Nation and Ticketmaster for the reforms follows the hearing on promoting competition in the ticketing industry in the US, held by the Senate Judiciary Committee in January.
The hearing was prompted by a situation surrounding Taylor Swift tour sales in November last year that resulted in the cancellation of the general onsale. Ticketmaster said that it faced unprecedented numbers and bot attacks on its platform leading to issues. More than two million tickets were sold during the presales.